Box arrangement
Box puzzle reasoning questions — free, machine-verified practice
Box puzzle reasoning questions stack boxes one above another and give clues about which sits above which and how many lie between them. The method is the floor puzzle's: number the positions from the bottom, place absolute clues first, treat each gap clue as a rigid block, and branch only where a clue leaves genuine choice.
Box puzzles are a staple of IBPS and SBI prelims and are structurally identical to floor puzzles wearing different vocabulary — which is good news, because one method covers both. What raises their difficulty is that the clue set usually mixes “above” with “immediately above”, and the two constrain very differently.
How to solve box puzzle reasoning questions with the block method
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Number the stack before reading a single clue
Write positions 1 to n from the bottom up and keep that orientation for the whole question. Boxes described as “above” move up the numbers. Fixing the direction once removes the inversion error that costs most candidates their first attempt.
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Place every absolute clue first
“Box P is at the top” or “only two boxes are below R” fixes a box outright and costs nothing to apply. Exhaust these before any relative clue, because each one shrinks the space every later clue has to search.
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Treat a gap clue as one rigid object
“Three boxes lie between P and Q” makes P and Q the ends of a five-high block. Enumerate every position that block can occupy — usually two or three — and treat each as a branch to test rather than a fact to assume.
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Distinguish “above” from “immediately above” on every read
“Above” gives order only; “immediately above” fixes the distance at one. Papers alternate the two deliberately within the same set. Underline the word “immediately” wherever it appears before you start placing anything.
What each box clue constrains
What each box clue constrains
| Clue wording | What it fixes |
|---|
| P is immediately above Q | P = Q + 1, adjacent and ordered |
|---|
| Three boxes are between P and Q | |P − Q| = 4, either orientation |
|---|
| P is above Q | P > Q only — order, no distance |
|---|
| Only two boxes are above P | P is fixed: third from the top |
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| P is neither at the top nor the bottom | Removes two positions outright |
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| As many boxes above P as below Q | A relation between two positions, not a fixed spot |
|---|
Practise box puzzle reasoning questions right now
Every question below was generated by the same engine that mints the Deduce daily puzzle, and machine-proven to have exactly one correct answer before it reached this page. The walkthrough is the engine's own, step for step.
Question 1
5 boxes are stacked one above another — position 1 is the bottom box and position 5 the top.
- Box F is kept 5th from the bottom of the stack.
- Box H is kept 3rd from the top of the stack.
- Box D is kept immediately above Box E.
- Box G is kept somewhere above Box E.
Can you work out which box sits at each position?
Show the worked solution
- Start: 120 possible stackings of 5 boxes.
- Clue 2 — "Box H is kept 3rd from the top of the stack." ⇒ Box H → position 3 (24 possibilities left).
- Clue 1 — "Box F is kept 5th from the bottom of the stack." ⇒ Box F → position 5 (top) (6 possibilities left).
- Clue 3 — "Box D is kept immediately above Box E." ⇒ Box G → position 4, Box D → position 2, Box E → position 1 (bottom) (1 possibility left).
- Exactly one stacking survives every clue — that is the answer.
Question 2
5 boxes are stacked one above another — position 1 is the bottom box and position 5 the top.
- Box B is kept 5th from the bottom of the stack.
- Box E is kept immediately below Box G.
- Exactly one box is kept between Box A and Box G.
- Box A is kept somewhere above Box G.
- Box H is kept somewhere below Box B.
Can you work out which box sits at each position?
Show the worked solution
- Start: 120 possible stackings of 5 boxes.
- Clue 1 — "Box B is kept 5th from the bottom of the stack." ⇒ Box B → position 5 (top) (24 possibilities left).
- Clue 2 — "Box E is kept immediately below Box G." narrows it to 6 possibilities.
- Clue 3 — "Exactly one box is kept between Box A and Box G." narrows it to 3 possibilities.
- Clue 4 — "Box A is kept somewhere above Box G." ⇒ Box A → position 4, Box G → position 2, Box H → position 3, Box E → position 1 (bottom) (1 possibility left).
- Exactly one stacking survives every clue — that is the answer.
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Common mistakes
Reading “three boxes between” as a gap of three
Three boxes between P and Q means positions differing by four, because the three occupy the space between them. This off-by-one is the same one that breaks floor puzzles, and the option list is built to reward it.
Flipping the stack direction mid-solve
Deciding halfway that position 1 is the top invalidates everything already placed, usually without any visible contradiction. Write “1 = bottom” at the top of your working and never revisit it.
Assuming an orientation a clue never fixed
A gap clue rarely says which box is higher. Both orientations must be carried until a later clue kills one. Committing early is how a solvable puzzle turns into a contradiction ten clues later.
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FAQ
Are box puzzles the same as floor puzzles?
Structurally, yes — both place items in a single vertical order with above-below clues, and the same method solves both. The vocabulary differs and box puzzles more often mix in an attribute such as colour or weight, but if you can solve one you can solve the other with no new technique.
What does “three boxes between P and Q” mean?
Three boxes occupy the space between them, so their positions differ by four. If P is at position 2, Q is at position 6, or the reverse — the clue usually does not say which is higher, so both orientations must be carried until something else settles it.
How many boxes do exam puzzles usually have?
Six to eight, one item per position. Some sets add a second attribute per box, such as a colour or a weight, which turns the puzzle into a two-column grid. The placement method is unchanged; you simply track two facts per row instead of one.
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