Seating Arrangement: Types, Approach, Questions with Answer Key

The seating arrangement questions share a major chunk of the reasoning ability section in most of the banking exams. Many fear this topic as they struggle to get the right answer and find it difficult even to begin to solve it. This predominantly happens due to the inability of cutting through the complexity of the question. But today, you will have the right approach for solving seating arrangement questions efficiently.

List of exams where you can find SA related questions

SBI PO	SEBI Grade A
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)	NABARD Grade A

Seating Arrangement: Types of Questions

Mainly there are two types of questions which are asked in the exam:

                        INTRODUCTION 

Linear – Raw-based, north face, south face, straight line, west facing, east facing, parallel lines, etc.

Closed – Circle, square, rectangle, triangle, octagon, etc.

You can find categories of questions such as – complex arrangement, seating arrangement in a photograph, introduction and assumptions, miscellaneous arrangements.  

Key pointers before attempting seating arrangement questions

Don’t take such questions for granted or treat them at your convenience

Such questions are very particular and can’t be solved as you like them to. You will have to follow a particular protocol to solve them. Questions dealing with arrangements, possibilities, and conditions need to be handled with utmost sincerity. You can’t skip any steps or information provided. And most importantly, never assume anything while solving SA questions.  

Read each and every word of the question as if you were reading a holy book

With conditions given in the question makes such questions demand utmost concentration. You literally have to make sense of every detail mentioned. Otherwise, you will surely end up making mistakes. And you will realise when you get to know your answer doesn’t match. You might get the question right after the second attempt, but the clock is ahead of you by now.  

Practice is the only solution

SA questions demand rigorous practice. It’s not that they are too hard to solve, but the nature of questions is such you need to solve plenty of them to get used to them. Becoming habitual with SA questions is the only way to score those essential 8-10 marks in the exam.  

Practice Questions for SA

Directions 1-5: Answer the following questions based on the information given below:

Seven persons P, Q, R, S, T, U and V work in different office among IBM, Facebook, Grofers, Infosys, TCS, Google and Flipkart but not necessarily in same order. Each of them goes to office at different time among 7:15am, 8:00am, 8:30am, 9:30am, 11:00am and 11:45am. The timing of one person is not known.  Nobody comes before 7:00am or after 12noon.  

Q works in Google.  

P works in TCS at 8:30am.  

U goes to office at 7:15am but not in Flipkart.  

The difference in the timings of Q and one, who works in IBM, is 45 minutes. V does not go to office after 11:00am.  

Neither R nor S works in IBM or Facebook.   

Nobody goes to office at 9:00am.  

The timing of the one, who works in Facebook, is not among the given times.  The one, who works in Infosys, goes after one, who works in Flipkart. There is a difference of at least 3 hours between S’s and V’s timing.  

Common Solution:

Now, Q works in Google. P works in TCS at 8:30am. U goes to office at 7:15am but not in Flipkart. The difference in the timings of Q and one, who works in IBM, is 45 minutes. V does not go to office after 11:00am. So, either V or T works in IBM.  

–	Case 1	Case 2
–	Persons Companies	Timings (A.M.)	Companies	Timings (A.M.)
P	TCS	8:30	TCS	8:30
Q	Google	11:45/11:00	Google	11:45
R	–	–	–	–
S	–	–	–	–
T	IBM	11:00/11:45	Facebook	–
U	–	7:15	–	7:15
V	Facebook	–	IBM	11:00

Now, neither R nor S works in IBM or Facebook. Nobody goes to office at 9:00am.  The timing of one, who works in Facebook is not known. The one, who works in Infosys, goes after one, who works in Flipkart. There is a difference of at least 3 hours between S’s and V’s timing. So, case 1 is rejected.   

The final table is shown below,

–	Persons Companies	Timings (A.M.)
P	TCS	8:30
Q	Google	11:45
R	Infosys	9:30
S	Flipkart	8:00
T	Facebook	Unknown
U	Grofers	7:15
V	IBM	11:00

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