Seating Arrangement Problems Tricks And Shortcuts With Examples

Seating Arrangement questions don’t have any kind of formula or structure. These are totally based on your presence of mind, whether you can elaborate on the given conditions and prepare an outcome.

Tricks

There is no hidden trick to solve it, but what you can do is mark an empty space until any event occurs and try to fill all the spaces one by one according to the given conditions. After solving each condition, just go through all of them and the answer will be visible to you.

If you are given some kind of set and only 1 or 2 questions, then try to skip the question as this will take some time to get solve. Try to solve it only if consists of more than 3 or 4 questions.

Seating Arrangement : Single Row Problem

Example: Eleven friends M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V and W are sitting in the first row of the stadium watching a cricket match.
T is to the immediate left of P and third to the right of U.
V is the immediate neighbor of M and N and third to the left of S.
M is the second to the right of Q, who is at one of the ends.
R is sitting next to the right of P and P is second to the right of O.

Solution:
Given that there are 11 friends,
U _ _ T P This can be possible in 2 ways : MVN_S or NVM_S You might think that it has 2 cases but not, as Q is at one of the end but also given that M is at the right which means Q is at the let end i.e. Q _M _ _ _ _ _ _ _
O_PR or ORP
Now we need to combine all 4 things:
By examining 1 and 4, we know that ORP is not possible, hence eliminate it.
Therefore, it will be like U_OTPR.
By examining 2 and 3, we know that NVM_S is not possible, hence eliminate it.
Therefore, it will be like Q MVN_S _ _ _
Now we can conclude that the solution can be: QWMVNUSOTPR.
Q.1. Who is sitting in the center of the row?

1. N
2. O
3. S
4. U

Q.2. Which of the following people are sitting to the right of S?

1. OTPQ
2. OTPR
3. UNVM
4. UOTPR

Q.3. Which of the following statements is true with respect to the above arrangement?

1. There are three persons sitting between P and S
2. W is between M and V.
3. N is sitting between V and U
4. S and O are neighbors sitting to the immediate right of T

Q.4. Who are the immediate neighbors of T?

1. O, P
2. O, R
3. N, U
4. V, U

Q.5. If Q and P, O and N, M and T, and W and R interchange their positions then which of the following pairs of friends are sitting at the ends?

1. P and Q
2. Q and R
3. P and W
4. W and R

Seating Arrangement: Round Table Problem

Example: P, Q, R, S, T, U and V are seven friends and are sitting in a circle facing the center of the circle.
V is second to the left of S and is the neighbor of T and U.
S is not a neighbor of R or T.
P is a neighbour of Q and R.
Solution: Given that there are 7 friends sitting in a round table facing each other.
There can be 2 cases: TVUS or UVTS
UVTS can be eliminated. Hence TVUS
There can be 2 cases: QPR or RPQ
From 2 and 3 we can conclude that RPQ is not possible as s does not have R as a neighbour.
Hence the final conclusion should be:

Q.6. Which of the following is correct?

1. Q is between P and S.
2. S is between U and P.
3. T is to the immediate right of V.
4. U is to the immediate left of V.

Q.7. Which has the pair with the second person sitting to the immediate right of the first person?

1. QU
2. VU
3. TR
4. PT

Q8. Which of the following will be S’s position after T and S interchange their places?

1. Neighbour of V and R
2. To the immediate left of R
3. To the immediate right of U
4. Neighbour of R and P

Q9. What is the position of R?

1. Second to the left of Q
2. Third to the right of U
3. To the immediate left of P
4. None of these

Q. 10 Which of the following has the second person sitting between the first and third persons?

1. SPQ
2. VRT
3. QRP
4. VUS

Answers:
4
2
3
1
3
1
2
1
4

This article is contributed by Shushank Mittal.