GATE 2026 EC GA Q.3: solution and answer

MAIN FIGURE: a blank rectangle, wider than it is tall, with a "?" in its centre. Its corners are labelled W (top-left), X (top-right), Y (bottom-right) and Z (bottom-left). Six short thick line stubs stop at the rectangle's border. (1) Top edge, about 31% of the way from W to X: a stub comes down from the upper left, falling to the right, at roughly 40 degrees below the horizontal. (2) Top edge, about 57% of the way from W to X: a stub comes down from the upper right, rising to the right at roughly 55 degrees. (3) Left edge, about 70% of the way down from W: a nearly horizontal stub that rises slightly towards the rectangle. (4) Right edge, about 54% of the way down from X: a nearly horizontal stub that rises slightly to the right. (5) Bottom edge, about 10% of the way from Z to Y: a stub going down to the lower left, rising to the right at the same steep angle as stub 2. (6) Right edge, very close to Y (about 93% of the way down): a stub going down to the lower right, falling to the right at the same angle as stub 1. OPTIONS: four figures, each a filled-in rectangle labelled W (top-left), X (top-right), Y (bottom-right), Z (bottom-left), set out in a 2x2 grid: P top-left, Q top-right, R bottom-left, S bottom-right. P: one line falling to the right runs from the top edge at about 31% to the right edge near Y; a second line rising to the right runs from the bottom edge at about 10% to the top edge at about 57%, crossing the first just below the top edge; a third line falls to the right, from the left edge about 19% of the way down to the right edge about 69% of the way down. Q: two steep lines, both rising to the right and not crossing inside the rectangle: one from the bottom edge at about 10% to the top edge at about 57%, the other from the bottom edge at about 65% to the top edge at about 80%. A nearly horizontal line rising to the right, from the left edge about 70% of the way down to the right edge about 54% of the way down, crosses both. R: one line falling to the right runs from the top edge at about 31% to the right edge near Y; a line rising to the right runs from the bottom edge at about 60% to the right edge near X; a nearly horizontal line rising to the right runs from the left edge about 70% of the way down to the right edge about 54% of the way down. All three lines pass through one common point in the right half. S: one line falling to the right runs from the top edge at about 31% to the right edge near Y; a line rising to the right runs from the bottom edge at about 10% to the top edge at about 56%; a nearly horizontal line rising to the right runs from the left edge about 71% of the way down to the right edge about 54% of the way down. The three lines cross at three separate points, forming a small triangle.