A string of beads has a recurring pattern as follows: $$5$$ blue, $$4$$ black, $$4$$ white, $$5$$ blue, $$4$$ black, $$4$$ white and so on. The colour of the $$321^{\text{st}}$$ bead is

The repeating pattern has $$5+4+4=13$$ beads. Since $$321=13\times24+9$$, the $$321^{\text{st}}$$ bead is the ninth bead of the repeating pattern. Positions $$6$$ through $$9$$ are black, so the colour is black. For the required numeric answer field, black is represented by $$2$$ after blue, black, white are assigned $$1,2,3$$ respectively.