Circular Seating Arrangement Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The true statement is N sits opposite to the one who sits to the immediate left of R.

Working through the clues gives one arrangement. Going round to the right of B: N, K, M, O, P, R, S, then back to B. Check: S is second to the right of P; two persons (B and N) sit between S and K; O is opposite B; B is not next to K or P; N is next to both K and B; M is third to the right of B.

In this arrangement P sits to the immediate left of R, and N sits opposite P, so the second statement is true. O's neighbours are M and P, not R; M's neighbours are K and O, not N; and S is third to the left of K, not third to the right.

Answer: A

Wasi is sitting opposite Quadir. Number the eight seats 0 to 7 in the direction of a person's left (for people facing the centre, left is the clockwise way round). Put Vijay at 0. Quadir is third to Vijay's left, so Quadir is at 3. Vijay is second to Rahul's left, so Rahul is at 6. Tamim is second to Quadir's right, so Tamim is at 1. Sanjay is immediately left of Quadir, so Sanjay is at 4. Usama is adjacent to both Quadir (3) and Tamim (1), so Usama is at 2. Pankaj and Wasi take seats 5 and 7. Pankaj may not be at Rahul's left, which is seat 7, so Pankaj is at 5 and Wasi at 7. The seat opposite 3 is 7, which is Wasi. Vijay, Rahul and Pankaj are not opposite Quadir.

Answer: D

G is sitting third to the right of E. Facing the centre, E is to the left of D, so going leftwards the order starts D, E. F is between E and A, giving D, E, F, A. C is between A and B, giving D, E, F, A, C, B. Two seats remain, G and H. H may not be adjacent to B, so the seat next to B is G and H follows it, which closes the ring as D, E, F, A, C, B, G, H. Counting to the right of E: first D, second H, third G. C and B sit on the other side of E, and H is the second person to the right, not the third.

Answer: C

Each person's right is the person on the side where the next seat lies when they face the centre. The statement 'A is to the left of B' means that B sits on the right of A, so B is the person on the immediate right of A. The other clues place C and D: A is not to the left of C, so C is not on A's right, and D is to the right of C but not to the right of A, which puts D opposite A or on A's left side. So the only person who can be immediately to the right of A is B. The options D and C are the persons opposite or to the left of A, and the pair 'B and D' cannot be correct because only one person sits immediately on a side. The answer is B.

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.