Question

Instructions: Seven students, Priya, Ankit, Raman, Sunil, Tony, Deepak and Vicky, take a series of tests. No two students get similar marks. Vicky always scores more than Priya. Priya always scores more than Ankit. Each time, either Raman scores the highest and Tony gets the least, or alternatively Sunil scores the highest and Deepak or Ankit scores the least.

If Vicky is ranked fifth, which of the following must be true?

• A. Sunil scores the highest
• B. Raman is ranked second
• C. Tony is ranked third
• D. Ankit is ranked second

Hint:

Vicky at fifth forces Priya-6 and Ankit-7, which rules out Tony being the “least” student and forces Sunil to be the highest instead.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

The key move here is to notice that Vicky at fifth leaves only two ranks (sixth and seventh) worse than her, and both Priya and Ankit need a worse rank than Vicky, which pins them down completely.

1. Priya and Ankit must take ranks 6 and 7, and since Priya must beat Ankit, the order is fixed as Priya-6, Ankit-7.
2. With Ankit already sitting at rank 7, there is no room left for Tony to also be at rank 7, so the “Raman highest, Tony least” branch cannot be the one in play here.
3. That leaves only the other branch: Sunil highest, with Deepak or Ankit at the least rank. Since Ankit already satisfies the “least” part at rank 7, this branch is confirmed active, and its other half, Sunil at rank 1, is therefore forced to be true as well.
4. Raman, Tony and Deepak simply share the remaining ranks 2, 3 and 4 with no further ordering rule among them, so no single one of them is pinned to an exact rank.

Only the claim about Sunil scoring the highest is guaranteed.

So the correct answer is option A.