Analytical Reasoning Questions: 12 Practice Puzzles with Answers

Twelve original puzzles across the four families every reasoning paper draws from — ordering, grouping, seating, deduction — each family opening with the method that cracks it, each answer fully explained.

Analytical reasoning questions give you a small artificial world — five runners, a committee, a round table — plus a handful of rules, and ask what those rules force. Nothing depends on outside knowledge; everything depends on extracting each rule's exact content and combining them without adding anything of your own. That last clause is where the marks are lost: most wrong answers are statements that are consistent with the rules but not compelled by them.

A note on names: the LSAT retired its Analytical Reasoning section — the famous logic games — in August 2024, replacing it with a second Logical Reasoning section. The puzzle format, however, is alive and well in aptitude tests, civil-service exams, and employer assessments worldwide, and the underlying skill — chaining conditionals, tracking distributions, running branch cases — is exactly what argument-based reasoning questions test in disguise.

The twelve puzzles below are original and arranged by family, easiest solving method first within each. Work them untimed with the explanations open; when you want the scored version of the same muscle, the timed logical reasoning paper linked below runs twenty questions against a clock.

Want a scored, timed paper instead?

The 20-question logical reasoning test applies the same rule-tracking skill to short arguments — 20 minutes on the clock, per-type accuracy report when you submit.

Take the 20-minute timed test

The four puzzle families, with questions

Ordering & ranking puzzles

3 puzzles

Ordering puzzles hand you fragments of a sequence and ask what they jointly force. Work in this order: place anything anchored to a fixed slot ('E is on Wednesday', 'Sam finished last'), weld 'immediately before/after' pairs into blocks, then chain the loose before/after relations. If the chain covers everyone, the answer reads straight off; if it doesn't, enumerate where the block can legally sit — there are rarely more than three spots. The trap answer is almost always 'cannot be determined', chosen a step too early.

What they look like: "Five runners finished, no ties…" — sequence, schedule, or ranking, then "who is third / which must be true?"

Puzzle 1

Five colleagues — Priya, Quentin, Rosa, Sam, and Tariq — finished a 5K race, no ties. Priya finished before Quentin but after Rosa. Tariq finished immediately after Priya. Sam finished last.

Who finished third?

  1. APriya
  2. BTariq
  3. CQuentin
  4. DIt cannot be determined
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: B. Tariq

🐱 Chain the constraints: Rosa is ahead of Priya, and Tariq takes the spot immediately behind Priya, so Quentin — who must also trail Priya — is pushed behind Tariq. With Sam fifth, only one order survives: Rosa, Priya, Tariq, Quentin, Sam. Third is Tariq. The efficient move on ordering puzzles is to build the chain (Rosa → Priya → Tariq → Quentin) before touching the numbered slots; 'immediately after' welds two names into one block.

Puzzle 2

Five presentations — A, B, C, D, and E — are scheduled for Monday through Friday, one per day. C is given on the day immediately after B. A is given on some day before D. E is given on Wednesday.

If A is given on Monday, on which day is C given?

  1. ATuesday
  2. BThursday
  3. CFriday
  4. DIt cannot be determined
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: C. Friday

🐱 E is fixed on Wednesday, so the BC block — two consecutive days — can only sit on Monday–Tuesday or Thursday–Friday. With A on Monday, the first slot is taken, so BC must occupy Thursday–Friday: B Thursday, C Friday. D takes the remaining Tuesday, which also satisfies A-before-D. Fix the anchored day first, list the legal positions for the block, then let the new condition eliminate.

Puzzle 3

Five entrants scored different totals in a coding contest. X scored higher than Y. Z scored lower than Y but higher than W. V scored higher than X.

Who had the middle (third-highest) score?

  1. AX
  2. BY
  3. CZ
  4. DIt cannot be determined
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: B. Y

🐱 Assemble the chain: V above X, X above Y, Y above Z, Z above W — a complete ranking V > X > Y > Z > W with no slack anywhere. The middle is Y. The 'cannot be determined' option is the real distractor here: it is correct on many ranking puzzles, so check whether the chain is total before reaching for it. Here every pair is pinned, so the answer is forced.

Grouping & selection puzzles

3 puzzles

Grouping puzzles are conditional logic wearing a team jersey. Translate every rule into an arrow before reasoning: 'only if' points toward the requirement (H → I), 'not both' bars a pair, 'must serve' pre-fills a seat. Then push the given facts through the arrows and count seats — rosters fill up faster than intuition expects, and a full roster excludes everyone else without further argument. Nearly every wrong answer in this family is an 'only if' read in the wrong direction.

What they look like: "Exactly three of six will be picked. If F is picked, G is not…" — a roster with conditional membership rules.

Puzzle 4

A manager will pick exactly three of six employees — F, G, H, I, J, K — for a project. If F is picked, G is not picked. H is picked only if I is picked.

If F and H are both picked, who else must be on the project?

  1. AG
  2. BI
  3. CJ
  4. DK
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: B. I

🐱 H is picked only if I is picked — 'only if' makes I a requirement for H. With F and H in, I must join, and that fills the third and final slot: the team is F, H, I. The F rule then just confirms G's absence, consistent with the roster being full. Translate 'only if' arrows before anything else: H → I, never I → H. Most grouping-puzzle errors are 'only if' read backwards.

Puzzle 5

Exactly four of seven volunteers — L, M, N, O, P, Q, R — will form a committee. M and N cannot both serve. O serves only if P serves. Q must serve.

If N and O both serve, which one of the following must also serve?

  1. AL
  2. BM
  3. CP
  4. DR
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: C. P

🐱 O serves only if P serves, so O drags P in. Q is mandatory. That makes N, O, P, Q — exactly four, committee full. M is excluded twice over: the M/N rule bars it, and there is no seat left; L and R are simply out of seats. When a puzzle stacks 'must serve' and 'only if' rules, count how fast the roster fills — the forced answer usually arrives by arithmetic, not by clever casework.

Puzzle 6

A tasting menu must include at least one of soup or salad. If the menu includes soup, it does not include oysters. The menu includes oysters.

Which one of the following must be true?

  1. AThe menu includes salad
  2. BThe menu includes soup
  3. CThe menu includes neither soup nor salad
  4. DThe menu includes both soup and salad
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: A. The menu includes salad

🐱 Oysters are in, and soup can't coexist with oysters — contrapositive: soup is out. But the menu still owes us at least one of soup or salad, and with soup eliminated, salad must be in. Two small rules, each applied once. (D) overshoots: soup is not just unnecessary, it is forbidden. This three-step pattern — fact, contrapositive, then the at-least-one rule — is the skeleton of half of all selection puzzles.

Seating arrangement & matching puzzles

3 puzzles

Seating puzzles reward putting coordinates on the furniture: number the seats, write opposite pairs explicitly, and treat 'next to' as adjacency between numbers. When a constraint forks the diagram into two mirror cases, run both — a 'must be true' answer is whatever survives in every branch. Matching puzzles (who drank what) are the same skill without geometry: build the elimination grid and let forced cells cascade. Draw; never hold a circle in your head.

What they look like: "Six people sit around a round table. A is opposite D…" — benches, tables, and one-to-one matching.

Puzzle 7

Four people — P, Q, R, S — sit in a row on a bench. R sits at the left end. S sits immediately to the left of P. Q does not sit at either end.

Who sits at the right end?

  1. AP
  2. BQ
  3. CS
  4. DIt cannot be determined
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: A. P

🐱 R takes seat 1. The SP pair needs two adjacent seats among 2-3-4, so it sits at 2–3 or 3–4. If S and P take 2 and 3, Q lands on seat 4 — an end, which Q refuses. So S and P take 3 and 4, Q slots into seat 2, and the row reads R, Q, S, P. P holds the right end. Adjacent-pair blocks plus a 'not at the end' rule usually resolve by trying the block's two or three legal spots and letting the leftover seat veto.

Puzzle 8

Six people — A, B, C, D, E, F — sit evenly spaced around a round table. A sits directly opposite D. B sits next to A. E sits directly opposite B. C does not sit next to D.

Which one of the following must be true?

  1. AF sits next to D
  2. BC sits next to D
  3. CE sits next to A
  4. DF sits directly opposite C
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: A. F sits next to D

🐱 Number the seats 1–6 with opposite pairs (1,4), (2,5), (3,6), and put A at 1, D at 4. B sits beside A: seat 2 or 6. E sits opposite B: seat 5 or 3 respectively. Either way, the two seats flanking D (3 and 5) end up holding E and one leftover — and since C refuses to sit next to D, the leftover beside D must be F, with C taking the last free seat. Both branches agree: F is next to D. When a circle puzzle forks, run both branches and keep what they share — 'must be true' lives in the overlap.

Puzzle 9

Three friends — Ana, Ben, and Cara — each ordered a different drink: tea, coffee, or juice. Ana did not order tea. Ben ordered coffee.

What did Cara order?

  1. ATea
  2. BCoffee
  3. CJuice
  4. DIt cannot be determined
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: A. Tea

🐱 Ben takes coffee off the board. Ana, barred from tea and now from coffee, must hold juice — and Cara inherits the tea. One-to-one matching puzzles fall to elimination grids: strike what each person cannot have, and the forced cells fill themselves. The 'cannot be determined' option tempts anyone who stops after noticing Ana has two open possibilities — but Ben's coffee closes one of them.

Deduction & rule-chain puzzles

3 puzzles

Deduction puzzles chain conditionals or count truths. For chains, the contrapositive is the whole game: a failed consequence topples backwards link by link, and nothing else follows. For 'exactly one of these is true' setups, hunt for a pair of statements that contradict each other — that pair must contain the one truth, which instantly falsifies everything outside the pair. And when one rule gives a floor and another a ceiling, write both bounds down before concluding that the answer 'cannot be determined.'

What they look like: "Every entry before noon is reviewed same-day… Dana got no reply." — rule chains and truth-count puzzles.

Puzzle 10

At a submissions desk: every entry submitted before noon is reviewed the same day, and every entry reviewed the same day receives a reply within 24 hours. Dana's entry did not receive a reply within 24 hours.

Which one of the following must be true?

  1. ADana's entry was submitted at noon or later
  2. BDana's entry was reviewed the same day
  3. CDana's entry was submitted before noon
  4. DDana's entry will never be reviewed
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: A. Dana's entry was submitted at noon or later

🐱 Chain the rules: before noon → same-day review → 24-hour reply. Dana's reply never came, so — walking the chain backwards by contrapositive — no same-day review, and therefore no before-noon submission. (B) and (C) each contradict one contrapositive step. (D) invents a claim outside the rules entirely. Long conditional chains are just dominoes; a failed end topples every link back to the start, and nothing more.

Puzzle 11

Exactly one of the following three statements is true:
1. The key is in the drawer.
2. The key is not in the drawer.
3. The key is in the car.

What can be concluded?

  1. AThe key is in the drawer
  2. BThe key is not in the car
  3. CThe key is in the car
  4. DNothing can be concluded
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: B. The key is not in the car

🐱 Statements 1 and 2 contradict each other, so exactly one of that pair is true no matter where the key is. But the puzzle says exactly one of all three is true — so the single true statement is already spent on the 1/2 pair, forcing statement 3 to be false: the key is not in the car. Where the key actually is stays open (either 1 or 2 could be the true one). Spotting a built-in contradiction pair is the master move in 'exactly one is true' puzzles: it locks down every other statement instantly.

Puzzle 12

To receive a festival pass, a person must volunteer for at least one shift. Everyone who volunteers for two or more shifts receives a T-shirt. Leo has a festival pass but no T-shirt.

How many shifts did Leo volunteer for?

  1. ANone
  2. BExactly one
  3. CExactly two
  4. DIt cannot be determined
▶Show answer & solution

Answer: B. Exactly one

🐱 The pass certifies at least one shift. No T-shirt, by contrapositive of the second rule, certifies fewer than two. At least one and fewer than two leaves exactly one. Squeeze arguments — a floor from one rule, a ceiling from another — are common in analytical reasoning precisely because they feel underdetermined until you write both bounds down. 'Cannot be determined' is bait for solvers who applied only one of the two rules.

Keep practicing

Logic puzzles: 11 classics, workedThe playful side of the same muscle — liars, river crossings, jugs and hat puzzles, each solved step by step.Logical reasoning test (20 questions, 20 minutes)The argument-based cousin of these puzzles, timed and scored by question type.Syllogism questions (12 problems)The rule-combination skill in its purest form: two premises, one forced conclusion.LSAT practice questions by typeWhere the LSAT moved after retiring logic games: five Logical Reasoning question types, ten samples.GMAT critical reasoning questionsArguments rather than arrangements: twelve worked GMAT items where the work is finding the unstated assumption instead of building a grid.Inductive reasoning testThe pattern-spotting counterpart: number series, analogies, odd-one-out, against a clock.

Analytical reasoning questions — FAQ

What are analytical reasoning questions?

Puzzles that supply a small scenario — people to order, a team to pick, a table to seat — plus explicit rules, and ask what must be true. They test rule extraction, conditional chaining, and case analysis rather than knowledge. The four recurring families are ordering, grouping, seating/matching, and deduction chains.

What is the difference between analytical and logical reasoning?

Analytical reasoning works with artificial rule systems (five runners, one bench) where everything is stipulated; logical reasoning works with real-sounding arguments where you evaluate evidence, assumptions, and flaws. The machinery overlaps heavily — contrapositives, necessary versus sufficient — which is why practicing one improves the other.

Did the LSAT remove analytical reasoning?

Yes. The Analytical Reasoning section — logic games — was removed from the LSAT starting August 2024 and replaced with a second Logical Reasoning section. Analytical-style puzzles remain standard in aptitude tests, civil-service exams, and employer assessments, and they are still excellent training for the conditional logic that LSAT Logical Reasoning tests.

How do I get better at analytical reasoning?

Three habits: translate every rule into notation (arrows for conditionals, blocks for adjacent pairs) before reasoning; place anchored facts first and let them shrink the search; and when the diagram forks, run both branches — 'must be true' answers live in what the branches share. Speed follows accuracy, so practice untimed first.

Are these puzzles free, and are they from real exams?

Free, no sign-up, and every solution opens on the page. All twelve are original puzzles written for this page; each has been checked by full case enumeration so the credited answer is genuinely forced.