SSC CHSL · Bite-size lessons

Semantic & Figural Analogy

About 5 min · General Intelligence and Reasoning · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 290 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Analogy questions test your ability to identify relationships between pairs of items and apply the same logic to find missing elements. In SSC CHSL, analogy problems appear in four formats: word (semantic), number, letter, and figural (visual pattern) analogies. They are a reliable scoring area if you master the pattern recognition.

Key ideas

• Relationship identification is primary: Before looking at options, clearly define how the first pair relates—only then search for the same relationship pattern in the answer choices.
• Word analogies test conceptual links: Common relationships include synonyms, antonyms, part-to-whole, type-species, tool-function, cause-effect, male-female pairs, and profession-workplace connections.
• Number analogies follow arithmetic patterns: Look for operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, cubes, sum of digits, differences between digits, or positional patterns within the number.
• Letter analogies use alphabetical positions: Most problems involve shifting positions forward/backward (A=1, B=2... Z=26), reverse positions, vowel-consonant patterns, or positional sums and differences.
• Figural analogies test visual reasoning: Transformations include rotation (90°, 180°), reflection (horizontal/vertical mirror), size changes, element addition/deletion, shading changes, or position swaps within a figure.

Quick reference

• Standard format: A:B::C:D or A:B::C:? — same relationship must hold for both pairs.
• Word types: Synonym, antonym, part-whole, tool-use, worker-workplace, gender pairs, category-member.
• Number checks: Square, cube, sum/product of digits, differences, ratios, prime patterns.
• Letter positions: A=1 to Z=26; test +n shifts, reverse alphabet (A=26 to Z=1), vowel patterns.
• Figure changes: Rotation angles (90°, 180°), mirror flip (vertical/horizontal), element count, shading toggle.

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 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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