Puzzles · difficulty 1–5
Anagrams, letter series, analogies and odd-one-out items built on ordinary English words. Every puzzle is solved by working on the letters themselves and on the relations between words rather than by recalling facts, and every explanation names the technique it used.
25 puzzles · about 45 minutes end to end, as a guide only · untimed
The puzzles below run in difficulty order, easiest first. Each one checks on its own and shows its explanation straight away, so you get the method for one rung before you attempt the next.
Work the ladder in order. The early puzzles apply one transformation to a short word; the last few compose two rules or run a mirrored alphabet, and reward writing the steps down. Nothing here is timed and nothing is scored, so read the explanation after every attempt, including the ones you get right: the method it names is the part that carries over to the next puzzle. Paper and pencil help on the letter series, though none of these puzzles needs them.
The letters A, B, E, L and T can be rearranged to spell a common five-letter word. That word names a piece of furniture. Which word is it?
Two of these use exactly the letters you were given. Separate them with the category cue, not by which looks more familiar.
Every letter in this series stands one step further along the alphabet than the letter before it. Which letter belongs in the gap?
Letter series, five terms.
Say the alphabet aloud starting from the letter before the gap and stop at the letter after it.
Three of these words belong to the same everyday category. Which word does not belong with the other three?
Group the words first, then see which single word has no group left to join.
BEGIN is to START as FINISH is to which word?
Turn the leading pair into a sentence, then use that identical sentence on the second word.
A six-letter everyday word is hidden in this sentence: Kindly ask for estimates today. Its letters run in order, straight across the space between two adjacent words. Which word is hidden?
Write the sentence out with the spaces removed, then read it slowly from left to right.
The gaps between these letters are not all the same size. Which letter belongs in the gap?
Letter series, six terms.
Write the size of each gap under the series and work with the sizes, not with the letters.
The letters C, E, H, I, K, N and T can be rearranged to spell a common seven-letter word naming the room in which meals are cooked. Which word is it?
Start from the cue and list rooms, then test each one against the letters rather than the reverse.
ANCIENT is to MODERN as SHALLOW is to which word?
Decide what relation joins the leading two words before you read the rest, then apply exactly that relation.
Three of these words share a feature of their spelling that has nothing to do with meaning. Which word lacks that feature?
Nothing here depends on what the words mean. Read each word letter by letter and compare neighbours.
Which word can be made from HEAT by changing exactly one letter and leaving the other three letters where they are?
Write the starting word above each candidate and line the letters up in columns before deciding.
Which word makes an ordinary compound word both when it follows SUN and when it comes before HOUSE?
Say both compounds aloud for every candidate. A word that works on one side only is not the bridge.
Each term in this series is a pair of letters. Which pair belongs in the gap?
Letter pairs, five terms.
Read all the leading letters as one series and all the trailing letters as another.
PETAL is to FLOWER as PAGE is to which word?
Say the leading pair as a sentence containing the words one part of, then reuse that exact sentence.
Rearrange all seven of the letters A, D, E, I, L, S and T into one word meaning the small points of a plan or description. Which word uses exactly these letters?
Cross each letter off the given list as you use it and make sure nothing is left over at the end.
Three of these words share the same pattern of vowels and consonants. Which word does not share it?
Write a V under every vowel and a C under every consonant, then compare the four patterns.
CAST becomes COAT in two steps. Each step changes exactly one letter, leaves the other letters in place, and must produce a real word. What is the word in between?
Compare the first and last words position by position; only the positions where they differ may change.
An eight-letter everyday word is hidden in this sentence: They watch and someone waves back. Its letters run in order across three consecutive words. Which word is hidden?
The stated length is part of the puzzle. Keep sliding your window until a run of exactly that size appears.
Replace each letter of COLD with its position in the alphabet, where A is 1 and Z is 26. Add 3 to every number, then turn the numbers back into letters. Which word do you get?
Write the four position numbers in a row first, do the arithmetic on the row, and only then convert back.
A RULER is to LENGTH as a THERMOMETER is to which word?
Write the leading pair as a sentence containing the word measures, then check that your candidate keeps the same kind of word on each side.
The letters B, B, G, H, I, L, L, T and U can be rearranged into an everyday two-word phrase for something that lights a room. Which phrase uses exactly those nine letters?
Sort the given letters alphabetically, sort each candidate the same way, and compare the two lists.
The gaps in this series are neither all equal nor repeating. Which letter belongs in the gap?
Letter series, six terms.
Work out the size of each gap, then look at how the gaps themselves change from one to the next.
Apply this two-part rule to PLANT: first swap the two letters at the front, then move the letter now at the end to the front. Apply the whole rule a second time to the result. Which string do you finish with?
Write each intermediate string on its own line and label which of the two moves produced it.
Which word satisfies all three conditions? It has exactly seven letters; its first and last letters are the same; and it contains exactly three vowels, no two of them next to each other. Count A, E, I, O and U as vowels and treat Y as a consonant.
Check the fastest condition first and drop a candidate the moment it fails one; you should not need all three tests on every word.
Two different runs are interleaved in this series. Which letter belongs in the gap?
Letter series, eight terms.
Read the letters in the odd positions on their own, then the even ones, and ask how the two runs relate.
In the chain WINDOW to GLASS to SAND, the first step names what the object is made of and the second step names the raw material that substance is made from. Apply the same two steps, in the same order, to a wooden table. Where does the chain end?
Do the two steps separately and write the middle word down before you take the second one.
Each category maps onto the shared aptitude constructs, so a puzzle that interests you has a lesson and a larger practice bank behind it:
Drawing conclusions from written information without relying on outside assumptions.
Applying symbol, letter, number, and substitution rules.
Understanding passages, instructions, policies, technical material, and workplace documents.
Sustained focus, selective attention, and accuracy under time pressure.
Identifying general rules from examples, sequences, and observations.
Inferring rules from shapes, symbols, matrices, and non-verbal patterns.
Comparing strings, records, transactions, forms, and data for mistakes.
Arithmetic, fractions, percentages, ratios, rates, estimation, word problems, and number relationships.
Holding, updating, and manipulating short sequences, rules, or instructions.
