Finding the missing Symbols

_ # – _ _ # # – ? _ # – _ _ # # – = # _ #

– _ _ # # – ? _ # – _ _ # # – = # _ # – _

_ # # – ? _ # – _ _ # # – _ # – _ _ # # – ?

_ # – _ _ # # – = #


Which two symbols are missing?

a. _ #
b. – _
c. # #
d. = #
e. – =

(Hint: Option A is not the Answer)

• Welcome to Puzzling.SE! The question asks which two symbols are missing, but there are four question marks in the text. Is this intentional? – F1Krazy May 10 '18 at 14:08
• @F1Krazy Yep. They themselves are symbols. – Lalitkumar Choudhary May 10 '18 at 14:10
• Ah, I see. I thought they indicated where the missing symbols needed to go. Thanks for clarifying that! This looks like an interesting first puzzle. If you haven't already done so, feel free to take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site, and I hope you stick around! – F1Krazy May 10 '18 at 14:12
• Is there any reason you added the hint in so soon? Please give us some time first! Usually, people wait at least a full day to add a hint if the question is still unanswered. Also, I recommend putting the hint in a spoiler using the >! characters. – Riley May 10 '18 at 14:30
• Is the wording of the title itself an important part of the puzzle? If not, we discourage puzzle titles that try to say how easy/difficult the puzzle is. Perhaps "Which two symbols are missing?". (For a puzzle like this it's not easy to make the title actually informative...) [EDITED to add:] I see that's changed now. Thanks! – Gareth McCaughan May 10 '18 at 14:50

I haven't quite figured out how to spoiler an image, so I added the rows as text.

d. =#

My reasoning:

It doesn't specify that the missing symbols have to go on the question marks. I continued on the assumption that all the question marks were symbols on their own. I also converted the symbols (minus the ?) into numbers. _ (1), # (2), - (3), = (4). I placed them in an excel spreadsheet and saw a repeating pattern. I stacked the pattern into 4 rows and saw that the "4-2" was missing from the end of the 3rd row. Option D is "4-2", so it would go there.

Rows:

1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3 ? 1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3 4 2
1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3 ? 1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3 4 2
1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3 ? 1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3
1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3 ? 1 2 3 1 1 2 2 3 4 2