Embedded Figures
🔒 Log in to trackFinding the hidden part in a figure
🔒 Log in to trackA complex figure is given and you must find which option figure is hidden inside it exactly as drawn — same size, same angles, same orientation. The standard SSC instruction is rotation is not allowed.
Method:
- In each option, pick its most unusual stroke — a lone slanting line, an odd-length side, a T-junction.
- Search the main figure for that stroke in the same direction.
- Trace the rest of the option from there; every line must be present in the main figure (it may be part of a longer line).
Distractors are usually the correct part flipped, rotated or with one line changed. That is why orientation matters more than the general shape.
Detailed notes
What "embedded" means
One of the four option figures is hiding inside the given figure. It is drawn there with the same strokes, same lengths and same directions, just sitting among extra lines. Your job is to spot it. Two rules make this checkable: every stroke is one grid step long, and rotation is not allowed.
Rotation is not allowed
The hidden copy must keep every stroke in its own direction: a horizontal stroke stays horizontal, a slant keeps its lean. So a figure flipped left-right (its mirror image), flipped top-bottom (its water image) or turned through 90 degrees or 180 degrees is a different figure and a wrong answer. Most wrong options are exactly these copies of the right answer, so direction checking settles most of the question.
Anchor on a distinctive stroke
Do not compare whole figures. Pick the part's rarest stroke - usually a slant, or a stroke that forms a T-joint with two others. Find every place in the given figure where that anchor appears in the same direction; there are only a few. Each anchor spot is a candidate position. Around each candidate, check the remaining strokes of the part one by one, in order, sharing endpoints. If every stroke is found with matching direction, that is the answer; if even one stroke fails, drop that spot and move on.
Compare strokes, not areas
Count first: if the part has 2 horizontal strokes, 1 vertical and 2 slants, the hidden copy must show exactly those five strokes in the same connected arrangement. A region of the figure can look "full" and still not contain the part, and a sparse-looking corner may hold it.
Method in the exam
- Count the part's strokes; note each direction.
- Choose the rarest stroke as the anchor; locate it in the given figure.
- At each anchor spot, trace the remaining strokes around it.
- Reject options that are mirror images (a slant leaning the other way), water images (upside down) or turned copies - these need no tracing.
- Between two surviving options, compare the strokes touching the anchor first.
Worked example
Part: an L with a foot - one horizontal stroke, and two vertical strokes rising from its left end. In a 4 x 4 grid figure it sits one step right and one step down from the top-left, every stroke matching. Its left-right flipped version, whose foot points the other way, appears nowhere in the figure - the flipped L needs a horizontal on the other side of the corner, and no such pair of strokes exists there. So only the true L is embedded.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a turned or mirrored copy because the silhouette looks right.
- Accepting an option where one stroke of the part is missing or re-angled.
- Checking only the first anchor spot when a second one also looks promising.
- Comparing sizes - all strokes in these figures are one grid step long, so size never decides.
Quick revision
- Embedded = same strokes, same lengths, same directions, anywhere in the figure.
- Rotation is NOT allowed; mirror and water images are wrong answers.
- Anchor on the rarest stroke (a slant or a T-joint), then trace around it.
- Reject flips and turns first by direction; trace only what survives.
- One missing or re-angled stroke means the part is not there.
Types of questions asked
Every way this subtopic shows up in exams — how to recognise it, the formula or logic to use, and a solved example.
Type 1: Hidden part in a square grid figurevery common2 practice Q
A 4 x 4 grid figure full of horizontal, vertical and slanting strokes; the options are small open figures.
Anchor on the part's rarest stroke, locate it in the grid, and trace the remaining strokes around each anchor spot.
Example: Q. An open figure with 2 horizontals, 2 verticals and a slant is hidden in a 4 x 4 grid figure. Find it.
Locate the slant, trace the box strokes around it; the flipped copy leans the other way and fails.
Type 2: Hidden part in an irregular figurecommon2 practice Q
The given figure is not square (4 x 3) or its strokes stop early, so whole-figure matching misleads.
Work stroke by stroke from the anchor; do not require the host figure to be a full grid.
Example: Q. A 4 x 3 figure hides a small open part; two options are flipped copies of it.
Only the unflipped copy completes at its anchor spot; flips fail on the first re-angled stroke.
Type 3: Near-miss option figurescommon2 practice Q
The options are not flips of each other - each differs from the part by a single stroke (missing, replaced or re-angled).
Check each option's strokes against the part one at a time; then confirm the surviving option really appears in the figure.
Example: Q. Three options each differ from the part by one stroke; one matches exactly.
Trace the exact-match option in the figure; the one-stroke-off options never complete.
Type 4: Slant-heavy partsoccasional2 practice Q
The part carries two or more slanting strokes, so direction errors are easy to make.
Fix each slant's lean first (/ rises left-to-right, \ falls left-to-right); only then check the straight strokes.
Example: Q. A part with two slants and one vertical is hidden in a busy grid figure.
Match both slant leans at the anchor; flipped copies reverse at least one lean and fail.
Shortcut tricks
⚡ Anchor on the slant
A slanting line has only two possible directions (/ or ). Check whether the main figure even has the option's slant in the right place; this rejects mirror-image distractors in seconds.
Example: Q. The main figure has only \ diagonals. An option contains a / slant. Can it be embedded?
No — without a / line anywhere in the main figure that option is impossible.
Where students lose marks
Accepting a part that fits only after rotating or flipping it.
Ignoring length: a line in the option that is longer than any matching line in the figure cannot fit.
Forgetting that a short option line may be a piece of a longer line in the figure.
Practice sets — 21 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Each answer comes with a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 10 questions
Suggested time 9 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.