Where you will be tested

Four item families

Strip the branding off any reasoning section and you find four kinds of item. Each maps onto one of the facets from the first lesson.

• Figure series and matrices (pattern recognition). A row or grid of figures follows a rule; pick the missing or next one, or the odd one out. Raven's matrices are the ancestor. Practise with Matrix Logic and RuleMatch.
• Arrangements and grids (deduction). Seating plans, schedules, blood relations, Latin-square grids. Every constraint is given; the answer is forced. Symbol Grid is the purest form.
• Coding, series and classification (rule learning). Letter codes, number series, "which group does this belong to". You infer a rule from examples. Rule Learning, Rule Sorter and ColorCode train this.
• Data sufficiency and statement logic (deduction). Is the information enough? Which conclusion must follow? These reward refusing to assume anything not stated.

Campus placement tests

What follows is what each company or test provider says officially, where they say it, and what candidates and prep sites report where they do not. Formats change between hiring seasons, so treat the details as a map to check against your own invitation email.

Game-based reasoning rounds

A growing share of campus screens use short, timed games instead of multiple-choice sections. The reasoning games are the same item families in interactive form, with two important differences: you usually see one item type for several minutes, and you are scored on how many you get right before the timer ends.

Aon, which also runs the CoCubes campus-assessment platform in India, publishes a candidate preparation page describing its logic tests:

• Inductive-logical thinking (scales cls): 12 tasks in 12 minutes. "Understand the common rules in the patterns given and then assign new images to the relevant patterns." That is the task Rule Sorter trains: groups defined by a hidden rule, new images to place.
• Inductive reasoning (scales ix): 20 tasks in 5 minutes, picking the item in a series of nine that does not fit the common pattern.
• Deductive-logical thinking (gapChallenge): 6 minutes. "Understand the pattern in the graphic provided, use logic to fill the empty cell to complete the pattern." Candidates describe it as a geometric Sudoku, in which each row and column holds every symbol once. Symbol Grid is the same family of task.
• Deductive reasoning (switchChallenge): 6 minutes, working out which sequence of operations produces a given result. SwapCode is a close cousin.

Candidates report that Capgemini's game-based round draws on this style of task, and prep sites say it runs on CoCubes. Capgemini itself does not name the vendor, so treat that link as reported rather than confirmed.

SHL describes its Verify Interactive Inductive Reasoning test as one where candidates "work out the pattern in a set of images and identify the correct next image", with drag-and-drop interaction. That is the matrix and series family again.

Entrance exams and competitive exams

The same families appear in admissions and government exams, usually with more reading and harder combinations.

• CAT. One of three sections is Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), 22 questions in 40 minutes in the 2024 format. LR sets are mostly arrangement and grid deductions built around a shared set of conditions: one set, four or five questions.
• GMAT Focus Edition. Critical reasoning sits in Verbal Reasoning. Data Insights (20 questions, 45 minutes) includes data sufficiency, two-part analysis and multi-source reasoning, which are deduction under uncertainty about what is given.
• GRE. ETS lists "reason from incomplete data" and "identify author's assumptions" among the skills Verbal Reasoning measures. Reasoning is embedded in reading rather than tested as figures.
• GATE. The General Aptitude section's syllabus for 2026 includes Analytical Aptitude: "Logic: deduction and induction, Analogy, Numerical relations and reasoning", alongside a spatial aptitude strand.
• UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary). Paper II (CSAT), 200 marks in two hours, lists "Logical reasoning and analytical ability" in its syllabus. It is qualifying only: you need 33 per cent, but it does not count towards rank.
• Bank PO exams. The IBPS PO/MT preliminary exam has a separately timed Reasoning Ability test: 35 questions for 40 marks in 20 minutes.

The time you get per item varies by a factor of four across these tests, which is why pace practice has to be matched to the exam you are targeting.

• IBPS PO prelims: Reasoning Ability (35 in 20 min)34s
• AMCAT: Logical Ability (12 in 15 min)75s
• CAT: DILR (22 in 40 min)109s
• GMAT: Data Insights (20 in 45 min)135s

In interviews

Reasoning does not stop at the screen. Technical and HR interviews probe it in two ways that have nothing to do with figures.

1. Thinking aloud through a problem. An interviewer asks how you would find a bug, estimate a quantity or design a small system. What they assess is whether you state assumptions, split the problem, test a hypothesis and change course when the evidence says so. That is the induction loop from lesson 1, spoken out loud.
2. Logic puzzles. Some interviewers still use classic puzzles. The point is rarely the answer itself; it is whether you work systematically and notice when a constraint rules something out.

In both cases, narrate the reasoning, not just the conclusion. A structured interview scores the reasoning.

Key points

• Reasoning sections mix four families: figure series, arrangements, coding and classification, and data sufficiency.
• TCS NQT and AMCAT publish their reasoning content officially; for most other companies, you rely on candidate and prep-site reports, so check your own invitation.
• Game-based rounds (Aon's logic tests; candidate reports of Capgemini's round) test one family per game against a short timer.
• CAT, GMAT, GRE, GATE, UPSC CSAT and bank exams all include reasoning, with time per question ranging from about half a minute to over two minutes.
• In interviews, the same reasoning is scored when you think aloud.

Next, how to get better: what training can and cannot do.

Sources

1. TCS iON. National Qualifier Test: cognitive assessment sections. tcsion.com/hub/national-qualifier-test
2. AMCAT. AMCAT syllabus: Logical Ability. myamcat.com/amcat-syllabus
3. eLitmus. Hiring Potential test (pH test). elitmus.com/ph_test
4. PrepInsta. eLitmus pH test pattern (candidate-reported). prepinsta.com/elitmus
5. PrepInsta. Infosys online test pattern (candidate-reported). prepinsta.com/infosys
6. PrepInsta. Wipro NLTH test pattern (candidate-reported). prepinsta.com/wipro-nlth
7. PrepInsta. Accenture cognitive assessment pattern (candidate-reported). prepinsta.com/accenture
8. PrepInsta. Cognizant GenC pattern (candidate-reported). prepinsta.com/cognizant-genc
9. GameAssessmentPrep. Capgemini game-based test: games and rounds (candidate reports). gameassessmentprep.com/employers/capgemini
10. Aon. Prepare for your online assessment: logic tests. aon.com
11. CoCubes (an Aon business). cocubes.com
12. SHL. Cognitive assessments: Verify Interactive Inductive Reasoning. shl.com
13. Common Admission Test. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Admission_Test
14. Graduate Management Admission Test. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Management_Admission_Test
15. ETS. GRE General Test content. ets.org
16. IIT Guwahati. GATE 2026 syllabus: General Aptitude. gate2026.iitg.ac.in
17. Union Public Service Commission. Civil Services Examination 2026, Examination Notice No. 05/2026-CSE. upsc.gov.in
18. Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. CRP PO/MT-XVI notification. ibps.in