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Arithmetical Reasoning Questions and Answers

Important Instructions
1.

Consider a knock-out women’s badminton singles tournament where there are no ties. The loser in each game is eliminated from the tournament. Every player plays until she is defeated or remains the last undefeated player. The last undefeated player is declared the winner of the tournament. If there are 64 players in the beginning of the tournament, how many games should be played in total to declare the winner of the tournament?

Exam Year(s)

GATE CS - 2026,

Answer: C

63 games are needed.

Every game eliminates exactly one player, and the tournament ends when exactly one player, the winner, is left undefeated. Starting from 64 players, 63 players must be eliminated, so 63 games are played.

Counting round by round gives the same total: 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 63.

64 counts one game per player, but the winner never loses. 32 is only the first round, and 127 is the number of games for a draw of 128 players.

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2.

A hundred participants entered a Spell Bee Contest. Rounds were held with 2 participants competing against each other in every round. After each round, the loser of the round gets eliminated from the contest and the winner of the round continues in the game. If none of the rounds resulted in a tie/draw, how many rounds were played to decide the final winner ?

Exam Year(s)

Kerala PSC KAS - 2025,

Answer: D

99 rounds are needed.

Every round eliminates exactly one participant, and the contest ends when one participant is left. Of the 100 entrants, 99 must be eliminated, so 99 rounds are played whatever the pairing.

The 100 option counts the winner as eliminated, and 101 and 98 are off-by-one slips. The general rule for a single-elimination contest is that n players need n − 1 matches.

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3.

12 year old Manick is three times as old as his brother Rahul. How old will Manick be when he is twice as old as Rahul ?

Answer: B

Manick's present age = 12 years, Rahul's present age = 4 years.

Let Manick be twice as old as Rahul after x years from now.

Then, 12 + x = 2 (4 + x) 

\(\Rightarrow  12 + x = 8 + 2x\) 

\(\Rightarrow  x = 4.\)

Hence, Manick's required age = 12 + x = 16 years

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4.

A waiter's income consists of his salary and tips. During one week his tips were 5/4 of his salary. What fraction of his income came from tips ?

Answer: D

Correct answer: 5/9

Take the salary as 4 units, so the tips are 5 and the income is 9. The tips are therefore \[ \frac{5}{9} \] of the income. The trap is 5/4, which is the ratio of tips to salary as given rather than to income - the denominator must be the whole, not the other part.

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5.

A girl counted in the following way on the fingers of her left hand : She started by calling the thumb 1, the index finger 2, middle finger 3, ring finger 4, little finger 5 and then reversed direction calling the ring finger 6, middle finger 7 and so on. She counted upto 1994. She ended counting on which finger ?

Answer: B

Clearly, while counting, the numbers associated to the thumb will be : 1, 9,17, 25,.....

i.e. numbers of the form (8n + 1).

Since 1994 = 249 x 8 + 2, so 1993 shall correspond to the thumb and 1994 to the index finger

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6.

The 30 members of a club decided to play a badminton singles tournament. Every time a member loses a game he is out of the tournament. There are no ties. What is the minimum number of matches that must be played to determine the winner ?

Answer: B

Correct answer: 29

Every match eliminates exactly one player, and 29 of the 30 must be eliminated to leave one winner, so 29 matches are needed - no more and no fewer. The argument holds whatever the draw looks like and whoever wins, which is why byes and uneven brackets make no difference to the total.

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7.

If 100 cats kill 100 mice in 100 days, then 4 cats would kill 4 mice in how many days ?

Answer: D

Correct answer: 100 days

Divide the whole statement through by 100: if 100 cats kill 100 mice in 100 days, then one cat kills one mouse in 100 days. Multiplying back up, 4 cats kill 4 mice in the same 100 days, because the cats and the mice scale together and the time is unchanged. The expected answer of 4 days comes from scaling only one of the two.

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8.

A father is now three times as old as his son. Five years back, he was four times as old as his son. The age of the son (in years) is

Answer: B

Let son's age be x years. Then, father's age = (3x) years.

Five years ago, father's age = (3x - 5) years and son's age = (x - 5) years.

So, 3x - 5 = 4 (x - 5) 

\(\Rightarrow  3x - 5 = 4x - 20\) 

\(\Rightarrow  x = 15\)

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9.

A pineapple costs Rs. 7 each. A watermelon costs Rs. 5 each. X spends Rs. 38 on these fruits. The number of pineapples purchased is

Answer: C

Correct answer: 4

\( 7p + 5w = 38 \) with \( p \) and \( w \) whole numbers. Working modulo 5, \( 2p \equiv 3 \), so \( p \equiv 4 \); and \( p=9 \) already exceeds 38, so \( p=4 \) is the only possibility, with \( w=2 \). Checking: \( 28 + 10 = 38 \). The solution is unique, so the data are not inadequate.

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10.

A, B, C, D and E play a game of cards. A says to B, "If you give me three cards, you will have as many as E has and if I give you three cards, you will have as many as D has." A and B together have 10 cards more than what D and E together have. If B has two cards more than what C has and the total number of cards be 133, how many cards does B have ?

Answer: C

Clearly, we have :

B-3 = E ...(i)

B + 3 = D ...(ii)

A+B = D + E+10 ...(iii)

B = C + 2 ...(iv)

A+B + C + D + E= 133 ...(v)

From (i) and (ii), we have : 2 B = D + E ...(vi)

From (iii) and (vi), we have : A = B + 10 ...(vii)

Using (iv), (vi) and (vii) in (v), we get:

\((B + 10) + B + (B - 2) + 2B = 133\)

\(\Rightarrow  5B = 125 \)

\(\Rightarrow B = 25\)

 

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