Read the following information given below and answer the question that…
2024
Read the following information given below and answer the question that follows.
P, Q, R, S, T, U and V are seven friends and are sitting in a circle facing the centre of the circle.
V is second to the left of S and is the neighbour of T and U.
S is not a neighbour of R or T.
P is neighbour of Q and R.
Which of the following has the second person sitting between the first and third persons?
- A.
SPQ
- B.
VRT
- C.
QRP
- D.
VUS
Attempted by 51 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: When people sit facing the centre of a circle, moving to a person's left corresponds to moving clockwise around the circle (facing inward reverses the usual left–right sense), and "neighbour" means the seat immediately next to a person on either side. A fixed circular arrangement is solved by converting each relative clue — second-to-the-left, neighbour-of, not-a-neighbour-of — into concrete seat offsets and building up one consistent seating, then checking every clue against it.
Application: Building the seating step by step from the clues:
V is second to the left (two seats clockwise) of S, and V's only two neighbours are T and U — so the seat immediately clockwise of S and the seat immediately clockwise of V together must be T and U.
S is not a neighbour of T (clue iii), so the seat right after S cannot be T — it must be U instead, which makes the seat right after V equal to T.
This fixes four consecutive seats clockwise as S, U, V, T, leaving three seats for P, Q and R.
P is a neighbour of both Q and R (clue iv), so P must occupy the middle of the three remaining seats, with Q and R on either side of it.
S is also not a neighbour of R (clue iii), so the seat immediately before S — the last of the three remaining seats — cannot be R; it must be Q, which places R at the other end, next to T.
The complete clockwise seating is therefore S, U, V, T, R, P, Q (and back to S).
Cross-check: Verifying every clue against this seating:
V is two seats clockwise of S (S → U → V) and its neighbours are U and T — matches clue ii.
S's neighbours are Q and U, neither of which is R or T — matches clue iii.
P's neighbours are R and Q — matches clue iv.
Answer: In this seating, U's two neighbours are V and S, so U sits directly between V and S — the triplet V, U, S.