What should come in place of the question mark (?) in the given series?
456 457 455 456 454 455 453 ?

The correct option is 454.

To find the missing number in the given series, let us observe the pattern formed by consecutive terms:

1st term = 456

2nd term = 456 + 1 = 457

3rd term = 457 - 2 = 455

4th term = 455 + 1 = 456

5th term = 456 - 2 = 454

6th term = 454 + 1 = 455

7th term = 455 - 2 = 453

The operations alternate between adding 1 (+1) and subtracting 2 (-2).

Following this alternating pattern, the next operation after subtracting 2 must be adding 1 (+1):

8th term = 453 + 1 = 454

Alternatively, we can also look at two alternating sub-series:

Series 1 (odd positions): 456, 455, 454, 453 (decreasing by 1 each step)

Series 2 (even positions): 457, 456, 455, ? (decreasing by 1 each step)

Thus, the missing number in the 8th position (an even position) is:

$455-1=454$

Hence, the number that comes in place of the question mark (?) is 454.