Question

Find the odd one from the given data: APS, EBT, IRP, OTQ, PST

• A. APS
• B. EBT
• C. IRP
• D. OTQ
• E. PST

Hint:

When dealing with three-letter groups, always check the first letter of every group first. Vowel/Consonant patterns or alphabetical jumps (like A, E, I, O...) are very common in competitive reasoning exams.

Answer 1

Answer: (E)

Concept: In classification or "odd-one-out" problems involving letter groups, we look for patterns in the positions of the letters or specific properties like the presence of vowels/consonants.

Step 1: Analyze the first letter of each group.
The first letters are: A, E, I, O, P.
• A is a vowel.
• E is a vowel.
• I is a vowel.
• O is a vowel.
• P is a consonant. In the sequence of groups (APS, EBT, IRP, OTQ), the first letter follows the sequence of vowels (A, E, I, O, U). The fifth group starts with 'P', which breaks this pattern.


Step 2: Analyze the internal structure (Optional Verification).
While the vowel pattern is strong, we can also look at the relationship between the last two letters:
• APS: P $\to$ S (+3)
• EBT: B $\to$ T (+18) --- No consistent numerical pattern is immediately obvious here, suggesting the vowel property is the primary logic.
• IRP: R $\to$ P (-2)
• OTQ: T $\to$ Q (-3) Since the other four groups (APS, EBT, IRP, OTQ) all begin with a vowel, and PST begins with a consonant, PST is the odd one out.