Identify the figure given in the options which when put in place of ? will logically complete the series.

Correct — C. Read the four given boxes as one chain rather than four pictures. Each box holds a large character and a small one.

Box 1 is a large A with a small 1.
Box 2 is a large 8 with a small A.
Box 3 is a large L with a small 8.
Box 4 is a large 9 with a small L.

Rule: the small character of a box is the large character of the box before it.

So the answer box has to carry a small 9, inherited from box 4. That eliminates the two options that keep 9 in the large slot.

Of the two left, the key takes option (c), whose large character is H — a character the four given boxes never use.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  This keeps 9 as the large character, but box 4's large 9 has to move down into the answer box's small slot. Nothing in the figure lets a character stay large for two boxes running.
• (b)
  This is an exact copy of box 4 — large 9, small L. The chain advances by one place at every step, so no box repeats the one before it.
• (d)
  The small 9 is right and the large character is not: L has already appeared twice, as box 3's large character and box 4's small one, while every large character so far has been new.

Figure series that print characters rather than shapes are still series: something moves from one box to the next, and your job is to say what.

Here the movement is a demotion. Whatever is large in one box turns up small in the next, so the small slot is completely determined and the large slot holds the new arrival.

When only part of a figure yields a rule, use that part to eliminate. The small slot alone settles half the options in this item, which is a better return than staring at the large one.

Key facts

• The four given boxes read, in order, A with 1, then 8 with A, then L with 8, then 9 with L.
• Every small character in the figure is the large character of the preceding box.
• Two of the four options keep 9 in the large slot, which the chain does not allow.

Common traps

• Choosing the box that simply repeats the previous one, which looks reassuringly familiar.
• Reading the small character as a label or footnote rather than as part of the series.
• Settling the large character before checking the small one, when the small one halves the options.

No directly related past PYQ was found.