Instructions

Read the information given below carefully and answer the questions which follow.

P, Q, R, S, T, U, V and W are six friends who are seated in a row. All of them are facing north. V is second to the right of U. S is third to the left of Q. There are 3 people sitting between P and W and neither P nor W are seated at the end positions. W is to the right of P and there are 4 people between R and T with R being to the left of T. There are 3 people T and U.

Question 39

Four of the following are similar in some way. Pick the odd one out.

Solution

Let’s number the positions as 1 to 8 from left to right. So 1 is the extreme left end and 8 is the extreme right end.
Now it is given that there are 4 people between R and T with R being to the left of T. Hence the possible combinations are (1, 6), (2, 7) or (3, 8).
Let’s consider all three cases
If R is at first position and T is 6th. Now U will have to be at 2nd position. This would mean that V is 4th. S is third to the left of Q. The only possibility for this would be that S is 5th and Q is 8th. P must be 3rd and W must be 7th. So our seating arrangement would be the one shown below.

Let’s consider the second case
If R is 2nd and T is 7th: In this case U will be at 3rd position. V will be 5th. Now there will be no place for S to be 3rd of Q. Hence this arrangement is not possible.
Let’s have a look at the third possibility
R is 3rd and T is 8th. Here U will be 4th and V will be 6th. The only possibility for S to be third to the left of Q would be Q at 5 and S at 2. But in this case there will be 5 people between P and W which is in contradiction to the given information. Hence, this is also not possible. So, only first arrangement is possible. Hence our final arrangement would be