56
$\begingroup$

What comes next in each of these sequences?

$$\begin{array}{align*}\textbf{ 1 }&\text{J, KK, LLL, MZ, A, BO, ?}\\\textbf{ B }&\text{HNAKXR, EERREA, LOGYND, INOPOO, ?}\\\textbf{ C }&\text{NMLLARY, JBZALOY, KMMRA, DBJTML, ORMSLBL, ?}\\\textbf{ 4 }&\text{C-N, E-N, NW-S-NE-C, S-SW-W, WSW-SE-NNW, ?}\\\textbf{ E }&\text{FIRST, WELL DONE, PARKER, RIVER MOUTH, RIVER MOUTH,}\\\textbf{ }&\text{DANCE, ?}\\\textbf{ F }&\text{FILLY, DOE, FEMALE, HEN, BITCH, ?}\\\textbf{ G }&\text{FREDDIE, WILLIAMS, DOWN TO, LIFE ON, DROPS OF, ? OF}\\\textbf{ H }&\text{VIENNA, BRUSSELS, HAVANA, BERLIN, MADRID, ?}\\\textbf{ I/9 }&\text{ZXV, PRMT, JFVVM, QZXP, GVM, MRMV, VRTSG, HVEVM, HRC,}\\\textbf{ }&\text{UREV, ?}\end{array}$$

Fill out your answers in the grid below and observe the final sequence in the highlighted cells. Find the missing letter, but make sure you take it one step at a time.

                                                    Grid

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
4
  • 65
    $\begingroup$ That misleading title though 10/10 $\endgroup$
    – greenturtle3141
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 17:04
  • 59
    $\begingroup$ Yeah I bet everyone was just like "Well, duh. MMMM" $\endgroup$
    – Leo
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 23:00
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ um, should E have "river mouth" twice? and not something like "reverberation" $\endgroup$
    – Kevin
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 2:56
  • 11
    $\begingroup$ Funny, I was thinking that the next should have been ;;;; $\endgroup$
    – David Wohlferd
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 4:43

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
35
$\begingroup$

Partial Answer

1 (found by bobajob).

This is the roman numeral for n under the rot-n cipher. The next member of the sequence is CPP.

B (found by Daphne B).

These are the nth letters of the noble gases. The next letters are UNTNN.

C (found by Betty Crokker).

The name of actors who have played James Bond, in a chronological order (David Niven missing), encoded with a keyword cipher, where the keyword is BOND. The next one is CRAIG encoded: NRBGE.

4 (found by Moghwyn).

These represent the words ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR when typed on cell phone keypad. E,W,N,S being directions C denotes tapping on same place for next letter. For more info check this So the next word will be N-ESE

E.

These clue letters of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...). The only five-letter clue for "golf" that starts with S and ends with T is SPORT.

F (found by Will).

These are all female animal names: the "regular" names of them are horse, goat, monkey, rooster, and dog. Those are animals in the Chinese zodiac; the next animal is a pig, whose female form is a SOW.

G.

These are all things that can be preceded or followed by the planets, in order. The next is RINGS (for the rings of Saturn).

H.

These are capitals of countries that have vehicle registration codes of A-E. The of the country with registration code of F is PARIS.

I/9 (found by bobajob).

These are Atbash-enciphered playing card values in descending order; the next is ULFI.

Final (Found by Alex Varga):

These are the letters of a QWERTY keyboard rotated backward 1-10 steps (one step at a time); Q>P, W>V>U, E>D>C>B, and so on. The solution therefore is F, or PUBNOSNAFF. A good case could be made for P, though; going back the number on the key directly above the letter key, but that was not the originally intended solution.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
21
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ "One step at a time" might also indicate that the answer goes up, not down ... $\endgroup$
    – Betty Crokker
    Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 16:58
  • 11
    $\begingroup$ F or P! (Q, W, E, R, T, Y, U, I, O, P) - (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 or 0) = (P, U, B, N, O, S, N, A, F or P) $\endgroup$
    – Alex Varga
    Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 20:52
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @Alex Varga that's genius. I'd go with F over P, going back to 0 doesn't fit with the general theme of "sequences". $\endgroup$
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 22:57
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @F1Krazy Except that if you're looking at a keyboard, the adjacent '0' key does fit better than '10' does. I think it could easily be either. $\endgroup$
    – jdunk
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 3:01
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ @jdunk: It's already from a pattern - any more information would be coincidence. (And substitution ciphers are easy to get information from, especially with only 10 letters.) $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 4:17
23
$\begingroup$

Very Partial Answer

1.

Roman numerals with successive ROT applied, so the next one (VII) becomes CPP

I/9.

Atbash of descending playing card values, with the next one (four) becoming ULFI

This indicates that

4. is likely to be a number-based sequence as well.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
20
$\begingroup$

B is

spelling out several chemical elements. This can be seen if the words are written vertically.
HELI
NEON
ARGO
KRYP
XENO
RADO

There's five letters for the answer, so

NEON is already finished, we'll use the others: UNTNN

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
17
$\begingroup$

C is a simple cryptogram, it solves to

CONNERY, LAZENBY, MOORE, DALTON, BROSNAN

so the 5-letter answer is either

CRAIG or NIVEN

but since they are supposed to be in order, let's assume

CRAIG which encrypts to NRBGE (most likely, given the encrypted alphabet is likely to be BONDACEFGHIJKLMPQRSTUVWXYZ)

but we only need that third letter anyway

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
14
$\begingroup$

Number 4 is:

N-ESE

Sequence is

ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX as read on the phone keypad, following directions. For ONE, start at key 6 (letter "O"), stay where you are (key 6, letter "N"), move N (key 3, letter "E"). For THREE, start at key 8 (letter "T"), move NW (key 4, letter "H"), move S (key 7, letter "R"), move NE (key 3, letter "E"), stay where you are (key 3, letter "E").

enter image description here
etc.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Brilliant find! +1 $\endgroup$
    – Techidiot
    Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 14:32
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Seems there is a one-character error in the question/clue for FIVE. The move from V to E is a NNE movement, not NNW. $\endgroup$
    – jdunk
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 2:27
13
$\begingroup$

Final

Building off @Deusovi's answer:

F. Rotating each letter "one step" more more than the previous gives QWERTYUIOP. So (P, U, B, N, O, S, N, A, F, F) + (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) = (Q, W, E, R, T, Y, U, I, O, P). An argument could be made for "P" though, because of the use of the keyboard.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
0
2
$\begingroup$

A vague guess at C:

Hillary, Clinton, Obama , Donald, ? Not sure how the cipher is being applied here, though, and not sure what the fifth word is( or the sixth), and just fitting things at random more or less that are politics - related...

And then for 4:

C-N = 0 (nothing minus 0) E-N = 90 (90 minus 0) NW-S-NE = 315-180-45 or 90; or, difference between each vertice is 135 S-SW-W = 180-225-270 or -315; or, difference between each vertice is 45. WSW-SE-NNW = 247.5-135-337.5 or -225; difference is not consistent. So perhaps, the next one is something that has a difference of 247.5? That pattern doesn't perfectly hold, though, only for a couple of the directions.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.