Read the given information carefully and answer the questions that follow.…

2026

Read the given information carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Eleven friends X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H are sitting in the first row of the stadium watching a cricket match.

E is to the immediate left of A and third to the right of F.

G is the immediate neighbour of X and Y and third to the left of D.

X is the second to the right of B, who is at one of the ends.

C is sitting next to the right of A and A is second to the right of Z.

Who is sitting in the center of the row?

  1. A.

    Y

  2. B.

    Z

  3. C.

    D

  4. D.

    F

Attempted by 8 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D

Concept: In a single-row seating puzzle every clue fixes a RELATIVE position (“X seats to the right/left of Y by n places”, “P is an immediate neighbour of Q”). Solve by first anchoring the one clue that fixes an ABSOLUTE seat — usually someone placed “at an end” — then propagate every relative clue outward from that anchor, seat by seat. Since each seat can hold only one person, whenever a clue could be satisfied two ways, the way that collides with an already-fixed seat is impossible; that contradiction is what pins the direction (left/right) unambiguously.

  1. Anchor the row: X is second to the right of B, and B sits at one of the ends. “Second to the right” needs two free seats to B's right, so B cannot be at the right end — B must be at the left end (seat 1), which places X at seat 3.

  2. G is an immediate neighbour of both X and Y, so X and Y sit on opposite sides of G. With X at seat 3, G could be seat 2 or seat 4 — but seat 2 would force Y into seat 1 or seat 3, and both are already taken (by B and X), which is impossible. So G is seat 4 and Y is seat 5, giving the block X(3)-G(4)-Y(5).

  3. D is third to the right of G (seat 4), so D takes seat 7.

  4. E is immediately left of A, C sits immediately right of A, and A is second to the right of Z — so Z, E, A, C occupy four CONSECUTIVE seats in that exact order. Seats 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are already taken, so the only run of four consecutive free seats left is 8-9-10-11: Z = 8, E = 9, A = 10, C = 11.

  5. E is third to the right of F, so F sits three seats to the left of seat 9, i.e. seat 6.

  6. Only one seat, seat 2, is left unfilled, so H takes it.

Full row (seats 1 to 11): B, H, X, G, Y, F, D, Z, E, A, C.

Cross-check: an eleven-seat row is centred on its 6th seat (5 seats on each side). Counting from the left — B, H, X, G, Y — gives 5 seats before seat 6; counting from the right — C, A, E, Z, D — gives 5 seats after it. Both counts agree, confirming the person in seat 6, F, is sitting in the centre of the row.

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