Seating Arrangement Questions for Competitive Exams

Are you trying to ace competitive exams? Are you working hard and trying to practise tricky problems? Seating arrangement questions are frequently asked in many competitive exams. These questions try to examine your logical reasoning, it is important that you get an understanding of how to solve these complex questions without getting confused. In this blog, we will try to cover the seating arrangements questions and how to solve them efficiently so that they become less time consuming by the time you appear for your examination. If you are not aware of how to go about these questions then don’t worry. This blog will cover the question pattern step by step.

What are Seating Arrangement Questions

Seating arrangement questions are a apart of reasoning ability in competitive exams. In these types of questions you are given a piece of information related to a group of people that includes their seating arrangements. These people are seated in any type of arrangement such as in a triangle, circle or square manner.

Seating Arrangement Questions: Things you Should Keep in Mind 

Before we start looking at the questions and their solutions, here are a few things that you need to keep in mind before attempting these questions:

• Read the questions carefully, do not miss any information.
• Practise different types of questions.
• Take notes, write everything down, it will make the process of solving much easier.
• The weightage of seating arrangement questions mostly ranges from 8 to 10 marks. They can be the most scoring part if a candidate answers arrangements quickly and efficiently.
• Generally, seating arrangement questions have subparts, and if the candidate solves the arrangement, they can quickly obtain 4 to 5 marks per seating arrangement.

Seating Arrangement Questions: Key Concepts

Seating arrangement question usually involves an arrangement and you need to arrange the pattern in a way that it fulfills the conditions that the question demands. You are given 4 to 5 questions related to the arrangement. You are given both direct and indirect information which will help you in understanding how to go about the arrangement in an orderly manner.

These questions can be divided into different categories with the kind of seating arrangement that they provide you with. It can be divided into three categories or arrangements, these are:

• Rectangular Arrangement: Here, you have to arrange people at a rectangular table. You need to keep in mind the directions so that you do not get confused.
• Linear Arrangement: Here, you have to arrange people in a linear form, these type of questions are usually the simplest.
• Circular Arrangement: This type of seating arrangement question is somewhat similar to a rectangular arrangement, except here, people need to arrange it in a circular form.
• Double Row Arrangement: In these seating arrangement questions, people are to be arranged in two rows, usually facing each other.
• Complex Row Arrangement: They are similar to linear arrangement questions in terms of arrangement and properties. Whereas linear arrangement has only one property – complex seating arrangement questions have multiple properties like positioning, objects etc.

Here is the list of Probability Formulas & Questions for GMAT!

Seating Arrangement Questions: Solved Examples

It is easier to understand how to go about certain question formats with the help of an example, so let us try to understand seating arrangement questions with an example:

Nine persons A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I are watching a movie in a theatre sitting in a row facing North. B is at one end of the row. H is seated adjacent to both F and G. C is to the immediate right of D and at the third place to the right of E. A is immediate left of F. F is at the third place to the left of B. Find out:

Q: Who is at the end of the row?
Q: What is the position of F with respect to D? 

Now let us look at the given information correctly and see how we can arrange the people in the correct order. Since the information given says that B is at the end so let’s place B at one of the ends. Now the other clear information that we have is that F is at third place from B so this makes the arrangement F _ _B.

A is left to F, which makes the pattern  AF_ _B. The next information that we have is that H is adjacent to G and F, let’s add that to the pattern now,_ _ _ _ _ AFHGB.

C is at the third place to C from the right which puts E at the other end. Now C is to the immediate right of D which makes the final pattern like this EIADCAFHGB.

Once the arrangement is done it is very easy to answer the other questions.

The questions for these questions can follow the following format, let us look at the questions now:

Q: Who is at the end of the row?
Answer: Keeping in mind the arrangement, E is at the end of the row along with B.

Q: What is the position of F with respect to D? 
Answer: EIADCAFHGB is the arrangement, therefore the answer is D.

List of Competitive Government Exams

Here is a list of few competitive government exams where seating arrangement questions are asked:

SBI PO	Railway Recruitment Board Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP)
SBI Clerk	Staff Selection Commission (SSC)
SBI SO	CISF
CAPF	IBPS PO
IBPS Regional Rural Banks (RRB)	IBPS SO
RBI Grade B	IBPS Clerk
Railway Recruitment Board (NTPC)	AFCAT

Practice Questions on Seating Arrangement

Based on the following information, answer the questions given below:

A, B, C, D, E, F and G are seated in a circular table with faces at each other
C is next to the left of F and G is second to the left of C
A is seated third to the left of E
B is between D and E

Q1. Which of the following is false?

a) A is fourth to the right of E	b) F is to the intermediate right of C
c) F is third to the right of D	d) B is to the intermediate left of S

Q2: Which of the following statement is correct?

a) C is fourth to the right of E	b) A is the intermediate right of E
c) D is second to the left of E	d) B is the second to the right of G

Q3: Which of the following are seated at the intermediate left to the second person

a) BD	b) CA
c) FD	d) None of these

Q4. Which of the following are in the correct order as per the solution:

a) FCE	b) DFB
c) DEB	d) None of these

Before you go to the next seating arrangement question, check out this list of popular aptitude questions!

Based on the instructions given below answer the following questions: 

K, L, M, N, O, P and Q are sitting on a circular dining table for dinner
Q is not between P and M
O is neighbour of K and N
L is second to the left of Q
P is to the immediate right of K

Q1: Which of the following are sitting next to each other:

a) LK	b) ML
c) NO	d) QN

Q2: Which of the given below pairs have the second person sitting at the immediate right to the first one?

a) KL	b) ML
c) OK	d) None of the above

Q3: Where is P sitting?

a) Second to the left of M	c) Second to the right of M
c) Immediate left of K	d) Immediate right of L

Q4: Which of the following group represents neighbours of L?

a) K and P	b) M and N
c) P and M	d) None of these

Eleven friends A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J and K are sitting in the first row of the stadium watching a football match.

• H is to the immediate left of D and third to the right of I.
• J is the immediate neighbour of A and B and third to the left of G.
• A is the second to the right of E, who is at one of the ends.
• F is sitting next to the right of D and D is second to the right of C.

Q.1. Who is sitting in the center of the row?

a) B	b) C
c) G	d) I

Q.2. Which of the following statements is true with respect to the above arrangement?

a) There are three persons sitting between D and G	b) W is between A and J
c) B is sitting between J and I	d) G and C are neighbours sitting to the immediate right of H

Q.3. Who are the immediate neighbours of T?

a) C, D	b) C, F
c) B, I	d) J, I

Q.4. 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 is sitting at the ends?

a) D and E	b) E and F
c) D and K	d) K and F

a) Between M and O	b) Between P and O
c) Between M and N	d) Between N and P

P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, & W, eight friends, are seated in a circle facing the middle. V is third to the right of Q & second to the left of R. Q is second to the left of T & immediate right of S. U is between Q & T. P is not at the left of R.

Q1. Who is second to right of T?

a) R	b) P
c) W	d) V

Q2. In which of the following pairs first person sits exactly at right of second persons?

a) UT	b) WR
c) WT	d) VT

Q3. Who is exactly at the left of S?

a) Q	b) P
c) U	d) V

Seating Arrangement Questions Tips

Given below are some tips to approach seating arrangement questions:

• Do not attempt the question in mind only. Prefer to solve the question by drawing a diagram for the same and then try to solve it
• Do not make changes more than required. Focus more on the problem asked.
• Consider all the candidates and figure the no. of candidates and its relativity to the question asked
• Apply logical reasoning skills with a focus of permutation and combination

Seating Arrangement Questions Pdf

Given below is the pdf of seating arrangement questions for you to practice:

FAQs

We hope you understood the way of solving seating arrangement questions. If you further need assistance on the same, let  Leverage Edu’s live classes on GMAT and GRE help you out! Get in touch with us to enroll yourself in the best test prep online classes!