Circular Seating Arrangement Questions and Answers

Answer: D

A sits second to the right of B. The three men are not neighbours, so men and women alternate around the six seats. Only C sits between P and R, giving P, C, R in a row. A is immediately to the left of P, and facing the centre the left side is the clockwise direction. Going clockwise the seating is R, C, P, A, then the remaining woman Q, then the remaining man B. Moving to the right of B (anticlockwise) the first person is Q and the second is A. So the answer is A, not C, Q or R.

Answer: C

Three people sit between V and U. Taking left as clockwise, H is second to the left of U and third from G, so G, U, D, H, B, V follow clockwise. B is second to the right of G, and D second to the left of G.

Counting from the right of V, which is anticlockwise, we meet B, H and D before reaching U, so three people sit between V and U. Zero, two and four do not match this order.

Answer: B

Nithya sits third to the left of Bharathi. Number the five seats 0 to 4 in the direction of the diners' right hand, so that ‘second to the right’ means two seats on. Put Pragathi at 0. Shruthi is second to her right, so Shruthi is at 2. Only Nithya sits between Shruthi and Ramya, so one of them must be at 3 and the other at 4 (the other side of Shruthi holds Pragathi and Bharathi, two people, so it cannot be the short way). Nithya at 3 is adjacent to Shruthi, which fits, and Ramya is at 4. Bharathi takes the last seat, 1.

From Bharathi at 1, Nithya at 3 is two seats to the right, which in a five-seat circle is the same place as three seats to the left. Of the options, only ‘Third to the left’ matches; ‘Third to the right’ would be seat 4, and ‘Immediate right’ would be seat 2.

Answer: D

P and O sit next to each other. Seat them in order round the table with M immediately to the right of N, so the order is N, M, and then L, because L is a neighbour of both M and P and M's other neighbour is N. That gives N, M, L, P in a row, and the two remaining seats, between P and N, go to O and Q.

If O sat next to N, O would be between Q and N, which the statement forbids. So Q sits beside N and O sits beside P, giving the circle N, M, L, P, O, Q. The neighbouring pairs are therefore P and O (option D). M and P are separated by L, O and N are separated by Q, and M and Q are separated by N, so options A, B and C are wrong.

Answer: D

A likes Orange. A and D have exactly one person between them, so they sit opposite each other, and B and C sit opposite each other. The person second to C's left is the one opposite C, so B likes Banana. A sits to C's immediate left, which puts C immediately to A's right, so C likes Apple. A does not like Guava, and Banana and Apple are taken, so A likes Orange and D likes Guava.

D likes Guava, C likes Apple and B likes Banana, so none of them can be the answer.

Answer: B

The false statement is "F is the immediate neighbour of C and D". Facing the centre, a person's left is the clockwise direction. Put E at position 0. C is immediately left of E, so C is at 1. D is second to the left of C, so D is at 3. Only B is between F and E, and A is third to the left of B; the only way to fit all the clues is B at 5, F at 4 and A at 2. The clockwise order is E, C, A, D, F, B. F sits between D and B, so its neighbours are D and B, not C and D. The other three are true: D is immediately left of A, B is immediately left of F, and C sits between E and A.

Answer: C

Q is at the immediate right of S. Seat Q at the bottom of the square, facing the centre. P is second to the right of Q, so P is directly opposite Q. R is at the immediate left of P, which places R on Q's right-hand side, and S takes the remaining seat on Q's left. S, facing the centre from the left side, has Q on its right. So Q is at the immediate right of S. P is opposite Q, so it is neither the immediate right nor the immediate left of Q. Q's immediate left is S, so the statement that Q is at the immediate left of S is the reverse of what is true.

Answer: C

The person sitting 3rd to the right of Ajay is Madhuri. The eight stars sit in a circle facing outwards, so each person's right is the anticlockwise side. Since no two men or two women are adjacent, men and women alternate. Salman and Amitabh sit opposite each other, Madhuri is between Salman and Shahrukh, and Raveena is opposite Madhuri.

Going clockwise as seen from above, one arrangement that fits every clue is Salman, Kareena, Ajay, Raveena, Amitabh, Kajol, Shahrukh, Madhuri. Ajay is the 2nd to the right of Amitabh, Kajol is not next to Ajay, and the genders alternate. From Ajay, the 1st to the right is Kareena, the 2nd is Salman and the 3rd is Madhuri. The mirror image of this seating (with the opposite facing) gives the same name, so Kajol, Raveena and Kareena are the wrong choices.

Answer: D

The person second to the right of E is F. The printed list names E twice and never lists F, though the stem later mentions F, so the sixth friend is F. Facing the centre, a person's right is the anticlockwise neighbour. Put B at seat 0 and number the seats clockwise 0 to 5. D sits opposite B, so D is at 3. F is the immediate right of B, so F is at 5. A is second to the left of C, so A is two seats clockwise of C. Only seats 1, 2 and 4 remain for A, C and E, and only C = 2, A = 4 works, which leaves E at 1. Two seats anticlockwise of E (seat 1) is seat 5, which is F. A, B and D are the people at seats 4, 0 and 3, so none of them is second to E's right.

Answer: C

Q is a neighbor of R and U.

Six people round a table occupy six equally spaced seats. Put P in seat 1. P sits next to S and T, so S and T take seats 2 and 6. Q is diametrically opposite P, in seat 4. That leaves seats 3 and 5 for R and U, which are exactly the two seats beside Q.

The third statement only decides which of R and U takes seat 3 and which seat 5 (with S in seat 2 and T in seat 6, both placements give equal S-R and T-U distances). Either way, R and U fill the two seats next to Q. S and T are next to P, not Q, and P is opposite Q, so the other options are impossible.