In these types of problems a series of the letters of
alphabet will be given which follow a pattern or a sequence.
To solve this type of problems assign number 1 to 26 to the
letters of the alphabet as shown below. In some cases it is useful to assign
the number in the reverse order.
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26
A B C
D E F G H I
J K L M
N O P
Q R S T U
V W X Y
Z
26 25 24 23 22 21 20
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8
7 6 5
4 3 2 1
The letter series mainly consists of skipping of the
letters.
Some of the patterns of alphabet series may be as follows:
1) Equal
numbers of letters are missed. Ex in ‘ADE’ etc. two following letters are
missed.
2) One
following and the other preceding the letter may be organized, Ex: in YZX
letter Y is following and X is proceeding.
3) When
numbers are mixed with letters, the numbers may refer to the position of the
letters in the alphabets.
Ex:
D4, H8, L12…
4) Pattern
may be according to the position of letters in alphabets, Example in EJO the
first letter is fifth, the second is tenth and the third is ninth in the
alphabets.
5) Remember
that after ‘Z’ there will come ‘A’ in the sequence because the counting is circular.
EXAMPLES
TYPE 1:
One
Letter Series:
Example 1: B, E, H, K, N, ___
a) Q b)P c)O d)S e)F
Answer:
Clearly the given series is (+3)
B+3=E, E+3=H, H+3=K,
K+3=N
The next letter is N+3=Q.
Example 2: O, P, R, U, Y, ____
a)
C b)
D c)
E d)
F e)H
Answer:
Here, the series is +1, +2, +3, +4, etc
O+1=P, P+2=R, R+3=U, U+4=Y
Hence , the answer is
Y + 5 =D
Example 3: X, V, T, R, P, ___
a)
A b)
P c)
N d)
B
Answer:
Clearly, Each term moved 2 steps back word obtains the next term.
So the answer P-2= N
Example
4 : Z, X, V, T, R, (……..
), (……… )
a) 0, K b) N, M
c) K, S d) P, N
Ans.
Clearly, the given series consists of alternate letters in a reverse order. So,
the missing terms would be P and N. Hence, the answer is d.
Example 5 : J, Z , I ,Y , H ,_
a)
A b)X c) z d)G
Explanation: The letters in the given series go backward
alternatively. So previous letter to Y is X.
Two
Letter Series:
The first letters of the series follow
one logic and the second letters follow logic. Also the first two letters, the
next two letters and so on follow logic.
Example 6: LA, NC, PE, RG, ___
a)
TI b) SI c)
VH d) TH
Answer: The First letters of the terms is L, N, P, R +2 series.
The second letters of the terms are A, C, E, G
(+2) Series.
The next term is R+2, G+2 = TI
Example 7 : nd, iy , dt, yo, tj ?
(a)
mp (b)
nq (c) of (d) oe
Ans.
Clearly, the first and second letters of each term are moved five steps
backward to obtain the corresponding letters of the next term.
Hence, the answer is (d).
Three
Letter Series:
This sequence consists of 3 letters in
each term. The first letters follow one logic, the second letters follow some
other logic and the third letters follow some other logic, (or the same logic
in all the three cases).
Example 8 . ABC, CBA, DEF, FED, GHI,..........
a) JKL b)
IHG c) DFE d)IJK
Ans : 2. The second term is the reverse order of first term.
In addition to the above types a number of other types can also be
identified.
Example 9: BDF, CFI, DHL,…..?
(a) CJM
(b) ElM (c) EJO (d) EMI
Ans. Clearly,
the first, second and third letters of each term are respectively moved one,
two and three steps forward to obtain the corresponding letters of the next term.
So, the missing term is EJO. Hence, the answer is (c).
Miscellaneous Series:
Example 10 : - P 3 C, R 5 F, T 8 I, V 12 L, ?
(a)Y170
(b) X17M (c) X170 (d) X160
Ans
:-Clearly, the first letters of the terms are alternate. The sequence followed
by the numbers is + 2, + 3, + 4, … . The last letter of each term is three
steps ahead of the last letter of the preceding term. Thus, the next term would
be X 17 O. Hence, the answer is (c)