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Seating arrangement practice puzzle for bank exams
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A seating arrangement puzzle describes where a group of people sit and asks you to fix every seat from a handful of clues. It is one of the most commonly tested puzzle types in the reasoning sections of bank exams, usually as a set of five questions. The skill is a clean diagram, not guesswork. Work through the puzzle below, which has exactly one valid arrangement.
Left and right in each layout
Most errors come from mixing up left and right, so settle this first.
| Layout | Left of a person is | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Circular, facing the centre | Clockwise | Right is anticlockwise |
| Circular, facing outside | Anticlockwise | The reverse of the above |
| Row facing north | West | The page's left, if north is at the top |
| Row facing south | East | Left and right flip against the page |
| Two rows facing each other | Each row's left is the other row's right | Mark the direction of each row |
"Opposite" in an eight-person circle means four seats away, and "second to the left" means two seats along.
The puzzle
Eight friends (Arun, Bala, Chitra, Divya, Ezhil, Farook, Geetha and Hari) sit around a circular table, all facing the centre.
- Arun sits second to the left of Bala.
- Chitra sits opposite Bala.
- Ezhil sits between Arun and Chitra, as an immediate neighbour of both.
- Hari sits immediate left of Chitra.
- Divya sits immediate left of Hari.
- Farook sits immediate right of Arun.
Five practice questions
Question 1
Who sits immediate right of Bala?
- A. Farook
- B. Geetha
- C. Hari
- D. Ezhil
Question 2
Who sits third to the left of Ezhil?
- A. Chitra
- B. Hari
- C. Divya
- D. Geetha
Question 3
How many people sit between Hari and Bala when counted from the left of Hari?
- A. 2
- B. 3
- C. 4
- D. 5
Question 4
Who sits opposite Hari?
- A. Arun
- B. Geetha
- C. Divya
- D. Farook
Question 5
Who are the immediate neighbours of Divya?
- A. Hari and Ezhil
- B. Hari and Geetha
- C. Chitra and Geetha
- D. Ezhil and Geetha
Answers and explanations
Place Bala at a fixed seat and move clockwise, which is the direction of "left". The arrangement is Bala, Farook, Arun, Ezhil, Chitra, Hari, Divya, Geetha, and then back to Bala.
- B. Right of Bala is the seat anticlockwise from Bala, which is Geetha.
- C. Counting three seats clockwise from Ezhil gives Chitra, Hari, Divya. So the answer is Divya.
- A. To the left of Hari come Divya, Geetha and then Bala. Divya and Geetha are between Hari and Bala, so the count is 2.
- D. Farook is at seat 1 and Hari at seat 5, which is four seats apart in an eight-seat circle. So Farook sits opposite Hari.
- B. Divya has Hari on one side and Geetha on the other.
How the clues fit: number the seats 0 to 7 clockwise from Bala. Arun is second to the left of Bala, so seat 2. Chitra is opposite, so seat 4. Ezhil sits between Arun and Chitra, so seat 3. Hari is immediate left of Chitra at seat 5, and Divya is immediate left of Hari at seat 6. Farook is immediate right of Arun at seat 1, which leaves Geetha at seat 7.
How to prepare seating arrangement puzzles
- Draw first, read second. Sketch the shape and number the seats before you read the clues, and put the reference direction on it.
- Start from the most definite clue. "Opposite" and "between" fix positions quickly. Clues with "or" or "not" should come last.
- Keep two diagrams when stuck. If a clue gives two possible placements, draw both and let a later clue eliminate one.
- Check each clue against the final arrangement. It takes 20 seconds and catches a left-right slip that would affect all five questions.
- Practise every layout. Rows, circles facing the centre, circles facing outside, squares and two-row set-ups each need a different left-right rule.
- Time the set. Aim for six to eight minutes for the five questions. A puzzle that runs longer is better left until the end of the section.
For more puzzle practice, try floor puzzles. The wider approach to reasoning is in the Reasoning Ability guide.
The full seating arrangement topic test is on PrepMatic (about 15 questions, 30 minutes). The bank exam hub links each exam's pattern.
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