The two row reasoning puzzle needs placement in positions as well as ranking by height
In this first session on reasoning puzzles for Bank PO exams, the puzzle chosen is a two row, two object set assignment puzzle, with the complexity of ranking the persons by height as well as placing them against the eight positions in two rows.
Two Row Hybrid Reasoning Puzzle for Bank PO
Problem description
Romi, Sree, Soma, Sonia, Anju, Rupa, Devi and Meeni are eight friends all of whom have different heights. They are standing in two rows of four girls each, with four facing north and four facing south.
Conditional statements
- Meeni is shorter than Romi.
- The tallest girl among the eight is neither standing at any of the ends nor facing north.
- Anju is shorter than Sree and is facing south.
- Sonia is the shortest among the eight girls and is standing directly opposite Rupa who is facing south.
- Devi is taller than Soma but shorter than Meeni.
- Romi is standing at the second position to the right of Devi.
- Rupa is shorter than only two girls, Anju and Sree.
- Meeni is standing directly opposite Soma who is facing south.
- Devi is standing at the third position to the left of Sonia.
Questions
Question 1. Who stands opposite to the tallest girl?
- Meeni
- Anju
- Rupa
- Romi
- Devi
Question 2. Who among the following stands next to the second tallest girl?
- Devi
- Soma
- Rupa
- Anju
- Sonia
Question 3. Which among the following five does not belong to the group formed by the other four?
- Meeni-Romi
- Devi-Anju
- Sonia-Devi
- Rupa-Romi
- Soma-Sonia
Question 4. Which two girls are standing at the two ends of the row facing south?
- Rupa-Sonia
- Romi-Devi
- Meeni-Sonia
- Devi-Rupa
- Rupa-Anju
Question 5. Who is standing side by side of the girl standing opposite to the second shortest girl?
- Meeni
- Devi
- Rupa
- Sonia
- Anju
Solution to the hybrid Two Row Reasoning Puzzle of Bank PO type
Problem analysis and representation
We have two sets of objects. The 8 persons in two groups of four members each are to be placed against the 8 positions in two rows facing each other. At first glance this problem looks just a simple two row, two object set assignment problem. But when we go through the conditional statements, the clauses referring to relative heights of the persons are encountered. Clearly this problem is a hybrid one, that is, a mixture of two problems, first problem a two object set, two row assignment problem and a second problem of ranking by height.
From a brief scan of the conditions, it is expected that position assignments will also depend on height rank clauses. So the two problems cannot be solved one after the other. As a two row assignment problem is predominantly more important with associated difficulties compared to a single list ranking problem, we choose our strategy of executing the conditional statements as to,
- execute first the conditional statements that places the persons against the positions,
- while doing so, execute the height ranking conditions that affect the positioning actions directly, and
- complete the height ranking once we get the positioning part under control.
With these impressions, we decide to use a standard two row facing each other logic table with tracking list of persons written at the top of the table and a simple way to carry out the heightt ranking simultaneously by using a list of names of persons at the bottom of the table in which lower heights will be indicated by "less than (<)" symbol.
The corresponding logic table that we will use is shown below.
Solution Stage 1: Strategy 1: Direct and certain assignment first with Statements referring to "extreme ends" implicitly or explicitly, link search and statement group execution
In any assignment puzzle, Direct certain assignments in the beginning is a "highly preferred" priority. Without such a direct certain assignment of a secondary member to a position, we won't be able to place any member onto the logic table in the beginning, and further steps will be difficult to carry out.
To achieve this first certain assignment in a linear seating or standing puzzle, reference to the extreme ends, or right or left ends, explicitly (or implicitly) is a necessity. We find an implicit reference to extreme ends in this two row standing puzzle in Statement 9. "Devi is standing at the third position to the left of Sonia." by which we can at best place Devi and Sonia at two ends of a row, but not exactly on a particular row.
The two possibilities would be, "Devi-position-position-Sonia" for the row facing north, and ""Sonia-position-position-Devi" for row facing south (for which left-right is reverse of onlooker's usual left-right).
To be certain about the row, next we search for reference of Devi or Sonia following link search technique.
In Statement 4. "Sonia is the shortest among the eight girls and is standing directly opposite Rupa who is facing south.", we get just the condition we are looking for. The useful condition for us here is the part, "Sonia is standing directly opposite Rupa who is facing south" which places Sonia firmly in the row facing north. Now we can place Devi in position 5 and Sonia in position 8 in row facing north with certainty. As Rupa stands opposite Sonia, she gets position 1 in row facing south.
This also is use of statement group execution strategy, as we needed two statements to achieve certain assignments.
To complete the execution of the leftover condition in Statement 4, "Sonia is the shortest among the eight girls", Sonia is placed in the beginning of the ranking list (at the bottom of the logic table) followed by a "less than (<)" symbol and then the names of the other seven girls, indicating that Sonia is the shortest among the eight girls.
Without leaving the certain position information we have managed to obtain till now, link search for Devi, Sonia and Rupa is continued. As a result we get next an easy pickings in Statement 6. Romi is standing at the second position to the right of Devi." and Romi can be placed in position 7 in row facing north.
Continuing our search for an easy picking we get the next one in Statement 8. "Meeni is standing directly opposite Soma who is facing south." as these two, Meeni and Soma can only be placed under the circumstances in position 6 in row facing north and in position 3 in row facing south respectively.
To finish this stage we detect another easy picking in Statement 2. "The tallest girl among the eight is neither standing at any of the ends nor facing north.", by which we can record just the result of "tallest", but no person name in position 2 of row facing south.
The following is the logic table after execution of these five statements in Stage 1.
Solution Stage 2: Strategies: Exclusion and conflict
In this stage, only two girls Anju and Sree are yet to be placed and they are to be placed in position 2 and 4 of row facing south. It is a highly constrained situation regarding placement in positions. So we look for reference of Anju or Sree. And sure enough we get the right Statement 3. "Anju is shorter than Sree and is facing south." which identifies Sree as the taller one compared to Anju. As we have already recorded "tallest" in position 2, Sree automatically gets the distinction of the tallest among the eight girls and is placed in position 2 with Anju in position 4. Position placement is complete at this stage.
To record height ranking result of Statement 3, Sree is placed on the rightmost position in the ranking list with a "less than (<)" symbol on her left indicating that all the rest are shorter than her.
The logic table now looks like,
Solution Stage 3: Strategies: Direct certain assignment by link search first while ranking
With only ranking left, again we take up the strategy of direct certain assignment by link reference.
In Statement 7. "Rupa is shorter than only two girls, Anju and Sree." we place Rupa, Anju and Sree rightmost in the ranking list in that order, with rest shorter than them.
The logic table at this stage is shown below.
Solution Stage 4: Strategies: Bonded member structure formation in ranking by comparison condition
In this last stage only two statements are left, out of which we select first Statement 5. "Devi is taller than Soma but shorter than Meeni." by which we form a ranked bonded structure of three members, "Soma<Devi<Meeni".
The last Statement 1. "Meeni is shorter than Romi." finalizes the ranking of the yet-to-be-ranked four as, "Soma<Devi<Meeni<Romi."
The rank assignment also is complete.
The logic table condition is as below,
Now we are ready to answer the questions and it should take only about a minute's time to answer the five questions.
Answers to the questions
Question 1. Who stands opposite to the tallest girl?
Answer 1. Option 4: Romi.
Question 2. Who among the following stands next to the second tallest girl?
Answer 2. Option 2: Soma
Question 3. Which among the following five does not belong to the group formed by the other four?
Answer 3. Option 1: Meeni-Romi. This is the only neighbor pair of girls. The other four, Devi-Anju, Sonia-Devi, Rupa-Romi and Soma-Sonia are all standing not next to each other.
Question 4. Which two girls are standing at the two ends of the row facing south?
Answer 4. Option 5: Rupa-Anju.
Question 5. Who is standing side by side of the girl standing opposite to the second shortest girl?
Answer 5. Option 2: Devi.
To answer this question, the last clause, "the second shortest girl" is to be processed first, and next the second last clause, "girl standing opposite (to the second shortest girl)" and lastly, the first clause last, "Standing side by side of the (girl standing opposite to the (second shortest girl)).
First we get Soma, as the second shortest girl.
Next we get Meeni standing opposite to Soma.
And at the last, Devi is the only one among five who is a neighbor of Meeni. The other neighbor Romi is not in the list of five choices.
Though seems not very difficult, because of its special structure, we classify this as a not so easy reasoning puzzle.
Finally we say, solving reasoning puzzles is essentially identifying useful patterns and using appropriate methods.
Other resources for learning how to discover useful patterns and solve logic analysis problems
Einstein's puzzle or Einstein's riddle
The puzzle popularly known as Einstein's puzzle or Einstein's riddle is a six object set assignment logic analysis problem. Going through the problem and its efficient solution using collapsed column logic analysis technique in the session Method based solution of Einstein's logic analysis puzzle whose fish should be a good learning experience.
Playing Sudoku
As a powerful method of enhancing useful pattern identification and logic analysis skill, play Sudoku in a controlled manner. But beware, this great learning game, popularly called Rubik's Cube of 21st Century, is addictive.
To learn how to play Sudoku, you may refer to our Sudoku pages starting from the very beginning and proceeding to hard level games.
Reading list on SBI PO and Other Bank PO level Reasoning puzzles
Tutorials
How to solve SBI PO level logic puzzles in a few simple steps 1
How to solve SBI PO level logic puzzles in a few simple steps 2
How to solve SBI PO level family relation problems in a few simple steps 3
How to solve SBI PO level floor stay Reasoning Puzzle in a few confident steps 4
How to solve high level circular seating reasoning puzzles for SBI PO in confident steps 5
How to solve high level hard two row seating reasoning puzzles for SBI PO in confident steps 6
How to solve high level circular seating arrangement reasoning puzzles for SBI PO quickly 7
How to solve high level nine position circular seating easoning puzzles for SBI PO quickly 8
How to solve high level box positioning reasoning puzzle for SBI PO quickly 9
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Solved reasoning puzzle Bank PO type
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