Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
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To help you get out of this conundrum, Testzone offers you with the basics of these questions in the form of Puzzle/Ambiguous/Confusing
Statements in Puzzles to make you understand what each statement accurately means. A regular practice of such statements and questions will
provide you an edge over the competitors. So, let’s get started:
P
Q
Here, the statement says that P is “2” places above Q that means we have to place Q in the second gap below P. The common mistake that candidates
do is that they leave 2 boxes between P and Q, which is wrong. You can count 2 places starting from P.
Q
P
The statement says that P is “2” places below Q that means we have to place Q in the second gap above P. The common mistake that candidates do is
that they leave 2 boxes between P and Q, which is wrong.
Puzzle/Ambiguous/Confusing Statement 3:
There is only 1 person between P and Q
P Q
Q P
This is the kind of statement that has been talked about above. We have to leave the number of boxes equal to number of people between P and Q.
when the statement says ‘x’ number of people between P and Q, simply leave ‘x’ boxes between them.
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11/20/21, 1:39 PM Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
P
Q
When the statement says ”3 places above Q”, start counting upwards from Q and mark the 3rd floor with P. people tend to leave 3 floors between
them and end up messing the question.
Q
P
If the statement says ”3 places below Q”, start counting downward from Q and mark the 3rd floor with P. we do not have to leave 3 places between
them.
Puzzle/Ambiguous/Confusing Statement 6:
There are 2 floors between P and Q
Case-1 Case-2
P Q
Q P
Here, it is important to understand that only the no. of people between P and Q are given and their order is not specified so, we cannot decide
specifically which one of them is above and who is below. This case requires careful consideration and two cases can be formed here:
Puzzle/Ambiguous/Confusing Statement 7:
The number of floors between P and Q is same as the number of floors between X and Y
Case-A Case-B
P P
X
Q Y
Y Q
X
In this statement we only know that the no. of floors P and Q is same as the no. of floors between X and Y, but how many floors are there between
either of them is not known. Thus, there can be 1 or 2 people between X and Y because there are a total of 8 places and 4 places have to be occupied
by P, Q, X, Y. Further, the position of X, Y and P, Q cannot be determined precisely so we can form 2 cases:
Puzzle/Ambiguous/Confusing Statement 8:
The number of floors between P and Q is 1 more than the number of floors between X and Y.
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11/20/21, 1:39 PM Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
Case-1 Case-2
P P
X Y
Q
Y Q
X
As explained above, here also the no. of people between either of them is not known. We can try different no. of floors between P and Q and will
derive the corresponding no. of floors between X and Y. let us assume there are ‘x’ floors between X and Y, then no. of floors between P and Q will be
‘x+1’.
No. of floors between
No. of floors between
Puzzle/Ambiguous/Confusing Statement 9:
P lives above Q
This one is a tricky one and is often confused with ‘P lives immediately above Q’. The statement here says that P lives above Q but nowhere does it
says ‘immediately’. This means that if Q is at 1st floor, P can be at any of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th. The table below shows possible positions
of A wrt positions of Q.
Position of Q Corresponding Position of P
8 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
7 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
6 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
5 4, 3, 2, 1
4 3, 2, 1
3 2, 1
2 1
8
7
6
5
4 P
3 Q
2
1
As the statement says, we have to place P ‘immediately’ above Q. The no. of cases possible here are comparatively lesser.
Corresponding
Position of P
Position of Q
8 7
7 6
6 5
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11/20/21, 1:39 PM Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
5 4
4 3
3 2
2 1
Here as there are 8 total floors and P has at least 2 floors above him so he can be at 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1. Note that P cannot come on 7th or 8th floor.
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11/20/21, 1:39 PM Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
5 5 R 5 P
4 4 4
3 R 3 P 3
2 P 2 2 Q
1 Q 1 Q 1
This statement says P lives ‘exactly’ between Q and R and it means that P is equidistant from Q and R. the table below shows possible positions of P,
Q and R:
Position of P Position of Q Position of R
2 1 3
3 1 5
4 1 7
For Days and Months:
Sunday
Monday Q
Tuesday
Wednesday P
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
This statement means that P is born 2 days from Q. We could start counting from Q and mark the 2nd day for P. Note that you do not have to leave 2
days between P and Q but only 1.
Months
Days
January
Sunday P
February P
Monday
March
Tuesday
April
Wednesday Q
May Q
Thursday
June
Friday
July
Saturday
April
Similar to the above statement, start counting from Q and mark the 3rd month or day for P. You have to leave only 2 days/ months in between.
Case-1
Case-2
Here, the statement says that P is “2” places away from Q that means we have to place Q in the second gap away from P. It means there is only one
person sitting between P & Q.
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11/20/21, 1:39 PM Confusing Statement in Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
Here, “Second to the left” means you should start where you are and count two places left of that place. This does not mean that there should be two
place between P and Q.
Ans. True.
Explanation:
P is followed by Qmeans P comes first and then it is followed by Q. It can also be written as Q follows P.
Thus, On Monday, the first lecture is of Physics then it is followed by lectures of Math and Chemistry.
In simple words, we can say that the lecture of Math follows Physics or in passive voice it can be written as Physics is followed by Math.
Ans. True.
Explanation:
P is preceded by Q, it means Q precedes or comes before P. Thus in passive form it is written as P is preceded by Q.
Thus, we can see from the table that the last lecture on Tuesday is of Biology, thus it is preceded by the lecture of physics and the lecture of Physics is
preceded by that of Math.
Thus in simple words we can say that Math precedes Physics or in passive voice it can be written as Physics is preceded by Math.
Thank you for reading this article. We hope you all have clear your basics with the help of this article.
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