Question

Directions for questions 146 to 148: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.

Ten sports persons A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J are sitting around a circular table. Each two of them play one of the following sports: Cricket, Swimming, Athletics, Football and Tennis, not necessarily in that order. It is also known that:

• Cricketers are sitting to the immediate right of Athletes and to the immediate left of Swimmers.
• Players who play the same sport sit opposite each other.
• The Tennis player does not sit next to a Swimmer.
• G is sitting equidistant from I and D.
• B and F are Athletes.
• C and D are Cricketers.
• G is sitting three places to the right of D and two places to the left of C.
• J and I are Swimmers.
• H is sitting two places to the right of I.

If F, D and J sit together, then answer the following question.

Who are the neighbors of H?

• A. F and A
• B. F and E
• C. A and E
• D. Cannot be determined

Hint:

F must take the free Athlete seat next to the D-J block, but the two Football players A and E can still swap between the two remaining seats.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

This question sits on top of the seating already built for the ten sports persons. Chairs 1 to 10 run clockwise, with D at chair 1, J at chair 2, G at chair 4, C at chair 6, I at chair 7 and H at chair 9 all locked in from the earlier clues, and chairs 5, 10 shared by the Athletes B and F, while chairs 3, 8 are shared by the Football pair A and E.

The new instruction says F, D and J must sit together as a block of three consecutive chairs. D and J already touch each other, at chairs 1 and 2, so the block only needs F to attach on one open end, either right before D (chair 10) or right after J (chair 3).

Here is where the Athlete restriction settles it: F can only ever be at chair 5 or chair 10, because those are the two seats reserved for Athletes. Chair 3 is not available to F at all, since it belongs to the Football pair, not the Athletes. So the only way to satisfy "F sits with D and J" is F taking chair 10, forming the run chair 10, chair 1, chair 2 as F, D, J side by side.

With F pinned to chair 10, B automatically takes the other Athlete seat, chair 5, since B and F are the only two Athletes and every other seat is already spoken for.

Now look at H, sitting at chair 9. A chair has exactly two neighbors on a circle, here chair 8 and chair 10. Chair 10 is now settled as F. Chair 8, though, still belongs to the pool shared by A and E, the Football pair, and nothing in any clue, old or new, ties one of them specifically to chair 8 rather than chair 3. Both assignments of A and E across chairs 3 and 8 satisfy every single condition given.

Let's summarize:

• D and J are already adjacent, so F must join the block, and only chair 10 works for F because F must be an Athlete.
• This fixes B at chair 5 and confirms F as one neighbor of H.
• The other neighbor of H, at chair 8, is A or E, and nothing in the puzzle distinguishes which one goes there.

Since one of H's two neighbors stays genuinely unresolved between A and E, the pair of neighbors as a whole cannot be determined.