Linear seating
Seating arrangement questions for bank exam prep — solved on a real board
Seating arrangement questions for bank exam papers give you a row or table of people plus a set of positional clues, and ask you to work out who sits where. Solve one by drawing the frame first, placing the clues that fix an exact seat, then branching into cases only where a clue leaves genuine choice, and eliminating each branch that a later clue contradicts.
Arrangement puzzles are the largest single block in banking reasoning: IBPS and SBI prelims routinely carry two or three sets of five questions each, meaning a third of the section can hang on this one skill. They are also where candidates lose the most time, because a single misread clue is not noticed until the arrangement fails several steps later.
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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 people sit in a row, all facing the same way — seat 1 is the far left, seat 5 the far right.
- Exactly 2 people sit between Jaya and Rohan.
- Jaya sits immediately to the left of Manish.
- Uma sits immediately to the left of Jaya.
- Manish sits somewhere to the right of Rohan.
- Jaya sits somewhere to the right of Lata.
Can you work out who sits in each seat?
Show the worked solution
- Start: 120 possible left-to-right orders of 5 people.
- Clue 1 — "Exactly 2 people sit between Jaya and Rohan." leaves 24 possibilities.
- Clue 2 — "Jaya sits immediately to the left of Manish." leaves 6 possibilities.
- Clue 3 — "Uma sits immediately to the left of Jaya." leaves 2 possibilities.
- Clue 4 — "Manish sits somewhere to the right of Rohan." leaves 1 possibility. The surviving order is Rohan, Lata, Uma, Jaya, Manish (left to right).
- Clue 5 — "Jaya sits somewhere to the right of Lata." leaves 1 possibility. The surviving order is Rohan, Lata, Uma, Jaya, Manish (left to right).
- Exactly one order survives every clue: Rohan, Lata, Uma, Jaya, Manish (left to right).
Question 2
5 people sit in a row, all facing the same way — seat 1 is the far left, seat 5 the far right.
- Nikhil sits immediately to the right of Gauri.
- Aditi sits at the far-right (extreme) end of the row.
- Exactly 2 people sit between Neha and Gauri.
- Chetan sits somewhere to the left of Aditi.
Can you work out who sits in each seat?
Show the worked solution
- Start: 120 possible left-to-right orders of 5 people.
- Clue 1 — "Nikhil sits immediately to the right of Gauri." leaves 24 possibilities.
- Clue 2 — "Aditi sits at the far-right (extreme) end of the row." leaves 6 possibilities.
- Clue 3 — "Exactly 2 people sit between Neha and Gauri." leaves 1 possibility. The surviving order is Gauri, Nikhil, Chetan, Neha, Aditi (left to right).
- Clue 4 — "Chetan sits somewhere to the left of Aditi." leaves 1 possibility. The surviving order is Gauri, Nikhil, Chetan, Neha, Aditi (left to right).
- Exactly one order survives every clue: Gauri, Nikhil, Chetan, Neha, Aditi (left to right).
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How to solve seating arrangement questions for bank exam papers
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Draw the frame before you read clue one
Write the seats as empty slots and mark which way people face. A row of six facing north is a different puzzle from six facing you — in the second, every left and right in the clue list is mirrored.
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Place the anchors first
Anchors are clues that name an exact seat: an end of the row, or a fixed position. They cost nothing to apply and shrink the search space more than any relative clue, so they always go down first.
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Apply exact-gap clues next, then loose ones
“Exactly two people sit between A and B” pins a shape you can slide along the row; “A sits somewhere to the left of B” only orders them. Spend your early moves on the clues that carry the most information.
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Branch only where a clue genuinely leaves a choice
If a block can sit in two places, draw both cases side by side and carry them forward together. Casework is not guessing — each branch is a complete hypothesis you will confirm or kill with a later clue.
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Use the negative clues to kill branches
“A does not sit next to B” and “C is not at either end” rarely place anyone, but they are the fastest way to eliminate a whole case. Save them for when you have two surviving branches.
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Verify every clue against the finished row
Before answering, walk the full clue list once against your arrangement. A correct-looking row that violates clue three costs you the entire five-question set, not one mark.
Clue types, ranked by how much they pin down
Clue types, ranked by how much they pin down
| Clue | What it fixes |
|---|
| A sits at the far-left end | An exact seat — apply immediately |
|---|
| Exactly two people sit between A and B | A rigid block that can slide; few valid placements |
|---|
| A sits immediately to the left of B | An adjacent pair with a fixed order |
|---|
| A sits next to B | An adjacent pair, order unknown — two sub-cases |
|---|
| A sits somewhere to the left of B | Relative order only; place late |
|---|
| A does not sit next to B | Fixes nobody — use it to eliminate cases |
|---|
Common mistakes
Ignoring which way the row faces
When people face you rather than facing north, their left is your right. Mark the facing direction on your frame and read every clue from the seated person's point of view, not yours.
Treating “next to” as an ordered clue
“A sits next to B” allows AB and BA. Only “immediately to the left of” fixes the order. Collapsing the two loses a valid arrangement and usually produces a contradiction later.
Restarting instead of backtracking
When a case fails, the work above the branch point is still valid. Rubbing out the whole diagram and starting again is the single biggest time sink in a seating set.
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FAQ
How do you start a seating arrangement question?
Draw the empty frame and mark the facing direction, then scan the whole clue list for anchors — clues naming an exact seat such as an end of the row. Place those first, apply exact-gap clues next, and only then work with loose ordering clues. Reading clues in the order given is slower than reading them by strength.
When should I split into cases?
Only when a clue leaves a real choice, such as a pair that could sit in two positions. Draw both branches side by side and carry them forward together rather than committing to one. Negative clues like “A does not sit next to B” are usually what kills the wrong branch.
What is the difference between linear and circular seating?
A row has fixed ends and a fixed left and right, so an anchor clue naming an end pins an exact seat. A circle has no ends and no absolute position — every clue is relative, and the whole arrangement is only determined up to rotation, which changes how you anchor it.
How long should a seating arrangement set take?
A well-prepared candidate solves a five-question set in roughly four to six minutes in prelims. Most of that is the arrangement itself; once the diagram is correct the five questions are lookups. If a set has taken eight minutes without resolving, leaving it is usually the higher-scoring decision.
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