Directions : Read the following information carefully and answer the following…
2020
Directions : Read the following information carefully and answer the following questions.
Eight persons P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, and W live in a building of eight floors such that the topmost floor is numbered as 8 and the lowermost floor is numbered as 1 but not necessarily in the same order. They shop on eight different e-commerce websites viz. Flipkart, Ajio, Myntra, Jabong, Amazon, Shopclues, Jiomart, and Tata Cliq but not necessarily in the same order.
The one who shops on Flipkart lives immediately above the one who shops on Shopclues. Neither V nor P shops on Flipkart, Tata Cliq and Myntra. Three persons live between V and S, who lives below V. Only three persons live between W and R, who shops on Amazon. R lives on one of the even numbered floors above W and Q, who does not shop on Flipkart and Myntra and also does not live on the second floor. Two persons live between Q and the one who shops on Jabong. Three persons live between the one who shops on Jabong and the one who shops on Ajio. The number of persons living between the one who shops on Jabong and R is same as the number of persons living between the one who shops on Ajio and P. T lives on one of the floors below U. Both W and Q live on the even numbered floor.
How many persons live between the one who shops on JioMart and the one who shops on Ajio?
- A.
One
- B.
Two
- C.
Three
- D.
None
- E.
Four
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: E
Concept: In a floor/level-based vertical arrangement puzzle, a clue such as “n persons live between A and B” converts directly to |floor(A) − floor(B)| = n + 1. Directional clues (“immediately above” = floor + 1, “above” = a greater floor number) plus parity/extremity clues (even floors only, “not on floor 2”) fix a handful of anchor floors first; every remaining floor then falls out by elimination. The same two-pass method — difference clues, then adjacency/exclusion clues — is repeated to map the attached attribute (the e-commerce site each person shops on).
R and W: “only three persons live between W and R” gives |R − W| = 4, with R on an even floor above both W and Q. The only pairing of even floors that stays consistent with every later clue is W = 4 and R = 8.
Q: even, not on floor 2, below R, and different from W → Q = 6.
V and S: “three persons live between V and S” (S below V) gives V − S = 4. The only pairing of the still-unused floors that stays consistent with every remaining clue is S = 3, V = 7.
Jabong: “two persons live between Q and the Jabong shopper” gives |Q − Jabong| = 3 → Jabong’s floor = 3, i.e. S shops on Jabong.
Ajio: “three persons live between the Jabong shopper and the Ajio shopper” gives |Jabong − Ajio| = 4 → Ajio’s floor = 7, i.e. V shops on Ajio.
P: “the gap between Jabong and R equals the gap between Ajio and P” gives |3 − 8| = |7 − P| → P = 2 (the other algebraic root falls outside the building).
T and U: the two floors left are 1 and 5; since T lives below U, T = 1 and U = 5.
All eight floors are now fixed: 1-T, 2-P, 3-S, 4-W, 5-U, 6-Q, 7-V, 8-R.
Sites: R (floor 8) shops on Amazon, and Jabong/Ajio are already pinned to S (3) and V (7). Of the five remaining floors (1, 2, 4, 5, 6), “Flipkart is immediately above Shopclues” fits only one open pair: Shopclues on floor 4 (W) and Flipkart on floor 5 (U) — putting Shopclues on floor 1 would force Flipkart onto P’s floor, and putting Shopclues on floor 5 would force Flipkart onto Q’s floor, and both of those shoppers are barred from Flipkart.
P is barred from Flipkart, Tata Cliq and Myntra, and Shopclues is already taken, so P shops on Jiomart. Q is barred from Flipkart and Myntra, and Shopclues/Jiomart are taken, so Q shops on Tata Cliq. The one site left, Myntra, goes to T.
Floor | Person | Website |
|---|---|---|
8 | R | Amazon |
7 | V | Ajio |
6 | Q | Tata Cliq |
5 | U | Flipkart |
4 | W | Shopclues |
3 | S | Jabong |
2 | P | Jiomart |
1 | T | Myntra |
Cross-check: this layout satisfies every placement clue at once — all the floor gaps, the parity conditions, the Flipkart-above-Shopclues adjacency, and every “does not shop on …” exclusion — and no other assignment of the eight floors and eight sites satisfies the full clue set, so the mapping is unique.
JioMart sits on floor 2 (P) and Ajio sits on floor 7 (V) — a gap of 5 floors, and two floors five levels apart always have exactly four people living on the floors between them. Answer: Four.