Seating Arrangement
Seating arrangement questions give a handful of clues about who sits where and ask you to rebuild the arrangement. The reasoning is simple; marks are lost to one left-right slip or a case dropped too early. Draw the seats first, place the fixed clues, and carry every open case on paper.
Updated 11 October 2026 · Often set as a group of questions on one arrangement, so one correct diagram can be worth several marks.
How to think about seating arrangement
Draw the seats before reading the clues
For a row, draw the right number of dashes and mark which way the people face. For a round table, draw a circle with the seats marked and note whether they face the centre or outward. Left and right mean nothing until the facing direction is on the page.
Left and right belong to the person, not to you
Draw with north at the top. In a row facing north, a person's left is the left of your page. In a row facing south it flips: their left is your right. At a round table facing the centre, a person's left is clockwise and their right is anticlockwise; facing outward, both reverse.
Place the fixed clues first
Start with clues that pin a seat: "sits at an end", "sits in the middle", "sits third from the left end", "sits opposite A". Then add clues that attach to someone already placed. Keep "is not next to" clues for last — they remove cases rather than create them. In a circle the first person can go anywhere, because only positions relative to each other matter.
Branch instead of guessing
When a clue allows two placements, draw both cases side by side and carry both forward. Usually a later clue breaks one of them. If both survive, the question can only be answered when both cases give the same answer — check that before you mark it.
Formulas and shortcuts
- Row facing north
Their left = your left on the page - Row facing south
Their left = your right on the pageIn two facing rows, flip left and right for the row that faces south only.
- Round table, facing the centre
Left = clockwise, right = anticlockwise - Round table, facing outward
Left = anticlockwise, right = clockwiseWith mixed facing, draw an arrow on each person and apply the rule person by person.
- k-th to the left of A
k seats from A, with k − 1 people in between - Opposite seat, n seats round a table
Seat k is opposite seat k + n/2Only exists when n is even. With 8 seats, the opposite seat is 4 seats away either way.
- People between two seats in a row
Seats p and q: |p − q| − 1 between them
Solved examples
Q1. Five friends P, Q, R, S and T sit in a row facing north. R sits in the middle. P sits at the extreme left end. T sits immediately to the right of R. Q does not sit next to P. Find the order from left to right.
- Draw five seats, numbered 1 to 5 from the left. Facing north, their left is your left.
- R is in the middle: seat 3. P is at the left end: seat 1.
- T is immediately to the right of R: seat 4.
- Q and S are left for seats 2 and 5. Seat 2 is next to P, and Q cannot be next to P, so Q takes seat 5 and S takes seat 2.
Answer: P, S, R, T, Q
Run every clue against the final row once: R in the middle, P at the left end, T immediately right of R, Q not beside P. All four hold.
Q2. Six people A, B, C, D, E and F sit around a round table facing the centre. A sits opposite D. B sits immediately to the left of A. E sits second to the right of B. C is a neighbour of B. Who sits opposite B?
- Place A at the top of the circle. With six seats, D, opposite A, is at the bottom.
- Facing the centre, left is clockwise. B is immediately to A's left, so B takes the next seat clockwise from A.
- E is second to the right of B. Right is anticlockwise: one seat back is A, and the second is the seat on A's other side. E sits there.
- Two seats remain: one between B and D, and one between D and E. C is a neighbour of B, so C takes the seat between B and D.
- F takes the last seat, between D and E. Going clockwise from A, the order is A, B, C, D, F, E.
- The seat opposite B is three seats on from B: C, D, then F.
Answer: F
If everyone had faced outward, B would go one seat anticlockwise from A instead, and every later left and right would flip with it.
Q3. Six people sit in two rows of three, facing each other. A, B and C sit in Row 1 facing south; P, Q and R sit in Row 2 facing north, each facing one person in Row 1. B sits in the middle of Row 1. A sits immediately to the left of B. R faces A. P sits immediately to the right of Q. Who faces C?
- Draw Row 1 on top, facing down (south), and Row 2 below, facing up (north). Number the columns 1 to 3 from the left of your page.
- B is in the middle: column 2 of Row 1.
- Row 1 faces south, so their left is your right. A, immediately to B's left, goes in column 3, and C takes column 1.
- R faces A, so R is in column 3 of Row 2.
- Row 2 faces north, so their right is your right. P is one column to the right of Q on the page; with columns 1 and 2 free, Q is in column 1 and P in column 2.
- C is in column 1, directly facing Q.
Answer: Q
The usual slip is putting A in column 1. That is the left of your page, which is B's right, because Row 1 faces south.
Practice questions with answers
1. Five students A, B, C, D and E sit in a row facing north. C sits at the extreme right end. B sits second to the left of C. E sits immediately to the left of B. A does not sit at either end. Who sits at the extreme left end?
Answer: C. D — C is in seat 5. Second to the left of C is seat 3, so B is there, and E is in seat 2. Seats 1 and 4 remain; A is not at an end, so A takes seat 4 and D takes seat 1. The order is D, E, B, A, C.
2. Seven people J, K, L, M, N, O and P sit in a row facing north. M sits exactly in the middle. Two people sit between M and K. N sits immediately to the right of K. J sits at one of the ends. O sits second to the right of M. P does not sit next to O. How many people sit between K and L?
Answer: B. 3 — M is in seat 4, so K is in seat 1 or seat 7. N is immediately to K's right, which rules out seat 7, so K is in seat 1 and N in seat 2. J takes the other end, seat 7, and O is in seat 6. P cannot be next to O, so P is in seat 3 and L in seat 5. Between K and L sit N, P and M — 3 people.
3. Eight friends A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H sit around a round table facing the centre. E sits opposite A. C sits third to the left of A. B sits immediately to the left of E. G sits second to the right of C. H is an immediate neighbour of A. D does not sit next to G. Who sits next to both G and C?
Answer: D. F — Put A at the top and E at the bottom. Left is clockwise, so C is three seats clockwise from A, and B is one seat clockwise from E. G is two seats anticlockwise from C, which puts G next to A. H is A's other neighbour. D cannot sit beside G, so D takes the seat between B and H, and F takes the seat between G and C. Clockwise from A: A, G, F, C, E, B, D, H.
4. Six people P, Q, R, S, T and U sit around a round table. P, Q and R face the centre; S, T and U face outward. S sits immediately to the left of P. T sits second to the right of S. Q sits opposite S. U sits immediately to the left of Q. Who sits immediately to the right of T?
Answer: B. Q — Apply the rule person by person. P faces the centre, so S is one seat clockwise from P. S faces outward, so S's right is clockwise: T is two seats clockwise from S. Q is opposite S, and U is one seat clockwise from Q because Q faces the centre. R takes the last seat. T faces outward, so T's right is clockwise, and the next seat clockwise from T is Q.
5. Eight people sit in two rows of four, facing each other. A, B, C and D sit in Row 1 facing south; P, Q, R and S sit in Row 2 facing north. B sits at an end of Row 1 and faces R. C sits immediately to the right of B. R sits second to the right of Q. D does not sit at an end. S faces A. Who faces C?
Answer: D. P — Row 1 faces south, so a Row 1 person's right is your left. C is immediately to B's right, so B cannot be at the left end of the page: B is in column 4 and C in column 3. R faces B, so R is in column 4 of Row 2. Row 2 faces north, so Q, two seats to R's left, is in column 2. D is not at an end, so D is in column 2 and A in column 1, facing S. P takes the remaining column 3, facing C.
6. Seven people A, B, C, D, E, F and G sit around a round table facing the centre. B sits third to the right of A. C and D are the two neighbours of A. G sits immediately to the left of D. E sits immediately to the right of C. Who are the two neighbours of B?
Answer: A. E and F — Right is anticlockwise, so B is three seats anticlockwise from A. D must be on A's left (clockwise): if D were on A's right, the seat immediately to D's left would be A's own. So D is clockwise of A, C is anticlockwise of A, and G sits next to D. E is one seat anticlockwise from C, in the seat next to B, and F takes the last seat, on B's other side.
7. Six people K, L, M, N, O and P sit in a row facing north. L sits third from the left end. Only one person sits between L and O. N sits immediately to the right of O. K sits at one of the ends. P sits neither at an end nor next to L. Who sits second to the right of L?
Answer: C. P — L is in seat 3, so O is in seat 1 or seat 5. If O is in seat 5, N is in seat 6 and K in seat 1, leaving seats 2 and 4 for P — both next to L, so that case fails. So O is in seat 1, N in seat 2 and K at the right end in seat 6. P avoids seat 4, next to L, so P is in seat 5 and M in seat 4. Second to the right of L is seat 5: P.
8. Eight people A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H sit around a round table facing outward, away from the centre. E sits third to the right of A. G sits opposite E. B is an immediate neighbour of G. H sits second to the left of B. D sits immediately to the left of E. C does not sit next to A. Who sits opposite F?
Answer: A. C — Facing outward, right is clockwise and left is anticlockwise. Put A at the top: E is three seats clockwise from A, and G, opposite E, is the seat just anticlockwise of A. B is G's other neighbour. H is two seats anticlockwise from B, and D is one seat anticlockwise from E. C and F are left for the seat beside A and the seat between H and B; C cannot sit beside A, so C takes the seat between H and B. F sits beside A, directly opposite C.
Where marks get lost
- Using your own left for a person who faces south, or the facing-centre rule for someone facing outward.
- Miscounting "second to the left" — it is two seats away, with one person in between.
- Dropping one case of a two-way clue instead of drawing both and letting a later clue break one.
- Looking for an "opposite" seat at a table with an odd number of people — there is none.
Reading is not practising.
Run a timed set on seating arrangement and see which step you actually lose time on. Free, no card needed.
Start a timed set