Paper I · 9 Logical Reasoning & Analytical Ability · APPSC Paper I
9.9 Ranking, seating and puzzles notes
8 notes, in reading order.
- 9.9.1Ranking and order: positions from both ends and interchange
Every ranking question rests on one fact: a person's position from one end plus the position from the other end is one more than the total, because the person is counted twice.
Standard · 7 min · Full course - 9.9.2Linear seating arrangement
Fix the direction everyone faces, number the seats from the viewer's left, turn each clue into a seat relation, place the surest clues first and split into cases only when a clue allows two places.
Standard · 7 min · Full course - 9.9.3Circular and square seating arrangement
Around a table everything depends on which way each person faces: facing the centre, left is clockwise; facing outside, left is anticlockwise. Fix one person, then place the rest by counting seats.
Standard · 7 min · Full course - 9.9.4Puzzles: floor, box, day and comparison puzzles
Floor, box and day puzzles are seating in a vertical or time line: draw the slots, fix the definite clues, split into cases, and let negative clues kill the wrong cases; comparison puzzles are chains of "more than" read only as far as they are certain.
Standard · 8 min · Full course - 9.9.5Caselets: selection under constraints
A selection caselet gives a pool of people, a team size and a few rules; rewrite each rule as a short symbol, apply the condition in the question first, and let the rules force the rest of the team.
Standard · 6 min · Full course - 9.9.6Multi-attribute grid puzzles: the elimination table method
In a matching puzzle each person has exactly one item of each kind, so draw a table, put a ✗ for every "not" and a ✓ for every certainty, and keep using the rule "one ✓ per row and per column" until the table is full.
Standard · 9 min · Full course - 9.9.7Parallel rows: facing each other, gaps and unknown numbers of people
Number the seats of both rows from West to East once, remember that a South-facing person's right is West and a North-facing person's right is East, and treat "faces" as "same seat number in the other row".
Standard · 8 min · Full course - 9.9.8Scheduling puzzles: days, months, years and lectures
A scheduling puzzle is a linear arrangement in time: turn days, sessions, months or years into numbered slots, place the fixed clues, try the few possible spots for each linked pair, and watch for empty slots that change "how many between".
Standard · 9 min · Full course
Practise Ranking, seating and puzzles. Questions with answers explained, from the same topics.
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