CLAT Logical Reasoning Questions 2027
Passage-based Practice Sets

Set 1: Strengthening & Weakening Arguments

A recent study conducted across 15 Indian cities found that areas with a higher density of public parks reported 22% fewer cases of anxiety and depression among residents compared to areas with minimal green space. The researchers surveyed over 40,000 adults across income groups and controlled for factors such as age, employment status, and pre-existing health conditions. Based on this, the city planning commission has recommended that all new residential zones must allocate at least 15% of their total area to public parks and green corridors.

Q1. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the planning commission's recommendation?

1. (A) A separate longitudinal study in European cities showed that increased green space led to sustained reductions in mental health hospital admissions over a 10-year period. *
2. (B) The cost of maintaining public parks is lower than the cost of building new hospitals.
3. (C) People who live near parks tend to have higher incomes than those who do not.
4. (D) The surveyed cities had varying levels of air pollution.

Q2. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion drawn from the study?

1. (A) Some respondents reported that they never visited the parks near their homes.
2. (B) People with better mental health may be more likely to choose to live near parks, rather than the parks causing better mental health. *
3. (C) The study was published in a peer-reviewed journal.
4. (D) Green spaces also reduce urban heat island effects.

Q3. The planning commission's recommendation assumes which of the following?

1. (A) All cities have equal budgets for urban planning.
2. (B) The correlation observed in existing cities will hold when new parks are deliberately created in planned residential zones. *
3. (C) Mental health is the most important consideration in urban planning.
4. (D) Residents will prefer green spaces over commercial establishments.

Set 2: Assumptions

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 proposes that students in higher education should be allowed to exit at multiple points during their degree programme and receive a certificate, diploma, or degree depending on how many years they have completed. The stated rationale is that this flexibility will reduce dropout rates because students who leave due to financial constraints or personal reasons will not walk away empty-handed. Critics, however, argue that employers are unlikely to value a one-year certificate or two-year diploma from a university as equivalent to a full degree, which may discourage students from using these exit points.

Q1. The NEP's rationale for multiple exit points assumes that:

1. (A) All students who drop out do so because of financial constraints.
2. (B) Students who are currently dropping out would choose to stay enrolled longer if they could receive an intermediate credential upon exit. *
3. (C) Employers will readily accept certificates and diplomas as substitutes for full degrees.
4. (D) Universities have the infrastructure to offer meaningful one-year and two-year programmes.

Q2. The critics' argument is based on the assumption that:

1. (A) All employers in India require a full degree for every job.
2. (B) Students will factor in the labour-market value of intermediate credentials when deciding whether to use an exit point. *
3. (C) The NEP was drafted without consulting employers.
4. (D) Financial constraints are not a valid reason for dropping out.

Q3. Which of the following, if true, would undermine the critics' assumption?

1. (A) Several countries that have implemented similar exit points report that employers gradually began recognising intermediate credentials. *
2. (B) Most Indian employers prefer candidates with professional certifications over university degrees.
3. (C) Students who drop out currently do not list their incomplete education on resumes.
4. (D) The NEP also proposes changes to school education.

Q4. Both the NEP's rationale and the critics' argument share which common underlying assumption?

1. (A) The current dropout rate in Indian higher education is unacceptably high.
2. (B) Students make decisions about continuing or leaving education based at least partly on the credentials they will receive. *
3. (C) Employers are the most important stakeholders in higher education policy.
4. (D) Financial constraints are the primary cause of dropouts.

Set 3: Analogies

When seat belts were first made mandatory in automobiles in the 1960s, some safety researchers predicted a paradoxical outcome: drivers who felt safer because of seat belts might drive more recklessly, thereby increasing the total number of accidents even as the severity of injuries per accident decreased. This phenomenon, known as risk compensation, has been observed in several domains. For instance, after the introduction of childproof caps on medicine bottles, some parents became less careful about storing medicines out of children's reach, partially offsetting the safety gains. Similarly, American football players equipped with advanced helmets have been documented engaging in more aggressive tackling, leading to higher rates of concussion-causing impacts despite better head protection.

Q1. Based on the passage, which of the following scenarios best illustrates the concept of risk compensation?

1. (A) A city installs brighter street lights, and nighttime pedestrian fatalities decrease.
2. (B) A factory provides workers with cut-resistant gloves, after which workers begin handling sharp materials with less caution and the rate of hand injuries remains unchanged. *
3. (C) A school increases the number of fire drills, and students evacuate more quickly during an actual fire.
4. (D) A hospital introduces a new sterilisation protocol, and infection rates drop significantly.

Q2. The relationship between seat belts and reckless driving, as described in the passage, is most analogous to:

1. (A) Providing free textbooks and observing improved exam scores.
2. (B) Installing a better lock on a door and observing fewer break-ins.
3. (C) Giving a swimmer a life jacket and observing that the swimmer ventures into deeper water than they otherwise would. *
4. (D) Raising the price of cigarettes and observing reduced smoking rates.

Q3. The passage suggests that risk compensation is most likely to occur when:

1. (A) A safety measure is so effective that it eliminates all risk.
2. (B) A safety measure creates a perception of increased safety that leads individuals to change their behaviour in ways that introduce new risk. *
3. (C) A safety measure is implemented without consulting the people it is meant to protect.
4. (D) A safety measure is too expensive to implement widely.

Set 4: Cause-Effect Reasoning

Between 2018 and 2024, the Indian state of Kerala implemented a comprehensive school lunch programme that replaced packaged snacks with freshly cooked meals prepared from locally sourced vegetables and grains. Over the same period, childhood obesity rates in Kerala declined by 18%, while neighbouring states without similar programmes saw childhood obesity rates remain stable or increase slightly. The state health department attributed the decline directly to the school lunch programme and proposed expanding it to include breakfast as well.

Q1. The health department's conclusion that the school lunch programme caused the decline in childhood obesity is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms?

1. (A) The programme was expensive to implement.
2. (B) Other factors that changed in Kerala during the same period — such as increased physical education requirements introduced in 2019 — could also explain the decline. *
3. (C) Not all children in Kerala attend government schools.
4. (D) Childhood obesity is also influenced by genetic factors.

Q2. Which of the following, if true, would most support the health department's causal claim?

1. (A) Kerala has a higher literacy rate than most other Indian states.
2. (B) Schools that started the programme earlier showed earlier declines in obesity, and schools that joined later showed later declines, with a consistent time lag matching programme implementation. *
3. (C) Parents of children in the programme reported higher satisfaction with school meals.
4. (D) The programme was implemented by the same department that conducted the obesity study.

Q3. The comparison with neighbouring states is used to:

1. (A) Demonstrate that Kerala has better governance than its neighbours.
2. (B) Establish a baseline showing that without the programme, obesity rates would not have declined on their own, thereby supporting a causal rather than merely coincidental relationship. *
3. (C) Prove that the programme should be adopted nationally.
4. (D) Show that neighbouring states are failing to address childhood health.

Q4. If childhood obesity rates in Kerala had been declining at a similar rate even before 2018, this would:

1. (A) Strengthen the health department's claim.
2. (B) Have no effect on the claim.
3. (C) Weaken the claim, because it would suggest the decline was part of a pre-existing trend unrelated to the programme. *
4. (D) Prove that the programme was unnecessary.

Set 5: Flawed Arguments

A prominent commentator recently argued: "India should not invest in electric vehicle infrastructure because electric vehicles are not truly zero-emission. The electricity used to charge them is generated largely from coal-fired power plants, which produce significant carbon emissions. Therefore, switching from petrol cars to electric cars will not reduce India's carbon footprint at all. We should instead focus exclusively on improving public transportation." Environmental scientists responded that while the electricity mix does include coal, studies consistently show that even when charged from a coal-heavy grid, electric vehicles produce 30-40% fewer lifecycle emissions than equivalent petrol vehicles because electric motors are fundamentally more energy-efficient than internal combustion engines.

Q1. The commentator's argument is flawed primarily because it:

1. (A) Relies on an appeal to authority.
2. (B) Presents a false dichotomy between electric vehicles and public transportation as if both cannot be pursued simultaneously.
3. (C) Uses the fact that electric vehicles are not perfectly zero-emission to conclude that they offer no emission reduction at all, ignoring the significant partial reduction. *
4. (D) Attacks the character of electric vehicle proponents rather than their arguments.

Q2. The phrase "switching from petrol cars to electric cars will not reduce India's carbon footprint at all" is an example of which reasoning error?

1. (A) Straw man argument
2. (B) All-or-nothing thinking (also called the nirvana fallacy) — rejecting an option because it is not a perfect solution, even though it offers substantial improvement *
3. (C) Circular reasoning
4. (D) Appeal to tradition

Q3. The environmental scientists' response most directly addresses the commentator's argument by:

1. (A) Questioning the commentator's qualifications.
2. (B) Providing evidence that contradicts the specific claim that electric vehicles offer no emission reduction, showing a 30-40% lifecycle emission reduction even on a coal-heavy grid. *
3. (C) Arguing that coal plants should be shut down.
4. (D) Suggesting that public transportation is not a viable alternative.