Overview Pattern Completion - General Intelligence and Reasoning for SSC CGL

What is Arrangement Pattern Reasoning?

Arrangement pattern reasoning deals with placing persons, objects, numbers or letters in a specific order according to a set of given conditions. Questions test the ability to visualise and apply positional, directional and relational information. Common sub-topics include Sitting arrangement, Order and word formation, Alphabet tests and Coding-decoding. These types usually appear in competitive reasoning sections and require careful stepwise deduction.

Types of Arrangement Pattern Reasoning

• Sitting Arrangement: These questions provide conditions about how a group of people sit in a row, around a circle, or at a rectangular/square table. Conditions may include who sits next to whom, who is opposite to whom, who sits at the corner or middle, and the direction they face (inside or outside). Use a clear diagram or labelled positions to record information and eliminate impossible cases.
• Order and Word Formation: From a set of letters or words, form meaningful words or arrange words/letters in dictionary order. These questions test vocabulary, dictionary-order understanding and ability to form valid permutations under constraints.
• Alphabet Test: These involve the relative positions of letters in the English alphabet. Typical tasks are to find the place of a letter relative to another, count letters between two given letters, or identify letter pairs whose relative spacing in a given word matches their spacing in the English alphabet.
• Coding-Decoding: Information is transformed into a code by a fixed rule (for example, replace each letter by its opposite in the alphabet, shift by a fixed number, reverse order, etc.). You must infer the rule from examples and apply it to new words. Common patterns include Atbash (opposite-letter) and Caesar (shift) ciphers.

Arrangement Pattern Reasoning - Sample Questions and Solutions

Q1: Direction: Study the following information and answer the given questions.
Pawan, Qaseem, Rajan, Suresh, Tariq, Uzma, Waseem, and Zainab are sitting in a line facing north. Zainab sits third to the left of Suresh. Zainab sits at the extreme end of the row. Only one person sat between Suresh and Qaseem. Only two people sit between Qaseem and Waseem, who is an immediate neighbor of Pawan. Uzma sits third to the left of Rajan.

Who is an immediate neighbor of Tariq?

Sol:

List of persons: Pawan, Qaseem, Rajan, Suresh, Tariq, Uzma, Waseem, Zainab.

Label 8 seats from left to right as positions 1-8 (all are facing north).

Place Zainab at an extreme end and satisfy "Zainab sits third to the left of Suresh": Zainab at position 1 and Suresh at position 4.

"Only one person sat between Suresh and Qaseem" places Qaseem at position 6 (one seat between positions 4 and 6).

"Only two people sit between Qaseem and Waseem" places Waseem at position 3 (Qaseem at 6 and Waseem at 3 have two people between them: positions 4 and 5).

"Waseem is an immediate neighbor of Pawan" places Pawan at position 2 (adjacent to Waseem at position 3).

"Uzma sits third to the left of Rajan" places Uzma at position 5 and Rajan at position 8 (Uzma position 5 is three places left of Rajan position 8).

The completed arrangement left→right is: Zainab(1), Pawan(2), Waseem(3), Suresh(4), Uzma(5), Qaseem(6), Tariq(7), Rajan(8).

From this arrangement, the immediate neighbours of Tariq (position 7) are Qaseem (position 6) and Rajan (position 8).

Q2: Direction: Study the following information carefully and answer the questions based on it.

Eight friends Divya, Dev, Piyush, Shiv, Nisha, Geeta, Bhavna, Govinda are sitting around the circular table but not necessarily in the same order and are facing towards the center of the table.
Nisha is third to the left of Bhavna. Dev and Piyush are neighbors. Divya is sitting opposite to Geeta. Shiv is an immediate neighbor of Bhavna. There are two people sitting between Nisha and Geeta. Dev and Govinda are sitting opposite to each other.

Who is sitting immediate to the right of Nisha?
Sol:

List of persons: Divya, Dev, Piyush, Shiv, Nisha, Geeta, Bhavna, Govinda.

Fix Bhavna at one seat. Use clockwise labelling of seats 1-8.

Nisha is third to the left of Bhavna. Place Nisha accordingly and place Shiv as a neighbour of Bhavna.

Place Geeta so that there are two people between Nisha and Geeta, then place Divya opposite Geeta.

Place Dev and Govinda opposite each other in the remaining opposite pair of seats. Place Piyush next to Dev to satisfy "Dev and Piyush are neighbors."

One arrangement that satisfies all conditions (labels are clockwise) gives Piyush as the person immediately to the right of Nisha.

Therefore, Piyush is the immediate right of Nisha.

Q3: Direction: Study the following information carefully and answer the question given below.

Eight friends are sitting around a rectangular table either in the middle side or at the corner. Four of them like fruits, apples, mangoes, Grapes, and bananas, and four of them like vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, Broccoli, and cucumbers. The person who likes vegetables sits at the corner faces inside and the person who likes fruits sits in the middle faces outside.
Only two friends sit between the one who likes Mango and the one who likes Broccoli. The one who likes Grapes sits second to the right of the one who likes Mango. Only one person sits between the one who likes Tomato and the one who likes Potato. The one who likes Apple is an immediate neighbor of the one who likes Potato. Friends who like Banana and Broccoli do not sit together.

Who sits opposite to the one who likes Broccoli?
Sol:

Record the two seat types: corners (vegetable lovers, facing inside) and middle positions on sides (fruit lovers, facing outside).

Place Mango and Broccoli with exactly two people between them; place Grapes second to the right of Mango.

Ensure Banana and Broccoli are not adjacent, place Tomato and Potato with exactly one person between them, and place Apple adjacent to Potato.

On completing these placements with the corner/middle facing constraints, the person who likes Tomato ends up opposite the person who likes Broccoli.

Q4: How many meaningful words can be constituted by using the first, fourth, seventh and ninth letter in the word PERMANENT?

Sol:

Letters of PERMANENT by position: 1 = P, 4 = M, 7 = E, 9 = T.

These four letters can be arranged to form a few permutations, but among them only the meaningful English word formed is TEMP. Hence, the number of meaningful words = 1.

Q5: Arrange the following words according to English dictionary

1. Episode
2. Epistle
3. Episcope
4. Epigraph
Sol:

To arrange in dictionary order, compare letters sequentially. The order becomes:

• Epigraph (starts "epig...")
• Episcope (starts "episco..." with 'c' after 'epis')
• Episode (starts "episo..." with 'o' after 'epis')
• Epistle (starts "epist..." with 't' after 'epis')

As per the dictionary order the correct sequence is: 4 > 3 > 1 > 2.

Q6: How many such pairs of digits are there in the number "2651894" after arranging the digits of the number in increasing order, each of which has as many digits between them in the original number as they have between them in the arranged (increasing) sequence?

Sol:

Step 1: Write the original number with positions (index from left):

2(1), 6(2), 5(3), 1(4), 8(5), 9(6), 4(7)

Step 2: Arrange digits in increasing order: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9.

Step 3: Record original positions of these sorted digits:

1 → original position 4

2 → original position 1

4 → original position 7

5 → original position 3

6 → original position 2

8 → original position 5

9 → original position 6

Step 4: For every pair of digits (a, b) in the sorted list (take a before b), compute:

number of digits between a and b in the sorted list = (sorted_index_b - sorted_index_a - 1)

number of digits between a and b in the original number = |original_pos_b - original_pos_a| - 1

Count the pair if these two numbers are equal.

Step 5: Apply the check to all pairs. The pairs that satisfy the condition are:

• (2,5)
• (2,8)
• (2,9)
• (5,6)
• (5,8)
• (5,9)
• (8,9)

Hence, the total number of such pairs is 7.

Q7: How many such pairs of letters are there in the word "REPRESENT" each of which has as many letters between them in the word (in both forward and backward directions) as they have between them in the English alphabetical series?

Sol:

Write the word with positions: R(1), E(2), P(3), R(4), E(5), S(6), E(7), N(8), T(9).

For any two letters at positions i and j (i < j), compute:

letters between them in the word = j - i - 1

letters between them in the alphabet = |alphabet_pos(letter at j) - alphabet_pos(letter at i)| - 1

Check all pairs. The matching pairs are:

• R (position 1) and P (position 3) - one letter between in the word; R(18) and P(16) have one letter between in the alphabet.
• R (position 4) and N (position 8) - three letters between in the word; R(18) and N(14) have three letters between in the alphabet.
• P (position 3) and S (position 6) - two letters between in the word; P(16) and S(19) have two letters between in the alphabet.

Thus, there are 3 such pairs: RP, RN, PS.

Q8: In a certain code language, "if FRIEND" is written as "UIRVMW", then how is "TRADER" written in that code language?

Sol:

Observe the mapping from FRIEND → UIRVMW:

F → U, R → I, I → R, E → V, N → M, D → W

This is the Atbash (opposite-letter) pattern: each letter is replaced by its opposite in the English alphabet (A ↔ Z, B ↔ Y, C ↔ X, ...). For any letter with alphabet position p, coded letter has position 27 - p.

Apply the same rule to TRADER:

T → G

R → I

A → Z

D → W

E → V

R → I

Therefore, TRADER is coded as GIZWVI.