Question

What number comes next in this pattern?

Answer 1

On observing this pattern, we can see that,

• in each term, the square's side is increasing by 1.
• one of the diagonal as well as two corner squares are shaded.
• the number displayed below is the number of unshaded squares in each term

So, in the first term, we have 4 unshaded squares, when it is a 3x3 square. In the next term, it becomes a 4x4 square with 10 unshaded squares.
In the third term, it's a 5x5 square with 18 unshaded squares.

So foloowing the same rule, for the next term, we should have a 6x6 square with a diagonal and the corner squares shaded. It will look like:

The number associated with this one will be the number of unshaded squares in the figure, which is 28.