GATE CS 2026 Set 2 Q.2: Spatial Aptitude

A black square $PQRS$ has been cut into two parts. One part of it is shown in Panel I. Which one of the shapes in Panel II is the other part?

Panel I: a black square PQRS (S top-left, R top-right, P bottom-left, Q bottom-right) with an irregular white region cut out of it. Panel II: four black candidate shapes (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv), each made of unit squares.

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

Official answer and solution

Official answer: C
From: Official GATE 2026 answer key

Solution

Trace the unit-square dimensions of the missing white region inside square PQRS in Panel I and match it with the shapes in Panel II.

Dividing the $6 \times 6$ square $PQRS$ into unit grid cells, the missing white cavity spans rows 2 through 5 (from top to bottom): row 2 has 1 cell on the left, a 2-cell black gap, and 2 cells on the right; row 3 has 4 contiguous cells from column 2 to column 5; row 4 has a 1-cell vertical neck at column 4; and row 5 has 3 contiguous cells from column 2 to column 4 (extending left from the neck, with nothing extending to the right). Shape (iii) in Panel II matches this exact geometry without rotation.

Final answer

Option (C)

Common trap

Selecting (i) which has an extra unit cell protruding to the right at the bottom.

The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.

Source

Paper: GATE 2026 Computer Science and Information Technology - Session 2 (CS2)
Question: 2 of 65
Section: General Aptitude

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