Directions : Study the following information carefully to answer the given…
2022
Directions : Study the following information carefully to answer the given questions:
Nine persons - A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I live on different floors of nine storey building. Ground floor is numbered as 1st floor and just above the ground floor is numbered as 2nd floor and so on till the topmost floor is numbered as 9th floor. They speak different languages i.e., Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi and Bengali. All the data is not necessarily in the same order.
D speaks Telugu. Three persons live between A and the one who speaks Malayalam. The number of persons live above A is same as the number of persons live below H.A does not speak Kannada. Three persons live between H and the one who speaks Bengali. The number of persons live above G is same as the number of persons live below the one who speaks Bengali. Two persons live between E and the one who speaks Kannada. E does not speak Bengali. The one who speaks Hindi lives just above the one who speaks Gujarati. Neither A nor E speaks Hindi. C lives just below the one who speaks Marathi but lives above the 4th floor. The number of persons live above I is same as the number of persons live below the one who speaks Tamil. F lives above I’s floor. The one who speaks Punjabi doesn’t live on the bottommost floor.
Four of the following five are alike in a certain way and hence form a group. Who among the following does not belong to that group?
- A.
H
- B.
B
- C.
I
- D.
A
- E.
E
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: E
Concept
In an “odd one out” question, four of the five given persons share one common, well-defined property and form a group; the fifth lacks that property. The standard approach is to first build the unique floor arrangement from the clues, then test the five named persons for a single shared relationship (here, a fixed floor-gap pairing).
Step-by-step derivation
Two clues compare “persons above X” with “persons below Y” in a 9-floor building: since persons above floor n = 9−n and persons below floor m = m−1, each such clue becomes floor(X) + floor(Y) = 10. This gives three pair-sum equations: floor(A) + floor(H) = 10, floor(G) + floor(the Bengali speaker) = 10, and floor(I) + floor(the Tamil speaker) = 10.
Two clues state a fixed count of persons “between” two people, which converts to an absolute floor-gap: three persons between A and the Malayalam speaker means |floor(A) − floor(Malayalam speaker)| = 4; three persons between H and the Bengali speaker means |floor(H) − floor(Bengali speaker)| = 4; two persons between E and the Kannada speaker means |floor(E) − floor(Kannada speaker)| = 3.
C lives just below the Marathi speaker and above the 4th floor, so floor(C) + 1 = floor(Marathi speaker) with floor(C) > 4 — shortlisting the candidate pairs (5,6), (6,7), (7,8), (8,9) for (C, Marathi speaker).
Testing these pairs against the H–Bengali gap-of-4 rule and the G + Bengali = 10 sum together fixes the only mutually consistent set: H = floor 2, the Bengali speaker = floor 6 (so G = floor 4), and C = floor 6 with the Marathi speaker on floor 7.
With the A + H = 10 sum and H = 2, floor(A) = 8; the gap-of-4 rule to the Malayalam speaker then places the Malayalam speaker at floor 4, matching G from the previous step.
With the Marathi speaker fixed at floor 7 and the I + Tamil-speaker = 10 sum, testing floor(I) = 7 gives the Tamil speaker at floor 3 — consistent with F living above I's floor once F is placed later.
A does not speak Kannada, so the Kannada speaker must be someone else already placed; floor 2 (H) is the only remaining fit, and the gap-of-3 rule from E to the Kannada speaker then places E at floor 5 — consistent with E not speaking Bengali (the Bengali speaker is C, floor 6, a different floor).
Only floors 8 and 9 remain, for A and F. The Hindi speaker lives just above the Gujarati speaker, and neither A nor E speaks Hindi, so A takes Gujarati (floor 8) and F takes Hindi (floor 9) — consistent with F living above I (floor 7).
The only floor and language left are floor 1 and Telugu, matching the direct clue that D speaks Telugu; the only language left for E (floor 5) is Punjabi, consistent with the Punjabi speaker not living on the bottommost floor.
Final arrangement (top to bottom)
Floor | Person | Language |
|---|---|---|
9 | F | Hindi |
8 | A | Gujarati |
7 | I | Marathi |
6 | C | Bengali |
5 | E | Punjabi |
4 | G | Malayalam |
3 | B | Tamil |
2 | H | Kannada |
1 | D | Telugu |
Application
Locate the five named persons by floor: H is on floor 2, B on floor 3, E on floor 5, I on floor 7 and A on floor 8. Now pair them by a constant floor-gap of 5: H (floor 2) pairs with I (floor 7) — a gap of exactly 5 floors. B (floor 3) pairs with A (floor 8) — a gap of exactly 5 floors. That uses up H, I, B and A as two valid pairs; the person on floor 5 has no partner 5 floors away (floor 10 does not exist).
Cross-check
The same four also split cleanly by adjacency: (H floor 2, B floor 3) sit together and (I floor 7, A floor 8) sit together — two adjacent pairs. Both groupings leave the floor-5 person unpaired. Independently, the floor-5 person is the exact centre of the building, with four persons above and four below — a uniquely symmetric position none of the other four hold.
Result
The person on floor 5 does not belong to the group; that person is E.