MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons

Number Series

About 5 min · Intellectual Test (Reasoning) · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 206 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Number Series is a reasoning topic in the Maharashtra Police Bharti exam.

Key ideas

• Constant Difference Series: Each term increases or decreases by the same fixed number (e.g., +5, +5, +5).
• Increasing/Decreasing Difference Series: The difference itself grows or shrinks by a fixed amount (e.g., +2, +4, +6, +8).
• Multiplication/Division Series: Each term is obtained by multiplying or dividing the previous term by a constant (e.g., ×2, ×2, ×2).
• Square Series: Terms are perfect squares (1, 4, 9, 16, 25) or differences are squares.
• Cube Series: Terms are perfect cubes (1, 8, 27, 64, 125) or differences are cubes.

Quick reference

• First step always: Write down the differences between consecutive terms.
• Differences forming AP: Add the next logical difference to get the answer.
• Constant ratio between terms: Multiply by that ratio for the next term.
• When stuck: Check for squares, cubes, primes, or alternating sub-series.
• Wrong-term questions: The term that breaks the established pattern is the answer.

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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