Aptitude and Reasoning Quiz with Answers

Number System, HCF and LCM

Number System is the base for the whole maths section. It covers types of numbers (natural, whole, prime, composite), divisibility rules, remainders, unit digit, and factors. You should know divisibility rules for 2 to 12 by heart, plus the special tricks for 7, 11 and 13. These small rules save a lot of time on the exam day.

HCF (Highest Common Factor) and LCM (Lowest Common Multiple) also fall here. A key fact to remember: for any two numbers, HCF multiplied by LCM equals the product of the two numbers. Questions on remainders, unit digit of large powers, and number series often start from these basics, so do not skip this topic even though it looks easy.

Arithmetic: Percentage, Ratio, Profit and Loss, Interest

Arithmetic carries the highest weight in the quant section, especially in SSC CGL. The main topics are percentage, ratio and proportion, average, profit and loss, simple interest, compound interest, partnership, and mixture and allegation. Most of these are linked. For example, profit percent, loss percent and discount are all just percentage applied to cost price and selling price.

Learn the core formulas first. Profit percent = (Profit / Cost Price) x 100. Simple Interest = (P x R x T) / 100. Compound amount = P (1 + R/100) raised to the power T. Once the formula is clear, the trick is to practice fast mental calculation, because the exam gives you very little time per question.

A simple founder tip: do not try to learn 50 shortcuts at once. Master the basic formula, solve 30 to 40 questions a day, and the speed comes on its own.

Time, Work, Speed and Distance

This group includes time and work, pipes and cisterns, time speed and distance, problems on trains, and boats and streams. These are scoring topics if your basics are strong, because the same logic repeats with small changes in the story.

Remember the core relations. Speed = Distance / Time. If two people move towards each other their speeds add up, and if they move in the same direction you subtract. For work, if A finishes a job in X days and B in Y days, together they finish it in (X x Y) / (X + Y) days. Boats and streams just use upstream and downstream speed, which is speed of boat minus or plus speed of stream.

Data Interpretation (DI)

Data Interpretation is one of the most important parts of the bank exam quant section, and it carries good weight in IBPS and SBI papers. You are given data in the form of tables, bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts or caselets (data written as a paragraph), and you answer 4 to 5 questions on it.

DI does not test new maths. It tests how fast you can read data and apply percentage, ratio and average on it. So your arithmetic must be strong first. A common exam tip is to spend at most 10 to 15 minutes on one DI set and move on if it gets stuck. Missing data and caselet DI are the harder types you should practice for higher level exams like SBI PO and IBPS PO mains.

Reasoning: Syllogism, Coding-Decoding, Series

On the reasoning side, syllogism, coding-decoding, analogy and series are repeat favourites. Syllogism gives you statements like 'All A are B' and asks which conclusions must be true. The safe way to solve is to draw simple Venn diagrams and never assume anything from general knowledge. A conclusion must be 100 percent true to be accepted. If two conclusions are each half true and cover all cases, that becomes an either-or case.

Coding-decoding asks you to find the hidden rule used to turn a word into a code, then apply it. Number and alphabet series ask you to spot the pattern and find the missing or next term. These topics reward pattern recognition, so the more questions you see, the faster you get.

Reasoning: Puzzles, Seating, Blood Relations, Directions

Puzzles and seating arrangement are the heaviest part of bank reasoning. You are given clues about people, their positions, floors, days or boxes, and you arrange them to answer the questions. These take time, so practice is the only way to get fast and confident.

Blood relations test family relationship questions, often using symbols like + and - to show relations. The trick is to draw a quick family tree. Direction sense gives you a path (so many steps north, then east) and asks the final direction or distance. Drawing a small diagram and remembering that the shortest distance often uses the simple right-angle rule will save you time. Venn diagrams, order and ranking, and input-output also appear in this family of questions.

Why it matters in the exam

Aptitude and Reasoning appears in almost every major Indian government exam. In IBPS PO and SBI PO prelims, Quantitative Aptitude is 35 questions and Reasoning Ability is 35 questions, out of a 100 mark paper. In SSC CGL Tier 1, Quantitative Aptitude is 25 questions for 50 marks and General Intelligence and Reasoning is another 25 questions for 50 marks, which together make half the paper. In RRB NTPC CBT 1, Mathematics and General Intelligence and Reasoning together make up 60 of the 100 questions. So these two sections often decide whether you clear the cut-off, which is why daily practice matters more than anything else.