Seating arrangement for IBPS Clerk

Seating arrangement questions place people in a row or around a table and ask who sits where. They usually come as a set of about five questions on one arrangement, alongside the other puzzles. The logic is rarely hard. Almost every wrong answer comes from one slip: taking someone's left as your left when they are facing a different way.

So this guide starts with direction, fixes it with a rule you can check yourself, and then solves a linear set and a circular set step by step. Each arrangement here has been checked to have exactly one solution.

Direction rules, and why they hold

Why the circle rule holds: picture the person sitting at the bottom of the circle, facing the centre. They face up the page, the same way you do, so their left is the page's left. Moving from the bottom of a clock face towards the left side (from 6 towards 9) is moving clockwise. So for people facing the centre, left is clockwise. If they face outwards, everything flips.

A simple habit: draw a small arrow for the way each person faces, then imagine sitting in their seat.

Key phrases

• "Immediately to the right": the very next seat on that person's right.
• "Second to the left": skip one seat, then take the next one on the left.
• "Only two people sit between A and B": count the people in between, not A and B themselves. In a circle, count along either side; the question usually works out which side fits.
• "Opposite" (in a circle of an even number of people): exactly half the circle away. With 8 people, that is 4 seats away.
• "At an extreme end": the first or last seat in a row.

The method

1. Draw the row or circle and mark the direction people face.
2. Start with a clue that fixes a position: an end, "third from the left", or "opposite".
3. In a circle, fix any one person's seat. A round table has no first seat, so the choice costs nothing.
4. When a clue allows two seats, draw both cases and let later clues remove one.
5. Check the final arrangement against every clue before answering.

Worked set 1: a linear row

Six people, A, B, C, D, E and F, sit in a row facing north.

• C sits third from the left end.
• A sits immediately to the left of C.
• F sits at one of the extreme ends.
• Only one person sits between F and B.
• D sits immediately to the left of F.

Solving (positions 1 to 6 from the left):

1. C is at 3. A is immediately to its left, at 2.
2. F is at 1 or 6. Branch. If F were at 1, D would need a seat to its left, which does not exist. So F is at 6 and D is at 5.
3. One person between F and B puts B at 4. It is free.
4. The only seat left, 1, goes to E.

Questions:

1. Who sits at the left end? E.
2. Who sits between C and D? B.
3. How many people sit to the right of A? Four (C, B, D and F).
4. Who sits second to the left of D? C.

Worked set 2: a circular table

Eight people, A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H, sit around a circular table, all facing the centre.

• A sits second to the right of E.
• C sits third to the left of A.
• D sits exactly opposite A.
• B is an immediate neighbour of E.
• F sits immediately to the right of H.
• G is not an immediate neighbour of D.

Solving: number the seats 1 to 8 going clockwise. Since everyone faces the centre, clockwise is leftward and anticlockwise is rightward.

1. Fix E at seat 1.
2. A is second to the right of E: two seats anticlockwise from 1, which is seat 7.
3. C is third to the left of A: three seats clockwise from 7 (8, 1, 2), which is seat 2.
4. D is opposite A: four seats from 7, which is seat 3.
5. B neighbours E, so B is at 8 or 2. Seat 2 is C, so B is at 8.
6. F, G and H share seats 4, 5 and 6. F is immediately to the right of H, so F is one seat anticlockwise from H. Branch: H at 5 and F at 4 (G at 6), or H at 6 and F at 5 (G at 4).
7. D is at 3, so seat 4 neighbours D. G cannot be there. The second case dies. F at 4, H at 5, G at 6.

Going clockwise from seat 1:

Seat 8 is next to seat 1, closing the circle.

Questions:

1. Who sits immediately to the left of E? C (one seat clockwise from E).
2. Who sits opposite F? B (seat 4 is opposite seat 8).
3. Who sits second to the right of D? E (two seats anticlockwise from seat 3).
4. Who sits immediately to the right of A? G (one seat anticlockwise from seat 7).
5. How many people sit between H and A, counting clockwise from H? One (G).

Common mistakes

• In rows facing south, taking the person's right as your right.
• In circles, treating right as clockwise because a clock "goes right".
• Counting A or B as one of the people "between" them.
• Forgetting that in a circle "second to the left" and "sixth to the right" are the same seat when there are 8 people.
• Answering questions before checking the final arrangement against every clue.

Practice set

Seven people, P, Q, R, S, T, U and V, sit in a row facing north.

• S sits at one of the extreme ends.
• Only two people sit between S and U.
• R sits immediately to the right of U.
• T sits second to the left of Q.
• V does not sit at an extreme end.
• P sits somewhere to the right of R.

Questions:

1. Who sits at the left end?
2. Who sits between U and P?
3. How many people sit to the left of R?
4. Who sits third to the right of V?
5. Who sits immediately to the left of U?

Solution: Number the seats 1 to 7 from the left. S is at 1 or 7, and either way two people between S and U put U at 4, so R is at 5. P is to the right of R: seat 6 or 7.

• Case 1: S at 1. Seats 2, 3, 6 and 7 are left for P, Q, T and V. T must be exactly two seats left of Q, but no two of these seats are two apart. Case 1 fails.
• Case 2: S at 7. P must be at 6. Q, T and V take seats 1, 2 and 3. T two seats left of Q gives T at 1 and Q at 3, so V is at 2, not at an end.

Answers:

1. T.
2. R.
3. Four (T, V, Q and U).
4. R (V is at 2; three to the right is 5).
5. Q.

What to do next

• Draw ten circles facing the centre and mark "second to the left" and "third to the right" from a fixed seat until it is automatic.
• Solve one linear and one circular set every day for two weeks.
• Use the same case-building method in puzzles, and keep the attempt plan from the reasoning plan.