Question

Directions:
Study the following information carefully and answer the questions that follow. Five friends - Rahul, Sameer, Tarun, Umesh and Vikas - are of different ages. (i) Tarun is older than Rahul but younger than Sameer. (ii) Umesh is younger than Rahul. (iii) Vikas is older than Sameer.

Who among the five friends is the youngest?

• A. Rahul
• B. Tarun
• C. Sameer
• D. Umesh

Hint:

Instead of tracing who is older, trace who never appears on the 'older than' side of any clue - that person has nobody below them.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Convert every clue into a directed "older than" arrow: Sameer > Tarun, Tarun > Rahul, Rahul > Umesh, Vikas > Sameer.
Step 2: This time check each person for an "outgoing" arrow, meaning they are stated to be older than someone else: Vikas points to Sameer, Sameer points to Tarun, Tarun points to Rahul, and Rahul points to Umesh.
Step 3: Umesh is the only person with no outgoing arrow - no clue says Umesh is older than anyone.
Step 4: By transitivity, Vikas > Sameer > Tarun > Rahul > Umesh, so Umesh is below every other friend in age.
Step 5: This rules out Rahul, Tarun and Sameer, since each of them is shown to be older than at least one person.
Correct option: Umesh