Seating Arrangement and Floor Puzzles: A Step-by-Step Method

Seating arrangement and floor puzzles carry a large share of the marks in banking prelims reasoning. They look long, but every puzzle is solved the same way: place the fixed clues first, then let the restrictions decide the gaps.

Step 1: Draw the frame before reading clues

• Row: draw numbered slots from left to right: 1 2 3 4 5. Write “facing north” above the row so you remember that the people’s left is your left.
• Floors: draw a vertical stack with floor 1 at the bottom. Always check whether the question calls the ground floor “1” or “0”.
• Circle: draw a circle with the right number of seats and mark one person’s seat once you have a fixed clue.

Step 2: Sort the clues into three kinds

1. Fixed clues name an exact place: “C sits in the middle”, “Divya lives on the top floor”, “A sits at the left end”.
2. Linked clues relate two people: “B sits immediately right of C”, “Q lives two floors above R”.
3. Negative clues rule something out: “E does not sit next to A”, “R is not at the right end”.

Place fixed clues first, then attach linked clues to them. Use negative clues last: their job is to choose between the few options that are left.

Example: A, B, C, D and E sit in a row facing north. C is in the middle. A is at the left end. B is immediately right of C. E does not sit next to A.

• Fixed: A = 1, C = 3.
• Linked: B = 4.
• Left over: places 2 and 5 for D and E. Negative clue: E is not next to A, so E = 5 and D = 2.
• Final order: A D C B E.

Step 3: When a clue could fit two ways, draw both cases

“K sits at one of the ends” gives two cases. Draw two rows, one for each, and continue in both. Usually a later clue makes one case impossible. For example, if another clue says “L sits third to the right of K”, the case with K at the right end fails (there is no room on K’s right), so only one case survives.

Never guess and carry on with a single row. Most wrong answers in this chapter come from a case that was dropped too early.

Left and right in a circle

This is where most mistakes happen.

Facing	Their left is	Their right is
The centre	Clockwise	Anticlockwise
Outside (away from the centre)	Anticlockwise	Clockwise

Picture yourself sitting at the bottom of the table, facing the centre. Your right hand points to the right side of the page, which is the anticlockwise direction around the circle.

In a circle of 6, the person opposite is 3 seats away in either direction. In a circle of 8, they are 4 seats away.

Floor puzzle tips

• “Immediately above” means one floor up; “above” alone means any higher floor.
• “Two floors above R”: count floors, not people. If R is on 3, the person is on 5.
• Clues about even- or odd-numbered floors are excellent for removing options; use them early.

Step 4: Check every clue against the final answer

Before marking an answer, read every clue once more against your final drawing. It takes 20 seconds and catches most mistakes.

How to practise

Start with 5-person rows, then 6-person rows, then floors, then circles facing the centre. Time yourself: a 5-person puzzle should take under two minutes once the method is automatic.

Practise every type in our seating arrangement set. Each answer there shows the order in which the clues are placed.