Question

Arijit, Biplab, Chintan, Debashish, Elangovan, Frederick, Gautam and Himadri are sitting around a circular table. Some information about the order in which they are sitting is available as follows:
1. Debashish is sitting opposite to Himadri and to the immediate right of Gautam.
2. Elangovan is sitting to the immediate right of Biplab.
3. Arijit is sitting opposite Chintan who is not immediately next to Frederick on either side.
Who is sitting to the immediate right of Himadri?

• A. Arijit
• B. Debashish
• C. Elangovan
• D. Frederick

Hint:

Place Gautam and Debashish first, then use the opposite-seat and consecutive-seat clues to fix everyone else.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

An alternative way to crack this is to treat the 8 seats as positions 0 to 7 arranged clockwise and turn each clue into a simple equation, rather than placing people one at a time by trial.

1. Let Gautam sit at position 0. Since Debashish sits immediately to Gautam's right, Debashish is at position 1.
2. Debashish is opposite Himadri, and opposite seats in an 8 seat circle differ by 4, so Himadri is at position 1 plus 4, which is position 5.
3. The five remaining positions, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, hold Arijit, Biplab, Chintan, Elangovan and Frederick.
4. Arijit and Chintan sit opposite each other, a difference of 4. Among the remaining positions, the pairs differing by exactly 4 are positions 2 and 6, and positions 3 and 7, since position 4's opposite, position 0, is already Gautam's.
5. Elangovan must sit exactly one position clockwise from Biplab, so wherever Arijit and Chintan land, the leftover three positions must contain two consecutive numbers.
6. If Arijit and Chintan take positions 3 and 7, the leftover positions are 2, 4 and 6, and none of these are consecutive, so Biplab and Elangovan cannot be seated. This rules out positions 3 and 7 for Arijit and Chintan.
7. So Arijit and Chintan must take positions 2 and 6, leaving 3, 4 and 7 for Biplab, Elangovan and Frederick. Positions 3 and 4 are consecutive, so Biplab is at position 3 and Elangovan at position 4, leaving Frederick at position 7.
8. The last clue rules out Chintan sitting next to Frederick. Frederick at position 7 is next to positions 6 and 0. Placing Chintan at position 6 would break this rule, so Chintan is at position 2 and Arijit is at position 6.
9. Converting positions to everyday seat numbers 1 through 8 by adding 1 to each, the arrangement is seat 1 Gautam, seat 2 Debashish, seat 3 Chintan, seat 4 Biplab, seat 5 Elangovan, seat 6 Himadri, seat 7 Arijit, seat 8 Frederick.
10. Himadri occupies seat 6, so the seat immediately to his right, seat 7, belongs to Arijit, confirming Arijit as the answer.