Directions: Study the following information carefully and answer the questions…
2023
Directions: Study the following information carefully and answer the questions given below-
Ten persons A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J sit in two rectangular tables X and Y. Three of them like horror novel, three likes thriller and four of them likes romance novel.
Four persons sit in table X and remaining sits in table Y. The person sits in middle faces outside the centre and the person sit in corner face inside the centre. Persons sits in table X sit in middle and in Table Y four seats are placed in middle and four seats are placed in the corner. Two seats are vacant in Table Y.
D sits in table X. J does not sit in table Y. G sits immediate left of J and neither of them like thriller. The one who likes romance does not sit in the middle of table Y. D likes romance and sits opposite to G. E likes romance and sit on table Y. Both the immediate neighbours of E like thriller. More than three seats between the persons who likes thriller. A sits immediate left of the one who likes thriller. F sits third to the left of A. C sits in table X. Two persons sits between D and J. B does not like thriller and romance. Two persons sit between D and the one who likes thriller. The persons who likes thriller does not sit in the corner. I sits 2nd to the left of a vacant seat. Both the vacant seats are not adjacent two each other. The one who likes horror sits immediate right of the one who likes romance in table Y. A doesn’t like Horror.
If J and H change their novels then who sits 3rd to the left of the one who sits immediate right of B?
- A.
The person who likes Thriller novel
- B.
The person who likes Romance novel
- C.
The person who likes Horror
- D.
The person who likes either horror or thriller novel
- E.
Can’t be determined
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In a two-table seating puzzle where seats alternate between "faces outside the centre" and "faces inside the centre", a seated person's own left-hand and right-hand directions run opposite to a neighbour's whenever that neighbour faces the other way. So always fix the table with the fewest people and the most direct linking clues (opposite / immediate-left) first, then anchor the larger table using its distance and vacant-seat clues, and resolve who-likes-what only after the seating is fixed.
Application:
D, J and C are placed in table X by direct statement, and J does not sit in table Y. Since "G sits immediate left of J" only makes sense within the same table, G must also be in table X — filling all four of its seats: D, J, C, G.
With G immediate left of J and D directly opposite G, table X's relative order is forced to J - D - C - G going one way around (C takes the only seat left over). This automatically also places two people between D and J, and two between D and the table-X thriller-liker, the long way round — matching those clues without adding new information.
Since B likes neither thriller nor romance, and only three preferences exist, B must like Horror.
The remaining six — A, B, E, F, H, I — occupy six of table Y's eight seats. Anchoring I to a vacant seat, then F to A via the "third to the left" clue, and then requiring both of E's immediate neighbours to like thriller (which rules out G and J, and B is already Horror) narrows the thriller pool for E's neighbours to F and H.
Layering on "the thriller-liker is never in a corner", "every romance-liker in table Y sits at a corner", and "the horror-liker sits immediate right of the romance-liker in table Y" leaves exactly one self-consistent seat-to-preference mapping for table Y: A and I hold Romance, E stays Romance as given, and F and H (the two seats flanking E) hold Thriller — completing 3 Horror / 3 Thriller / 4 Romance overall.
Reading off that fixed layout: I sits immediate right of B, and three seats further in I's own left-hand direction (a corner seat's left runs opposite to a middle seat's) lands on H — one of E's two Thriller-liking neighbours. This is shown in the table below.
Position in the chain | Occupant | Preference before the exchange | Preference after J-H exchange |
|---|---|---|---|
B (reference seat) | B | Horror | Horror |
Immediate right of B | I | Romance | Romance |
Three seats left of I (the target seat) | H | Thriller | Horror |
Swap partner (table X) | J | Horror | Thriller |
The question states that H and J exchange novel preferences. J's preference before the exchange was Horror, so after the exchange H's preference becomes Horror (and J's becomes Thriller, though J is not what the question asks about).
Cross-check: tracing the same chain (immediate right of B, then three further) from any of the table's valid rotations/reflections that satisfy every seat and preference clue lands on H every time, so the identity of the target seat's occupant is not an artefact of one particular diagram — only the preference label changes once the stated exchange is applied.
Result: after J and H exchange novels, H (the person three seats to the left of I, who sits immediate right of B) likes Horror.