Each of the following questions is based on the following information: Eight…
2025
Each of the following questions is based on the following information: Eight trees — mango, guava, papaya, pomegranate, lemon, banana, raspberry, and apple — are seated in two rows of four each, facing North and South. Lemon is between mango and apple, but directly opposite guava. Banana is at one end of a row, immediately to the right of guava (i.e., immediately after guava). Raspberry, which is at one end of a row, is diagonally opposite mango. Which tree is directly opposite raspberry?
- A.
Papaya
- B.
Pomegranate
- C.
Papaya or Pomegranate
- D.
Data is inadequate
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In a double-row seating arrangement where the two rows face opposite directions, two seats are “opposite” each other when they occupy the same column position across the two rows, and two seats are “diagonally opposite” when they occupy the two extreme corner columns — the first seat of one row and the last seat of the other. A clue about being ‘to the right/left’ of a neighbour is read from that row's own facing direction, not from a reader's fixed left-right view of a diagram.
Application:
Raspberry sits at one end of its row and is diagonally opposite mango, so raspberry occupies the last seat of its row and mango occupies the first seat of the opposite row — the two rows' extreme corner seats.
Lemon is between mango and apple, so in mango's row the order from the first seat is mango, lemon, apple — filling seats 1, 2 and 3 of that row.
Lemon sits directly opposite guava, so guava occupies seat 2 of raspberry's row (the same column as lemon).
Banana sits at one end of raspberry's row, immediately next to guava, so banana occupies seat 1 of that row, adjacent to guava at seat 2.
This fixes six of the eight trees to exact seats — mango, lemon and apple in one row; banana, guava and raspberry in the other — leaving only seat 4 of mango's row and seat 3 of raspberry's row open, to be filled by papaya and pomegranate.
No remaining clue names papaya or pomegranate at either of those two seats, so which tree takes which of those two seats is never fixed by the given information.
Raspberry occupies seat 4 of its row, so the seat directly opposite raspberry is seat 4 of mango's row — exactly one of the two seats whose identity was never fixed, so it holds papaya or pomegranate.
Seat | Raspberry's row | Mango's row (opposite) |
|---|---|---|
1 | Banana | Mango |
2 | Guava | Lemon |
3 | Papaya or Pomegranate | Apple |
4 | Raspberry | Papaya or Pomegranate |
Cross-check: each clue holds in this seating:
Lemon (mango's row, seat 2) sits between mango (seat 1) and apple (seat 3), and directly opposite guava (raspberry's row, seat 2).
Banana (raspberry's row, seat 1) sits at one end of its row, immediately next to guava (seat 2).
Raspberry (raspberry's row, seat 4) sits at one end of its row and diagonally opposite mango (mango's row, seat 1) — the two extreme corner seats.
The remaining two seats (raspberry's row seat 3, and mango's row seat 4) hold papaya and pomegranate, in either order, since no clue names either tree specifically.
Result: The seat directly opposite raspberry is mango's row, seat 4 — one of the two seats the clues never assign to a single named tree. So the tree opposite raspberry is papaya or pomegranate.
The diagram below shows the completed seating:
