Puzzle Test Questions and Answers

Answer: B

All tasks can be done by 3 p.m.

With B taking one hour, A runs 9 to 11, B 11 to 12 and C 12 to 1. D runs alongside B and C from 11 a.m. for 3 hours, so it ends at 2 p.m. E needs A, B, C and D complete, so it starts at 2 p.m. and takes one hour, ending at 3 p.m.

C finishes at 1 p.m. but D does not, so 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. are too early. 4 p.m. needs a delay that is not in the information.

Answer: A

If Dinesh plays Polo, Bhushan plays Cricket.

Fix what the clues determine. Eknath is the Manager and does not play Polo; Squash is the Writer's game and Cricket the Doctor's, and Ajay has Tennis, so Eknath plays Hockey. Ajay is not the Professor, Doctor (Cricket), Writer (Squash) or Manager, so Ajay is the Architect.

Bhushan, Chandru and Dinesh share Cricket, Polo and Squash. With Dinesh on Polo, Squash must go to Chandru, because Bhushan does not play Squash. That leaves Cricket for Bhushan.

Ajay (Tennis) and Eknath (Hockey) are already placed, and Chandru plays Squash, so the other options fail.

Answer: B

The person who plays polo is a Professor.

From the clues, Ajay is the Architect and plays Tennis, and Eknath is the Manager and plays Hockey. The other three, Bhushan, Chandru and Dinesh, are the Professor, the Doctor and the Writer, and play Cricket, Polo and Squash.

The Doctor plays Cricket and the Writer plays Squash, so whoever plays Polo is neither of them and must be the Professor. This holds whichever of the three plays Polo, which is why 'Cannot be determined' is wrong. The Architect plays Tennis, not Polo.

Answer: A

The Architect is Ajay.

Ajay plays Tennis, so he is not the Doctor (Cricket) or the Writer (Squash). Clue 1 says he is not the Professor, and clue 5 makes Eknath the Manager. The only profession left for Ajay is Architect, the fifth profession named in clue 6.

Eknath is the Manager. Bhushan and Chandru are among the Professor, Doctor and Writer, so neither can be the Architect.

Answer: C

The Manager plays Hockey.

The Manager is Eknath (clue 5), who does not play Polo. Squash belongs to the Writer and Cricket to the Doctor, both of whom are other people, and Ajay plays Tennis. Of the five games only Hockey remains, so Eknath plays Hockey.

Squash and Tennis are taken by the Writer and Ajay, and the answer is fully determined, so 'Cannot be determined' is wrong.

Answer: D

The moderator is Kate.

Gary is the attorney in seat 4, and the writer and the attorney sit on either side of the moderator in seat 3, so the writer is in seat 2. Lane is the pilot and Heloise is stated not to be the moderator. The moderator cannot sit next to Jarrod or Lane, and Gary is already the attorney, so the moderator is Kate.

Lane (pilot), Gary (attorney) and Heloise (not the moderator) are ruled out directly.

Answer: A

Jarrod sits in Seat #1.

Kate is the moderator in seat 3, and Gary the attorney is in seat 4. Heloise sits between Kate and Jarrod, so she must be next to Kate, and the only free seat next to seat 3 is seat 2. Jarrod is then on the other side of Heloise, in seat 1. Lane takes the last seat, seat 5.

Seat 3 is Kate's, seat 4 is Gary's and seat 2 is Heloise's, so only seat 1 is left for Jarrod.

Answer: D

Jarrod is the explorer.

The occupations are moderator (Kate), pilot (Lane) and attorney (Gary). Heloise sits in seat 2, on one side of the moderator, so she is the writer. That leaves the explorer for Jarrod in seat 1, and the attorney in seat 4 is not next to him, as the clue requires.

Moderator, pilot and attorney belong to Kate, Lane and Gary, so none of them can be Jarrod's occupation.

Answer: A

The statement that must be false is Aman knows Bimal.

Chris knows both of the others: he plays cards with Aman and is a good friend of Bimal. The lawyer and the businessman do not know each other, so Chris cannot be either of them, since he would then know the other one. Chris must therefore be the doctor, and Aman and Bimal are the lawyer and the businessman, who do not know each other.

So 'Aman knows Bimal' is necessarily false. The other statements are in fact true: Chris is the doctor, and since Bimal did not study beyond class X he cannot be the lawyer, which makes Bimal the businessman and Aman the lawyer.

Answer: D

The correct option is Leena Gray - yellow colour handbag, Hina Yellow - red colour handbag.

The lady with the red handbag made a remark and Leena Gray replied to her, so Leena does not have the red handbag. Her name rules out gray, so Leena has the yellow handbag.

That leaves red and gray for Hina Yellow and Jhanvi Red. Jhanvi cannot carry red, which matches her name, so Jhanvi has gray and Hina has red.

The two options giving Leena the red handbag contradict the fact that she replied to the lady with the red bag, and the option giving Jhanvi Red a yellow handbag clashes with Leena already holding yellow.