In Panel I of the figure below, the front view and top view of a structure are shown. Which one of the 3D structures shown in Panel II possesses the views shown in Panel I?
Show Hint
Match the footprint (top view) first to eliminate solids with extra or missing cubes, then check the height profile (front view) of the remaining candidates.
Step 1: Use an elimination strategy instead of matching both views at once. First test only the front view of every candidate solid in Panel II against the front view given in Panel I, since the front view alone already removes several wrong choices.
Step 2: Eliminate on front view mismatch. Panel I's front view is a two step outline. Any candidate solid whose front projection is a flat block, a three step staircase, or a mirrored step pattern cannot be correct, regardless of what its top view looks like. This removes two of the four candidates immediately.
Step 3: Apply the top view test to the survivors only. Among the solids that survived Step 2, project each remaining one from directly above and compare the footprint to Panel I's top view, which is an irregular L shaped arrangement of unit squares (not a rectangle). Keep only the solid whose footprint has unit squares in exactly the same positions.
Step 4: Cross check with the arrow markers. Each panel is drawn with a Front View arrow and a Top View arrow pointing to the correct viewing directions; using these to re orient each solid before projecting avoids a common error of comparing views from the wrong face.
Step 5: Conclude. Exactly one solid, labelled (i), passes both the front view filter and the top view filter, confirming it as the structure possessing the views shown in Panel I. \[ \boxed{\text{(i), option (A)}} \]
