Directions: Study the following information carefully and answer the questions…
2023
Directions: Study the following information carefully and answer the questions given below:
Twelve persons live in a five-floor building such that the bottommost floor is numbered as 1, the floor just above it is numbered as 2 and so on till the topmost floor is numbered as 5. Each floor has four flats – J, K, L and M from west to east respectively. Flat K is to the east of flat J and to the west of flat L which is to the west of flat M. 8 flats are vacant.
Note: 1) At least two but not more than three persons live on each floor. The adjacent flats are not vacant. Adjacent flats are immediate left, immediate right, immediately above and immediately below.
2) If it is given that A lives immediately above/immediately below B’s flat then either a vacant flat is between A and B or there is no vacant flat (no floor) between A and B. U lives on an even number floor below the 3rd floor. W lives to the east of U but neither in flat K nor in flat M. Only one floor gap is between W and P who lives to the west of S but not just west. U and P live in different named flats. R lives above S and adjacent to one of the vacant flats. R and W live in different named flats. O lives to the west of R and east of V. Q lives immediately below O’s flat. T lives to the east of Q. Only one floor gap between T and Y. T lives immediately above Y’s flat. Z lives just northwest of X.
Who among the following lives in flat M on floor 3?
- A.
R
- B.
T
- C.
Z
- D.
Y
- E.
X
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
In a floor-plus-flat arrangement puzzle, fix the unchanging frame first: floors are numbered 1 (bottom) to 5 (top), and the four flats in every floor run J, K, L, M from west to east (so "east" means a higher-lettered flat and "above" means a higher floor number). Two kinds of clue do the heavy lifting: directional clues (east/west, above/below, north-west) pin relative columns and floors; and a "one floor gap" clue fixes only the FLOOR distance (exactly one floor between the two, regardless of column), while the separate "immediately above/below" clue adds that the two flats sit in the SAME column with that gap floor left vacant. The vacancy rules — no two vacant flats touch, and 2 to 3 persons per floor — then eliminate the remaining possibilities.
Building the grid
Anchor on the fixed people, then chain the relative clues:
U is on an even-numbered floor below floor 3, which can only be floor 2. W is east of U on the same floor and is barred from K and M, so W must take L, leaving U in K (U and P must also end up in different-named flats).
The one-floor gap between W and P puts P on floor 4. P is west of S but not immediately west, and only the J-L pair on a floor leaves a flat between them, so P is in J and S is in L on floor 4.
R is above S and shares a column with neither W nor S; O is west of R and east of V on R's floor; the only floor that fits three people to R's west pattern is floor 5, giving V-J, O-K and R-M.
Q sits in the same column as O (column K) on a lower floor with the gap empty, landing Q in K on floor 3; T is east of Q on floor 3.
T and Y share a column with a one-floor gap and T directly above Y, which forces T into M on floor 3 and Y into M on floor 1.
Z is just north-west of X (one floor up and one flat west), placing X in K on floor 1 and Z in J on floor 2; the 2-3 per floor and no-touching-vacancy rules confirm every remaining cell.
Reading off the answer
Floor 3 holds exactly two people: Q in flat K and T in flat M. The flat asked for is M on floor 3, which is occupied by T.
Final grid
Floor | J (west) | K | L | M (east) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | V | O | vacant | R |
4 | P | vacant | S | vacant |
3 | vacant | Q | vacant | T |
2 | Z | U | W | vacant |
1 | vacant | X | vacant | Y |
Cross-check
Each floor carries two or three people (floors 2 and 5 carry three, the rest two), no two vacant flats are adjacent, R in flat M of floor 5 touches a vacant flat to its west, and every directional and floor-gap clue holds in the grid above.