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Pattern matrices

Nine small boards in a 3×3 grid, the last one missing. Find the rule along the rows — counts, symbols, a walking mark, overlays — and complete it.

  • Pattern
  • Untimed
  • 8 levels

How it plays

Each row of three boards follows the same rule. Work it out from the top two rows and pick the board that finishes the bottom row.

Rules unlock as you climb: one more mark each step; each symbol once per row; a mark walking round the edge; the third board as the first two laid together; one or the other but not both; then two rules at once. The boards grow from 2×2 to 4×4, and the time shortens. There is a top: when every rule is open on the biggest boards, that is the last level.

Every wrong option breaks one part of the rule — one mark too many, the wrong symbol, one step short, both instead of either — so the working names which part.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises finding rules in visual patterns, as in matrix puzzles. Practising matrices improves matrix puzzles; it does not raise an IQ score in any lasting sense.

Learn

How to get better at pattern matrices: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Read the top row alone and name what changes from board to board: how many marks, which symbol, where a mark sits, or which cells are filled.
  2. Check the same rule on the middle row. If it fails there, it is not the rule — start again rather than bend it.
  3. Apply it to the bottom row: from its first two boards, build the missing board in your head before you look at the options.
  4. Compare each option with the board you built, one feature at a time — count, symbol, place. Each wrong option is built to break just one of them.

Techniques and tricks

  • Count every board

    Write each row’s counts as numbers. One more each step shows up at once, and the bottom row’s third count is its second plus one.

    e.g. Rows of 1, 2, 3 and 2, 3, 4, then 3, 4, ? — the answer has 5 marks.

  • Each symbol once per row

    If every row uses the same three symbols, once each, the missing symbol is the one the bottom row has not used yet — like a row of a sudoku.

    e.g. Rows use ●, ▲ and ★; the bottom row has ★ and ●, so the answer is ▲.

  • Walk the edge

    Number the edge cells clockwise from the top left: 4 on a 2×2 board, 8 on 3×3, 12 on 4×4. Find how many cells the mark moves per board, and which way, then go two moves on from the bottom row’s first board.

    e.g. A mark at edge cell 3, then 4, then 5 moves one clockwise; if the bottom row starts at 7 on a 3×3 board, the answer is at cell 1 (7, 8, then round to 1).

  • The shared-cell test

    Look at the cells filled in both of the first two boards. If they are filled in the third, it is the two laid together; if they are empty, it is one or the other but not both.

    e.g. Board 1 fills cells a and b, board 2 fills b and c. Laid together gives a, b, c; one-or-the-other gives a and c.

  • Solve two rules separately

    When the count and the symbol both change, or a mark walks while the symbol changes, find each rule on its own, then put the answers together.

    e.g. Count says 4 marks; the symbol rule says ◆. The answer is four ◆ — not four of anything else.

  • Two walkers, two tracks

    When two marks move at once, follow one at a time. Here one walks clockwise and the other anticlockwise, one cell per board.

    e.g. Move the first mark two cells clockwise from its bottom-row start, then the second two cells anticlockwise from its own.

As the levels climb

  • You start with two rules on 2×2 boards: one more mark each step, and each symbol once per row. Next come the walking mark and the overlay — the third board as the first two laid together.
  • Then the boards grow to 3×3 and the clock drops to 80%. On bigger boards, count edge cells for the walker rather than judging by eye.
  • One-or-the-other-but-not-both and count-plus-symbol arrive next, then 4×4 boards, then 65% of the time.
  • The last level adds a walking mark that changes symbol and two marks walking opposite ways. That is the top: every rule on 4×4 boards. Each later kind of rule, and each bigger board, comes with more time to match.

Traps to avoid

  • One mark too many or too few. Count options are one off the answer. Count the marks, do not judge the density.
  • Right count, wrong symbol. An option with the right number of marks in a symbol from another row, or one the bottom row already used, breaks the symbol rule.
  • One step short, one step too far, or the wrong way round. The walker’s options sit one move before or after the answer, or the same distance the other way. Check the direction on the top row.
  • Both instead of either. For one-or-the-other, the board with every cell from both is offered; for laying together, the board without the shared cells is offered. The shared cells decide.
  • The board beside it. When the rule’s own lures run out, the board to the left or above is offered. It belongs to the pattern, not to the gap.

How to practise

  • Set “Options shown” to 2 while a new rule is unfamiliar, then raise it back to 6, and to 8 once every rule is open.
  • Say the rule in words before you look at the options — “one more, same symbol” — and check it on both full rows.
  • After a miss, read the working: it names the rule, and the option you picked shows which part of it you broke.

Levels

It is untimed unless you turn the clock on. There are 8 levels with the default settings, and the counter stops at the real top. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

More pattern

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