Question

Four people P, Q, R, and S, of different ages, make the following observations.
P: I am younger than S.
Q: I am neither the youngest nor the oldest.
R: P is older than me.
Based on these observations, the youngest person is ______.

• A. P
• B. Q
• C. R
• D. S

Hint:

Combine P's and R's statements to get R younger than P younger than S, then use Q's statement to rule Q out of the youngest spot.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

A quick way to crack this kind of puzzle is to test each answer choice as "the youngest" and see if it survives the three statements without a contradiction.

1. Test S as youngest: P says P is younger than S. If S were the youngest, nobody could be younger than S, but P is younger than S by that statement. This breaks immediately, so S cannot be the youngest.
2. Test P as youngest: R says P is older than R, which means R is younger than P. If P were the youngest, nothing could be younger than P, so this also breaks. P is out.
3. Test Q as youngest: Q states directly that Q is neither the youngest nor the oldest. Picking Q as the youngest contradicts Q's own statement, so Q is out too.
4. Test R as youngest: The two hard facts we have are R younger than P, and P younger than S, which already puts R below both P and S. Q only needs to sit somewhere between R and S without touching either end, which is easy to satisfy, for instance R younger than Q younger than P younger than S. No statement is broken.

Only R survives every check, so R is the youngest person. That matches option (C).

Let's summarize:

• P's and R's statements chain together into R younger than P younger than S.
• Q's own statement removes Q from either extreme, leaving R as the only person who can sit at the bottom of the age order.

So the youngest person among the four is R.