Play in your browser · Logic
Abstract reasoning test
Ten matrix puzzles, from one rule to three. Work out what changes across each grid, pick the missing piece and see how many you solve.
This test runs in your browser with JavaScript. Turn it on to play, or get Omni Brain for the full version.
How to play
- Press Start. A 3 × 3 grid of figures appears with the bottom-right cell empty.
- Look along the rows and down the columns: shape, number, shading and the turn of an arrow can each follow a rule. Pick the option that fits all of them, by tap or with keys 1–8.
- After a wrong answer you see the rule. After 10 puzzles you get your score and your total time.
What your score means
Your score is how many of the 10 puzzles you solved. They get harder as you go: the first four follow one rule, the next three combine two, and the last three combine three. The line for the hardest four (puzzles 7–10) shows how you did once the rules start to stack.
This is a short practice set, not a standardised test, and the score is not an IQ score. The puzzles are generated fresh each time, so scores move a little from set to set. Compare yourself with yourself, and use the rule shown after a miss to see which kind of pattern tripped you up.
About the abstract reasoning test
Matrix puzzles ask you to find the rule behind a grid of figures and use it to fill the empty cell. The format is best known from Raven's Progressive Matrices, which John C. Raven introduced in 1938, and grids like these have stayed part of reasoning tests because they need no words or numbers to explain. Each figure has a few features, such as shape, number, shading and direction, and each feature follows its own rule along the rows or down the columns. Solving a puzzle is inductive reasoning: you notice what changes, guess a rule, test it on the complete rows and then apply it to the last one. Working memory matters too, because the harder puzzles make you hold two or three rules at once. Here every set is generated in your browser, so each one is new. In Omni Brain the same idea runs as Matrices, with difficulty that adapts as you play.
Techniques from the app
- List what changes. Go attribute by attribute: shape, colour, number, tilt, size. For each, ask: same across the row, down the column, or cycling?
- Test on the full rows first. Find the rule in the two complete rows, then apply it to the last one. Only then look at the options.
Train pattern reasoning every day in Omni Brain
Matrices and many more short games, each with a technique you can use outside the app. Free every day.
Questions about the abstract reasoning test
Is this an IQ test?
No. It is a short practice set of matrix puzzles, and the score is not an IQ score. Formal tests use fixed, carefully calibrated items and norms; this one makes new puzzles each time so you can practise.
How do I solve matrix puzzles?
Take one feature at a time: shape, number, shading, direction. For each, check whether it stays the same along a row, stays the same down a column or cycles through three values, and confirm the rule on the two complete rows before you look at the options.
Why are there eight options?
With eight options, guessing rarely pays off. Every option is the right answer with one or more features changed, and each feature has an option where only it is wrong, so you need the rule, not the look of the options, to choose.
Does practice improve abstract reasoning?
Practice makes you better at puzzles like these, mostly by teaching a method: list what changes, test rules on full rows, then answer. How far that carries over to other kinds of problem is still debated, which is why the game carries a B evidence label.