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Matrix Reasoning Test

A 3×3 grid of shapes has one picture missing. Work out the rules and pick the piece that fits.

Type
Logic
Takes
about 3-5 min
Result in
correct

Matrix Reasoning

~3-5 min

  1. A grid of nine pictures has its last one missing.
  2. Every row follows the same rules: look at shape, number and fill.
  3. Pick the picture that completes it. 10 puzzles, getting harder.

Read across the rows first, then check the columns.

Your result: — / 10

How it's measured

Try another challenge

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  • Make 24

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  • Code Breaker

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What is a matrix reasoning test?

A matrix reasoning test shows a grid of pictures that follow hidden rules, with one picture missing, and asks you to choose the piece that completes it. There are no words or numbers to read: you have to spot the pattern in shapes alone. Puzzles like this go back to Raven's Progressive Matrices, published by John C. Raven in 1938.

How this test works

Each puzzle is a 3×3 grid with the bottom-right picture missing, and 6 pictures to choose from. Tap the one that fits. After every answer you see the right piece in place and the rule it follows, in words. There are 10 puzzles: the first three change one thing across the grid, the next four change two, and the last three change three. Every puzzle is generated fresh, so no two runs are the same.

What rules can a puzzle use?

Every picture has three features: its shape (circle, square, triangle or diamond), its count (one, two or three) and its fill (outline, light or solid). Each feature follows one of three rules, the same in every row:

  • The same along each row. All three pictures in a row share it, and each row has its own: a row of squares, then a row of circles.
  • One of each. Every row holds the same three values once each, in a shifted order, like a Sudoku row. The missing picture takes the value its row hasn't used yet.
  • Counting. The number of shapes goes one, two, three along every row, or three, two, one.

Features without a rule stay the same in every picture. Every wrong option breaks at least one rule, so exactly one option fits; the site's tests generate hundreds of puzzles and check that each has one answer.

How is your result calculated?

Your result is how many of the 10 puzzles you solved, with the total time from the first puzzle to your last answer. You also see how many of the three hardest puzzles you got right. There is no time limit on any puzzle.

Is matrix reasoning an IQ test?

Matrix puzzles are part of some intelligence tests, but this isn't one, and your score is not an IQ. Intelligence tests use carefully calibrated puzzles, strict timing and scores compared with large norm groups; these puzzles are generated at random and nobody's results are collected. What a matrix puzzle does exercise is finding rules in new material, sometimes called fluid reasoning.

For another puzzle about patterns in shapes, try the Mental Rotation Test; for rules in numbers, the Shape Equation Puzzle.

Questions

What does matrix reasoning measure?
Finding rules in unfamiliar material and applying them, without words or numbers. Psychologists call this fluid reasoning. This version is a puzzle game, not a measurement of it.
Is matrix reasoning timed?
Here there is no limit on any puzzle, but your total time is shown with your score. Formal tests often have time limits.
Can this test give me an IQ score?
No. The puzzles are generated at random and haven't been calibrated against anyone, so the only honest results are how many you solved and how long you took.
How do you solve matrix puzzles?
Take one feature at a time. Look along the top row and ask what happens to the shape, then the count, then the fill. Check the same rule on the middle row, then apply it to the bottom row to work out the missing picture.
Does practice improve matrix reasoning?
Practice makes you better at puzzles of this kind, because you learn the rules they use. Whether that carries over to anything else is a separate question that this site makes no claims about.