Eight people — Anand, Babita, Cedric, Dinky, Ela, Fida, Gita, and Hemant — are…
2023
Eight people — Anand, Babita, Cedric, Dinky, Ela, Fida, Gita, and Hemant — are sitting in three different rows, facing south. Each row has three seats, and one seat is vacant. The following is known about them:
Anand is sitting between two people and parallel to Cedric.
Dinky is sitting last in the third row from the south.
One person is sitting parallel to both Dinky and Hemant.
Gita is second from both Hemant and Fida.
Cedric, Anand, and Gita are seated in one line from north to south.
Babita is sitting diagonal to Cedric, and Ela is sitting diagonal to Gita.
Who is the immediate partner (row neighbour) of Dinky?
- A.
Hemant
- B.
Ela
- C.
Cedric
- D.
Babita
Attempted by 17 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept:
In a parallel-row seating puzzle where every row faces the same direction, 'parallel' means sharing a column across rows, and 'diagonal' means being one row and one column apart. For an 'immediate neighbour' question, the fastest and safest route is not to pin every single seat, but to first work out which row each named person sits in and exactly who else shares that row — a same-row neighbour can only come from that short, forced list.
Step-by-step placement:
Cedric, Anand, and Gita sit in one line from north to south, so they are in the same column, one in each row: Cedric in the north row, Anand in the middle row, Gita in the south row.
Gita is second from both Hemant and Fida — being 'second' counting in from both ends of a 3-seat row only happens at the middle seat, so Hemant and Fida take the two ends of Gita's row. That fully occupies the south row with Fida, Gita, and Hemant.
Anand sits between two people, so he holds the middle seat of his row. Babita is diagonal to Cedric (north row) and Ela is diagonal to Gita (south row), so both land one row away from those seats, in the middle row's two end seats. That fully occupies the middle row with Babita, Anand, and Ela.
That already accounts for six of the eight people, with the south and middle rows completely filled. The remaining two people, Cedric and Dinky, must be the only occupants of the third (north) row — so that row's third seat is the one left vacant.
Anand being parallel to Cedric puts Cedric in the same (middle) column as Anand, so within the north row Cedric holds the middle seat.
Dinky sits at an end ('last') seat of the north row. Since Cedric already holds that row's middle seat, the empty seat is the other end — leaving Cedric's middle seat as the only occupied seat beside Dinky's.
One valid seating grid (matches the figure):
Row | Seat (col 1) | Seat (col 2) | Seat (col 3) |
|---|---|---|---|
Row 3 — north | vacant | Cedric | Dinky |
Row 2 — middle | Babita | Anand | Ela |
Row 1 — south | Fida | Gita | Hemant |
Cross-check:
Fida, Gita, and Hemant fill the south row exactly, with Gita in the middle — second from each end, as required.
Babita, Anand, and Ela fill the middle row exactly, with Anand in the middle, diagonal to both Cedric and Gita as required.
The remaining clue — one person parallel to both Dinky and Hemant — forces Hemant into the same column as Dinky (only a same-column, middle-row seat can be parallel to both), which the shown layout satisfies; mirroring which end Dinky/Hemant/Fida/Babita/Ela occupy (left-for-right) gives an equally valid layout, but it does not change who sits beside Dinky.
Only the north row is short by one occupant (Cedric and Dinky against three seats) — matching the single vacant seat in the whole arrangement.
Answer:
Whichever end of the north row Dinky occupies, the only other occupied seat in that row is the middle one — Cedric's, sitting right beside him. So Cedric is Dinky's immediate row-neighbour.