In this guide
A puzzle gives you a few people and one or two attributes, such as a day, a floor or a colour, then five or six clues that fix exactly one arrangement. Two or three questions follow. The first question in a set is slow because you have to build the arrangement; the rest take seconds because you only read it off.
Most candidates who struggle with puzzles are not short of logic. They start with the wrong clue, keep the working in their head, or stop checking once the grid "looks right". A fixed method fixes all three.
Where puzzles sit in the paper
Puzzles fall under the analytical part of General Intelligence and Reasoning. They are among the longest questions in the section, often a minute or more for the first question in a set, so they should come after the quick types such as series, analogy and coding.
The three kinds you will meet
| Kind | What you arrange | Best diagram |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling | People against days, months or time slots | A single row of slots, Monday to Friday |
| Floor or box | People or boxes stacked one above another | A vertical column, floor 1 at the bottom |
| Matching | Two or three attributes per person (city, colour, game) | A grid: people as rows, attributes as columns |
Floor puzzles need one extra check before you start: is floor 1 the bottom? Most questions say so. If a question numbers from the top, write "1 = top" beside your column.
The method
- Draw the frame first. Slots for days, a column for floors, or a grid for matching.
- Fixed clues: "R's meeting is on Wednesday", "B is from Pune".
- Relative clues: "P's meeting is the day before R's", "T lives immediately above R".
- Gap clues: "Exactly two people live between R and U". Write every possible pair of positions.
- Negative and order clues last: "Q is not on Friday", "T is after S". These choose between the options still open.
- Check every clue against the final arrangement before you answer.
In a matching grid, mark ✓ for a certain fact and ✗ for a ruled-out option. When a row or a column has only one blank left, that blank must be ✓.
Worked puzzle 1: a schedule
Five people, P, Q, R, S and T, each have one meeting from Monday to Friday, on different days.
- R's meeting is on Wednesday.
- P's meeting is on the day before R's.
- T's meeting is on a later day than S's.
- Q's meeting is not on Friday.
- S's meeting is not on Monday.
Solving:
- R = Wednesday, so P = Tuesday.
- Monday, Thursday and Friday remain for Q, S and T.
- S is not on Monday. T comes after S, so S cannot be on Friday either. So S = Thursday.
- T comes after S, so T = Friday.
- Q = Monday, which is not Friday, as required.
| Day | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Q | P | R | S | T |
Worked puzzle 2: a building with six floors
Six people, P, Q, R, S, T and U, live in a six-storey building, one on each floor. Floor 1 is the bottom and floor 6 the top.
- R lives on floor 4.
- Exactly two people live between R and U.
- T lives immediately above R.
- P lives on an odd-numbered floor.
- Q does not live on the top floor.
Solving:
- R = 4. Two people between R and U means U is on floor 1 or floor 7. There is no floor 7, so U = 1.
- T is immediately above R: T = 5.
- Floors 2, 3 and 6 remain for P, Q and S. P is on an odd floor, and 1 and 5 are taken, so P = 3.
- Q is not on the top floor, so Q = 2 and S = 6.
| Floor | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | S | T | R | P | Q | U |
- Who lives on the top floor? S.
- How many people live between P and S? Two (R and T).
- Who lives immediately below P? Q.
Worked puzzle 3: matching three attributes
Four people, A, B, C and D, are each from a different city (Delhi, Pune, Patna, Jaipur) and each like a different colour (red, blue, green, yellow).
- B is from Pune.
- The person from Delhi likes green.
- A likes neither green nor red.
- C is not from Delhi and likes red.
- The person from Jaipur likes blue.
Solving:
- C likes red. A likes neither green nor red.
- Who is from Delhi? Not B (Pune), not C (given), and not A, because the Delhi person likes green and A does not. So D is from Delhi and likes green.
- Patna and Jaipur remain for A and C. The Jaipur person likes blue, but C likes red, so C is from Patna and A from Jaipur. A likes blue.
- Yellow is the only colour left, so B likes yellow.
| Person | City | Colour |
|---|---|---|
| A | Jaipur | Blue |
| B | Pune | Yellow |
| C | Patna | Red |
| D | Delhi | Green |
Worked puzzle 4: two cases, then one
Five boxes, A, B, C, D and E, are stacked one above another. Position 1 is the bottom and 5 the top.
- E is at the top.
- B is immediately above C.
- Exactly one box is between A and C.
- D is not immediately below E.
- A is above D.
Solving: E = 5, so A, B, C and D fill positions 1–4, with B directly on C.
| Case | C | B | A | D | Clue that decides |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C at 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | D is directly below E: rejected |
| C at 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | A (4) is above D (1): kept |
| C at 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | A (1) is below D (2): rejected |
Arrangement, bottom to top: D, C, B, A, E.
Notice that without the last clue, two stacks would fit. That is exactly why step 6, checking every clue, matters: if you had stopped after the first workable stack, you might have picked the wrong one.
Common mistakes
- Starting with a negative clue. "Q is not on Friday" rarely places anyone on its own.
- Missing a case. For "exactly two between", count both directions: above and below, before and after.
- Reading "immediately above" as "somewhere above".
- Assuming floor 1 is the top when the question says bottom, or the reverse.
- Keeping the grid in your head. Even a four-person matching puzzle is quicker on paper.
- Spending four minutes on one set. If the arrangement has not settled in about two minutes, mark it and move on.
Practice set
Set A. Four people, W, X, Y and Z, each play a different game: cricket, football, hockey or tennis.
- W plays hockey.
- X plays neither cricket nor tennis.
- Y does not play cricket.
- Who plays football?
- Who plays tennis?
- Which game does Z play?
Set B. Five people, J, K, L, M and N, each have an exam on a different day from Monday to Friday.
- N's exam is on Monday.
- K's exam is on the day immediately after M's.
- Exactly two people have exams between J's and L's.
- L's exam is after J's.
- Whose exam is on Thursday?
- Whose exam is on the day immediately after J's?
- How many people have exams between N's and L's?
Set A answers:
- X. Hockey is taken by W, and X plays neither cricket nor tennis.
- Y. Y does not play cricket, and hockey and football are taken.
- Cricket, the only game left.
Set B answers: the order is N, J, M, K, L (Monday to Friday).
- K. Tuesday to Friday remain. J and L need two days between them with L later, so J = Tuesday and L = Friday. M and K take Wednesday and Thursday in that order.
- M.
- Three (J, M and K).
What to do next
- Solve ten puzzles this week, drawing the frame before reading the second clue.
- For every gap clue, write all the cases in a small table, as in puzzle 4.
- Time yourself: aim to have the arrangement settled within two minutes.
- Revise seating arrangement, which uses the same clue order, and order and ranking for position counting.
A note on dates and numbers. Exam patterns, vacancies and schedules change from year to year. Always confirm the current details in the latest notification on the Railway Recruitment Boards website .
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