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

Correct — D. Nothing in this series moves or disappears. Each figure only adds one symbol to what was already drawn.

Rule: every step adds a symbol not used before, at the next position clockwise round the edge of the square.

The order of arrival is top-left A, top-centre a small circle split by an S-curve, top-right S, then middle-right T. The next place clockwise is the bottom-right corner.

Every step so far has brought in a symbol new to the series — A, then the circle, then S, then T, with nothing repeated and nothing shifted.

Option (d) keeps all four where they were and puts R, a symbol not yet used, at the bottom-right corner. It is the only option that satisfies both halves of the rule.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Option (a) puts a second T at the bottom-right. The position is right, but every step so far has introduced a symbol not seen before, and a repeat breaks that.
• (b)
  Option (b) moves T and R down the left column. The fourth figure has already fixed T at the middle-right, and this series never relocates a symbol once placed.
• (c)
  Option (c) puts a second S at the bottom-right. Like option (a) it repeats a symbol the square already holds instead of adding a fresh one.

An accumulating figure series is easy to misread, because the eye jumps to the new symbol and skips the inherited ones. Check the old symbols first: an option that has moved or dropped one is out before you consider what it added.

Two things are being set at once — where the new symbol goes and what it is. The position walks clockwise round the border of a three-by-three grid: top-left, top-centre, top-right, middle-right, and next the bottom-right corner.

The identity is settled negatively. Every symbol so far is new to the series, so the fifth must be new too, and just one option supplies a symbol the square does not already carry.

Key facts

• The first four figures place A, a circle split by an S-curve, S and T, one per step.
• The positions walk clockwise round the border: top-left, top-centre, top-right, then middle-right.
• No symbol is repeated or moved once placed.
• The fifth figure must add a symbol not yet used, at the bottom-right corner.

Common traps

• Watching only the newest symbol and missing that option (b) has relocated T.
• Assuming the letters must spell something and forcing a letter to fit that reading.
• Treating the circle as decoration rather than as one of the placed symbols.

No directly related past PYQ was found.