Start here · the first lesson of DS on ordering, seating and directions
DS on ordering, seating and directions
Data Sufficiency · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT
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The idea
Arrangement DS items ask who sits where, who is tallest, or in which direction a point lies, and give two statements of clues. You test each statement alone and then together, exactly as in arithmetic DS, but each test is a small puzzle: draw the possible orders and see whether the asked position is the same in all of them.
Textbook vs exam method
Textbook method
- Draw the fixed frame (row of seats, floors 1–n, compass).
- Statement I alone: place everything it fixes; list every arrangement still possible; read the asked item in each.
- Repeat for II alone, then for I and II together.
- Sufficient means the asked item is the same in every arrangement that remains.
Exam method
- Chains. write comparisons as one chain (A > C > B). The top of a chain is the tallest only if every person is in the chain.
- Rows. from-the-right questions need the total; positions from opposite ends give the total (n = left + right − 1).
- Directions. draw the points with free distances; if moving one distance flips east/west, the statement is not sufficient.
- Seating. fix the most constrained person first (an end, a corner, a known floor), then test the rest.