How the Patterns game works
Each question shows a series of squares, each holding one or more shapes. From one square to the next something changes: the number of shapes, their position, size, colour or direction. You work out the rule and identify the square that continues the series. Unlike Order, you do not build the answer yourself.
It is reported as 20 questions in 17 minutes, with the rule changing from one question to the next. It is also reported not to appear in every Arctic Shores assessment.
How to find the rule
Check the same properties in the same order:
- Count the shapes in each square first. Numbers are the quickest change to confirm.
- Then trace position: does a shape move round the corners or along a row?
- Then size, colour and direction, one at a time.
- When one rule explains the series, check whether a second property is changing too.
- Picture the next square before you look at the answers, then find the one that matches.
Worked example
Square one has one circle in the top-left corner. Square two has two circles in the top-right corner, square three has three in the bottom-right, and square four has four in the bottom-left.
Two rules run together: the circles move one corner clockwise each time, and their number goes up by one. The next square needs five circles, back in the top-left corner.
An answer with five circles in the top-right, or four circles in the top-left, breaks one of the two rules. Check both before you commit.
Tips for the real Patterns task
- Budget about 50 seconds a question. Twenty questions in 17 minutes leaves little slack.
- If you cannot see the second rule, rule out answers that break the first one and choose from the rest.
- Look at the whole series, not just the last two squares. Some changes only show over three or four steps.
- Abstract reasoning practice helps, since series built on count, position, size and colour are standard in those tests.
What your score means
Patterns is one of the abstract pattern tasks in Arctic Shores’ 2026 candidate guide, though Arctic Shores does not say which dimensions it informs, and the report does not list a Patterns score. You get a single emailed report for the whole assessment, arranged in “dimensions”, each placed on a four-point scale against a group of similar candidates.
Arctic Shores’ candidate guidance page describes a 1 to 10 spectrum for each behaviour instead, and says the report is sent only if your employer chooses. Separately, the employer gets a fit number from 1 to 100 based on what it agreed good looks like in the role. Arctic Shores says there is no single way to pass.
Practise Patterns on CogniPrep
Our Patterns game sets 20 questions from a bank of 50, with 51 seconds each, which is 17 minutes at most. Each shows four frames and four options for the fifth, and every wrong option changes one property of the right one. A timeout counts as wrong and there is no going back. The score out of 100 is mostly accuracy, with extra weight on two-rule questions and some for pace. The count and timing follow the reported format; the questions are ours.