What will come in place of the question mark (?) in the following series?
3, 7, 23, 59, 123, ?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → 223
Look at the difference between each pair of terms. The differences are the squares of the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8:
\(7-3=4=2^2\)
\(23-7=16=4^2\)
\(59-23=36=6^2\)
\(123-59=64=8^2\)
The next difference is \(10^2=100\), so the missing term is \(123+100=223\).