Logical Reasoning: Tricks for Linear Seating Arrangement

Questions based on Arrangements are one of the most common and important question types in Logical Reasoning. All the questions in this type involve arranging people or objects in straight lines or around circles, squares or some other geometric shapes.

Let us now understand one of the important forms of arrangement, i.e., Linear Arrangement.

LINEAR ARRANGEMENT

In this type of question, a student is required to arrange different people into a line or number of lines. The people may be sitting or standing in a row or a set of rows.

Let us see some statements to understand this type of arrangements.

•    A, B and C are standing all facing North.
•    A is standing to the right of B.
•    B is not standing in the middle of A and C.

If we see in the statements given above all the people are facing north. The following people will stand in the following manner:

The left and right is taken according the direction in which the person given in the question are facing. If nothing is given we can take all people are facing north.

Learn the basic Concepts for Direction Sense

If we see the final arrangement of the given persons, it will be as follows:

Example: Six friends A, B, C, D, E and F are sitting in a row facing towards North. C is sitting between A and E. D is not at the end. B is sitting immediate right to E. F is not at the right end.

How many persons are there to the right D?

a)      One

b)      Two

c)      Three

d)      Four

Solution: In the above example, all the people are facing North. We can have the following seating arrangement:

As C is sitting between A and E, they will be sitting in the following manner:

Case 1:            A  C  E

Case 2:            E  C  A

However, we still cannot fix a place for them on the above grid.

D cannot be at either of the ends. Also B is sitting to the immediate right of E. Hence, case 2 above is discarded and we will have the following arrangement:

A C E B

In addition, F is not at the right end and D cannot be at any of the ends, we will have the following arrangement:

So, on basis of the above arrangement, it can be concluded that there are four people sitting to the right of D.

Therefore, there are few important points that students should keep in mind while solving the questions based on arrangement:

•    Students should have the ability to visualize all the geometric shape of the arrangement.
•    Students should have the ability to order the clues in the correct order of usage.
•    Students should have the ability to understand the indirect clues.