Important Tips to solve all types of Seating Arrangement Questions in Exam!

Dear Aspirants,

Seating Arrangement forms a major chunk of questions from Reasoning Ability section. Today, we are going to provide you some important tips for the seating arrangement questions. As you all are well aware, at least 2 sets are asked from seating arrangement or puzzle based questions in most of the exams. This topic is really important since the question is asked normally in the set of 5 questions and once you get the correct arrangement, you can easily score 5 marks from this part.

These questions may be asked in the following forms -

• Linear Arrangement
• Circular Arrangement (inward, outward or both side facing)
• Square/Rectangular Arrangement (inward, outward or both side facing)
• Combination of the above three with puzzles.

Now, let us go through the above arrangements in depth.

1. Linear Arrangement -

This type of question may be asked in a single row or double row arrangement. You need to take special care of the directions of the people here. Suppose 5 people are sitting in a single row.

2. Circular Arrangement –

This type of question may be asked in following forms –

(a) All the people are facing towards the center
(b) All the people are facing outside the center
(c) Some people are facing inside while some are facing outside the center.

As mentioned above, you need to take special care of the directions in such problems.

For people facing inside the center –

For people facing outside the center –

You can accordingly look for the directions of the people when some are facing inside the circle while some are facing outside the circle.

3. Square/ Rectangular Arrangement -

In this type of arrangement as well, following arrangements are possible -

(a) All the people are facing towards the center
(b) All the people are facing outside the center
(c) Some people are facing inside while some are facing outside the center.
The directions for this arrangement are taken in the same manner as that of a circular arrangement.

4. Combination of Linear, Circular and Square Arrangements with puzzles -

Many of you face difficulties in solving such problems. To have a better understanding of the approach that should be followed for solving puzzles you can go through the link below -

How to use puzzle

To have a clear picture of the above points, let us consider a basic circular arrangement as given below -

Eight friends Q, R, S, T, V, W, Y and Z are sitting around a circular table facing the center, not necessarily in the same order. There are 3 males and 5 females in the group. No two males are immediate neighbours of each other.

1. V sits second to the right of his wife.
2. S sits third to the right of V.
3. W sits second to the right of her husband Z.
4. Z is not an immediate neighbour of V’s wife.
5. T is a male and Y is not an immediate neighbour of V.
6. R sits second to the right of Q.

Now, the first 2 conditions give one possible arrangement -

As per 3rd and 4th condition, following arrangements are possible -

Although we will get 3 probable positions of Z, but 1st and 3rd arrangements are not possible since we can’t place W in these cases, also, V and Z can’t be placed together since both are male and this violates the constraint of the question. So, we proceed with 2nd arrangement.
Now, as per 5th condition, T being a male can’t be placed adjacent to V and hence only one place is left for T to be placed. Also, Y is not an immediate neighbour of V, so Y will be placed at V’s wife’s place. Q and R can be placed as per the 6th condition.

Keep following things in mind while solving seating arrangement or puzzle based questions-

• Do not be intimidated by the size or the language of the question.
• Read the entire question carefully. Every detail required to form the Seating Arrangement is mentioned in the question, you just need to observe properly and implement all the facts logically.
• Remember, even when combined with puzzles, the approach of the question will still remain the same as that of normal seating arrangement.
• Consider all the possible scenarios which may be formed as per the given question. A lot of the possibilities will cancel out as you move forward with the question.
• Practice. That is the only way you can expect to ace this topic.