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Syllogism practice questions for bank exams

By the PrepMatic team · Updated 9 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

A syllogism question gives two or three statements about groups of things and two conclusions. You decide which conclusions follow with certainty from the statements, even if they disagree with the real world. Syllogism is a standard topic in bank-exam Reasoning, and a small set of rules settles nearly every question. Work through the five below, then check the rules in the table.

The four statement types

Conclusions that always follow

Two conclusions use either-or when they share the same two terms, one is the negation of the other (some and no, or all and some not), and neither follows by itself.

Five practice questions

Each question has the five standard options.

Question 1

Statements: All pens are books. Some books are tables.

Conclusions: I. Some pens are tables. II. Some tables are books.

• A. Only I follows
• B. Only II follows
• C. Either I or II follows
• D. Neither follows
• E. Both follow

Question 2

Statements: Some chairs are boxes. No box is a lamp.

Conclusions: I. Some chairs are not lamps. II. No chair is a lamp.

• A. Only I follows
• B. Only II follows
• C. Either I or II follows
• D. Neither follows
• E. Both follow

Question 3

Statements: All roads are paths. All paths are lanes.

Conclusions: I. All roads are lanes. II. Some lanes are roads.

• A. Only I follows
• B. Only II follows
• C. Either I or II follows
• D. Neither follows
• E. Both follow

Question 4

Statements: All cars are buses. Some buses are trucks.

Conclusions: I. Some cars are trucks. II. No car is a truck.

• A. Only I follows
• B. Only II follows
• C. Either I or II follows
• D. Neither follows
• E. Both follow

Question 5

Statements: Some shirts are tops. All tops are caps.

Conclusions: I. All shirts are caps. II. No shirt is a cap.

• A. Only I follows
• B. Only II follows
• C. Either I or II follows
• D. Neither follows
• E. Both follow

Answers and explanations

1. B. Conclusion II is the converse of "Some books are tables", so it follows. Conclusion I does not: the pens are inside books, but the books that are tables may be different books.
2. A. The chairs that are boxes cannot be lamps, so some chairs are not lamps. Conclusion II claims all chairs are outside lamps, which the statements do not show.
3. E. Conclusion I follows by chaining the two "All" statements. Conclusion II is the converse of conclusion I, which is valid as "some".
4. C. Neither conclusion is certain on its own: the trucks among the buses may or may not include cars. But "some cars are trucks" and "no car is a truck" cannot both be false, so either one is true.
5. D. Some shirts are tops and all tops are caps, so only "Some shirts are caps" follows. "All shirts are caps" goes too far, and "No shirt is a cap" contradicts what we know. They are not a negation pair, so the either-or rule does not apply.

How to prepare syllogism

• Draw Venn diagrams. Draw the smallest circles that fit the statements, then test whether each conclusion is true in every possible drawing. Questions 2 and 4 depend on this.
• Treat "Some" as "at least one". It does not mean "not all".
• Do not use real-world knowledge. If the statements say a pen is a table, accept it.
• Check the either-or rule last. First test each conclusion alone; if both fail, ask whether they form a negation pair with the same two terms.
• Learn the rows of the second table. Each one can be proved with a quick Venn sketch.
• Practise in groups. Do 10 questions at a time and time them at 45 seconds each.

The related topic inequality uses the same "follows with certainty" test with symbols.

The full syllogism topic test is on PrepMatic (about 15 questions, 30 minutes). The Reasoning Ability guide and the bank exam hub show how reasoning fits each exam.

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