1. P, Q, R, S, T, U and V are seven friends and are sitting in a circle facing…

In a circular arrangement where everyone faces the centre, moving clockwise (as seen from above) takes you towards a seated person's own left, and moving anticlockwise takes you towards their own right. So ‘second to the left of X’ means exactly two seats away from X in the clockwise direction, and two people are neighbours only when their seats are directly adjacent. Solving such puzzles means locking one clue at a time into a single seating order, then reading off adjacency to test each option.

1. V is second to the left of S, so exactly one seat lies between S and V in that direction. That in-between seat is adjacent to both S and V, and since V's two neighbours are given as T and U, this shared seat must hold T or U.

2. S is not a neighbour of T, so the seat immediately to S's left cannot be T — it must be U. This fixes the clockwise order S, U, V, and since V's other neighbour is the remaining name, that seat is T: S, U, V, T.

3. The three seats left over sit between T and S. P must be a neighbour of both Q and R, so P has to occupy the middle seat of that block of three, leaving two possible orders: T, Q, P, R, S or T, R, P, Q, S.

4. S is also not a neighbour of R. In the first order the seat right before S is R, which breaks that rule; in the second order the seat right before S is Q, which is allowed. So the only order consistent with every clue, going clockwise, is: S, U, V, T, R, P, Q (and back to S).

Checking this order against every clue: V (3rd seat) is exactly two seats clockwise from S (1st seat) and sits between U and T; S's two neighbours are U and Q — never R or T; P sits between R and Q — all four clues hold.

Reading the seats in order, P, Q and S occupy three consecutive seats — so Q sits directly between P and S.