Question

Find the missing number:

$1,4,12,30,?$

Answer 1

We find the difference between consecutive terms of the given series:

$4-1=3;12-4=8;30-12=18$

Now we look at the difference between the differences found above.

$8-3=5;18-8=10$

Here, 5 and 10 will be followed by 15.

Which means, the next difference term will be $18+15=33$

And hence the next term will be $30+33=63$