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Lesson 5 of 9 · All facing centre

Count between

Circular / Square Arrangement · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT

The idea of All facing centre

People sit around a round (or square) table, all facing the centre. Clues fix seats relative to one another: k-th to the right or left, opposite, neighbours, between. Once one person is placed, every clue places someone else. JIPMAT asks one circle question most years (2023 Q15 and Q27, 2024 Q7, 2025 Q15, all banked here as PYQs).

The exam method

  1. Right = anticlockwise. when everybody faces the centre. Write an arrow on your circle once.
  2. Fixed clues first. opposite and immediately-next clues; conditional and negative clues last.
  3. Two cases. if a clue leaves two seats, draw both circles; a later clue usually kills one. If both survive, the question may be "cannot be determined".
  4. Distance clues. (metres around a table of known circumference): convert to seats first (50 m for 10 people = 5 m a seat).