The role of Reasoning in railway CBTs
General Intelligence and Reasoning has 30 questions in both the NTPC CBT-1 and the reported Group D pattern, each worth one mark with a one-third penalty, inside a 90-minute test. The question families repeat from year to year, so candidates who have practised them thoroughly recognise a question in seconds and answer it by routine. At 30 to 40 seconds a question, a prepared candidate can finish the section in about 17 to 20 minutes with high accuracy, which leaves more time for Mathematics. It is the section in which an hour of practice yields the most marks per hour for most candidates.
Question families
| Family | Task | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Analogy and classification | Find the related pair or the odd one out | Identify the relation; test options |
| Series | Number, letter or mixed series | Differences, ratios, squares; alternating terms |
| Coding-decoding | Decode or encode a word or number | Compare the example letters; find the shift or mapping |
| Blood relations | Work out a relation | Family tree |
| Direction and distance | Final position or direction | Coordinates or a sketch |
| Ranking and order | Position in a line | Total = left + right − 1 |
| Venn diagrams and syllogisms | Relation among sets; valid conclusions | Draw diagrams |
| Mathematical operations and number puzzles | Substitute symbols or find a missing number | Apply the rule stepwise |
| Non-verbal | Mirror and water images, embedded figures, paper folding | Observation and elimination |
Worked examples
Series. 2, 5, 10, 17, 26, ? The differences are 3, 5, 7, 9, so the next is 26 + 11 = 37.
Coding. If TRAIN is coded as USBJO, how is STEAM coded? Each letter moves one place forward (T→U, R→S, A→B, I→J, N→O), so STEAM becomes TUFBN.
Direction. A person walks 5 km north, 3 km east and 5 km south. How far is she from the start, and in which direction? North and south cancel: 3 km to the east.
Ranking. In a queue, Meena is 12th from the front and 9th from the back. How many people are in the queue? 12 + 9 − 1 = 20.
Blood relation. Pointing to a man, a woman says, "His mother is my mother's only daughter." How is the woman related to the man? My mother's only daughter is the woman herself, so the woman is the man's mother.
Syllogism. All engines are machines. Some machines are vehicles. Does "some engines are vehicles" follow? Not necessarily: the vehicles among the machines may not include any engines.
Each takes 15 to 40 seconds with a method.
A method for each major family
- Series: run a checklist: differences, ratios, squares and cubes, alternating series.
- Coding: write the alphabet with positions 1 to 26 and the reverse alphabet on your rough sheet; most codes become a lookup.
- Relations: always draw a tree with symbols for male and female.
- Directions: use coordinates; the final distance is the straight-line distance.
- Syllogisms: draw Venn diagrams and accept a conclusion only if it holds in every diagram.
- Non-verbal: look at what changes between figures (rotation, shading, number of elements).
Our topic pages provide drills: number series, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense and syllogisms.
Time management
| Stage | Time (30-question section) | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| First pass | About 20 minutes | Answer questions where you recognise the family; mark long ones |
| Second pass | About 6 minutes | Return to marked questions in order of ease |
| Check | In the final review | Re-verify diagram-dependent answers |
Because the CBT has one clock, reasoning time saved can go to Mathematics. Many candidates take Reasoning first because it is quick and gives a base score; test your own order. See section-wise time management.
Negative marking in Reasoning
With a penalty of one-third, an attempt where you have narrowed the options to two has an expected gain of +0.33 marks. Non-verbal questions often allow elimination, so informed guesses are reasonable there. For verbal questions where you have no method, leave them. Track net marks from guesses by family. See our negative marking guide.
How to practise
- Family drills (10 to 15 questions): one family a day in the early phase, with a method card.
- Mixed sets (20 questions): to practise recognising the family.
- Sectionals (30 questions in 28 minutes): two a week in the middle phase.
- Full CBTs: weekly in the last two months.
Analysing your Reasoning result
| Pattern | Probable cause | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Errors in one family | Method not mastered | Family drill; method card |
| Non-verbal questions skipped | Lack of practice | Five non-verbal questions daily |
| Right method, wrong answer | Misreading | Re-read the question before marking |
| Section takes over 28 minutes | Slow recognition | Timed mixed sets |
| Guessed answers losing marks | No elimination | Guess only after narrowing |
Common mistakes in railway Reasoning preparation
- Practising untimed.
- Skipping non-verbal questions.
- Solving mentally instead of drawing.
- Memorising solved examples without learning to recognise the family.
- Ignoring accuracy while chasing speed.
Related pages
See the railway hub, the exam pattern and the mock test strategy. Other sections: Mathematics and General Awareness. For a worked review read how to use mock tests for railway exams. Reasoning tests published by institutes appear below.
Note: the section sizes above reflect the NTPC CBT-1 and reported Group D patterns; confirm them in the CEN of your recruitment.