Select a figure from amongst the Answer Figures which will continue the same…

Concept: In this kind of figure-formation series, six symbols occupy six of the eight cells that frame a 3×3 grid (the centre cell is always left blank). From one figure to the next, exactly one symbol relocates to one of the two empty cells, while every other symbol stays exactly where it was; the symbol's old cell then becomes the new empty cell for the following figure. Solving the series means comparing consecutive figures to find this one-symbol move each time, seeing which pattern governs where it moves to, and then extending that same pattern to the missing figure.

Applying it to the five given figures:

1. Figure 1 to Figure 2: only the plus sign relocates, from the top-left cell to the top-right cell; the minus sign, both circles, the triangle and the square stay exactly where Figure 1 had them.

2. Figure 2 to Figure 3: only the minus sign relocates, from the middle-left cell to the top-middle cell; every other symbol is unchanged from Figure 2.

3. Figure 3 to Figure 4: only the triangle relocates, from the bottom-left cell to the top-left cell (the cell the plus sign had vacated); every other symbol is unchanged from Figure 3.

4. Figure 4 to Figure 5: only the square relocates, from the bottom-middle cell to the middle-left cell (the cell the minus sign had vacated); every other symbol is unchanged from Figure 4.

5. Figure 5 to the missing sixth figure: tracking the two empty cells across the series shows that whichever cell has been empty for two figures running is the one that gets filled next — this happened to the top-middle cell (filled in Figure 3), then the top-left cell (filled in Figure 4), then the middle-left cell (filled in Figure 5); by Figure 5 the bottom-left cell has itself been empty for two figures running (Figures 4 and 5), so it must be filled next, by the symbol sitting two cells back from it going clockwise around the frame (top-left → top-middle → top-right → middle-right → bottom-right → bottom-middle → bottom-left → middle-left) — the filled circle, currently at the bottom-right cell. So the filled circle relocates from the bottom-right cell to the bottom-left cell, leaving the bottom-middle and bottom-right cells blank; every other symbol stays exactly as it is in Figure 5.

Cross-check: Every earlier step relocated exactly one symbol and left the rest untouched, and in each case the symbol that moved was the one sitting two cells back (clockwise) from the cell that had been empty for two figures running — the plus sign, then the minus sign, then the triangle, then the square. By this same pattern, the bottom-left cell is due to be filled next, and the filled circle — two cells back from it — is the symbol that must move there; the hollow circle, although it also has not moved yet, is not two cells back from the bottom-left cell, so it is not the one due to move. Checking the given choices confirms only one figure changes just the filled circle's position and keeps the triangle, minus sign, plus sign, square and hollow circle exactly as Figure 5 has them; the other figures shift two or more symbols at once (for example swapping the two circles, or swapping the triangle with the minus sign), which no step in this series ever does.

Result: So the correct next figure keeps the triangle, minus sign and plus sign across the top row, the square and hollow circle in the middle row, and now places the filled circle in the bottom-left cell with the bottom-middle and bottom-right cells left blank.