Analytical Sets — Four Questions on One Arrangement

Two full sets, four questions each, to be attempted the way the section is attempted. The habit worth building here is the one that separates a good Logical Reasoning score from an average one: solve the whole arrangement before you read a single question. Every question in a set draws on the same grid, so the grid is the work and the questions are the collection. Candidates who read question one, deduce only enough to answer it, and then return to the clues for question two do the same deductions three times over and run out of clock. There is a second reason to work this way, and it is arithmetic. At +4 and −1, a four-question set is sixteen marks — more than any other single object in the paper — and the marks arrive together: a fully solved grid pays sixteen, and one misread clue costs four wrong answers rather than one. So the first minute of a set is a decision, not a deduction. Count the clues that fix something absolutely ("U was launched in March" is one; "Aarti heads neither Finance nor HR" is not), and if there are at least two, commit. If the clues are all negative or all relative, leave it and come back. Both sets below were brute-forced before printing: each has exactly one solution, and no clue is spare.

How to Attempt a Set

  1. Read every clue before writing anything, and sort them as you read: absolute (fixes a person or item to a place), negative (rules something out), relative (ties two items to each other). Absolutes are where the grid opens.
  2. Start from the absolutes, then apply the relatives to see what blocks they force, and use the negatives last — a negative clue rarely opens a grid but it almost always closes the final ambiguity.
  3. Solve to the complete arrangement, then read the questions. If the clues leave two possibilities, note both and read on — some sets are designed that way, and a question may be answerable even when the grid is not fully fixed.
  4. Time it: eight minutes for a set of four. When the eight minutes are up, answer what the grid gives you and move on — at −1 a guess on an unsolved grid is worth less than the blank.
  5. When you finish, check your grid against every clue once more, not against the answers. A grid that satisfies seven clues out of eight will produce four confident wrong answers, and nothing in the question will tell you.
🎯 Why the marks arrive in fours
A standalone puzzle is worth 4 and risks −1. A four-question set is worth 16 and risks −4, on one piece of work. That asymmetry is why triage matters more in this section than anywhere else in the paper: two solved sets are 32 marks, and two half-solved sets can be worse than one solved and one skipped.

Key takeaways

  • Solve the whole arrangement before reading any question. The grid is the work; the questions are the collection.
  • Sort the clues as absolute, negative and relative. Open the grid on the absolutes, use the relatives to force blocks, and close the last ambiguity with the negatives.
  • Two clues of the form "X is immediately before Y" and "Z is immediately after Y" make a three-item block. A block of three has very few places to sit, and finding where is usually the whole puzzle.
  • At +4 and −1 a four-question set is sixteen marks on one piece of work, so the first minute of a set is a decision about whether to invest the next seven.
  • Check the finished grid against every clue, not against the answers. A grid that satisfies all but one clue yields four wrong answers and feels exactly like a right one.
  • Eight minutes for a set of four is the pace that fits the section. Past that, answer what the grid gives and leave the rest blank rather than guessing into −1.

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

  1. Set 1. Five executives — Aarti, Bhaskar, Chetna, Dinesh and Esha — head five different departments of a company (Finance, HR, Marketing, Operations and Technology) and are posted at five different offices (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune), in some order.

    1. Aarti heads neither Finance nor HR.
    2. The head of Technology is posted at Bengaluru.
    3. Bhaskar heads Operations.
    4. Bhaskar is posted at neither Mumbai nor Delhi.
    5. The executive posted at Delhi heads Finance.
    6. Chetna is posted at Chennai.
    7. Esha is not posted at Bengaluru.
    8. Aarti is not posted at Bengaluru.

    Who heads the Technology department?

    1. Aarti
    2. Chetna
    3. Dinesh
    4. Esha
    Show answer

    Answer: C — Dinesh

    Clue 2 puts the Technology head at Bengaluru, so the question becomes "who is at Bengaluru?" and four clues answer it by elimination. Chetna is at Chennai (6), Esha is not at Bengaluru (7), Aarti is not at Bengaluru (8), and Bhaskar heads Operations (3), so he is not the Technology head whatever his city. Only Dinesh is left: he heads Technology and is posted at Bengaluru. This is the deduction the whole grid opens on — it is worth doing first, because it fixes both a department and a city in one step.

  2. Set 1. Five executives — Aarti, Bhaskar, Chetna, Dinesh and Esha — head five different departments of a company (Finance, HR, Marketing, Operations and Technology) and are posted at five different offices (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune), in some order.

    1. Aarti heads neither Finance nor HR.
    2. The head of Technology is posted at Bengaluru.
    3. Bhaskar heads Operations.
    4. Bhaskar is posted at neither Mumbai nor Delhi.
    5. The executive posted at Delhi heads Finance.
    6. Chetna is posted at Chennai.
    7. Esha is not posted at Bengaluru.
    8. Aarti is not posted at Bengaluru.

    Which executive is posted at Pune?

    1. Aarti
    2. Bhaskar
    3. Dinesh
    4. Esha
    Show answer

    Answer: B — Bhaskar

    Work the cities out in order. Dinesh is at Bengaluru and Chetna at Chennai. Clue 5 says the Delhi executive heads Finance; Chetna is at Chennai, so of the remaining three only Aarti, Bhaskar or Esha can be at Delhi — but Aarti heads neither Finance nor HR (1) and Bhaskar heads Operations (3), so Esha is at Delhi and heads Finance. That leaves Mumbai and Pune for Aarti and Bhaskar, and clue 4 rules Mumbai out for Bhaskar. So Bhaskar is at Pune and Aarti at Mumbai. Clue 4 mentions Delhi as well as Mumbai, which is the sort of belt-and-braces phrasing that tempts you to use it too early — Delhi was already settled by then.

  3. Set 1. Five executives — Aarti, Bhaskar, Chetna, Dinesh and Esha — head five different departments of a company (Finance, HR, Marketing, Operations and Technology) and are posted at five different offices (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune), in some order.

    1. Aarti heads neither Finance nor HR.
    2. The head of Technology is posted at Bengaluru.
    3. Bhaskar heads Operations.
    4. Bhaskar is posted at neither Mumbai nor Delhi.
    5. The executive posted at Delhi heads Finance.
    6. Chetna is posted at Chennai.
    7. Esha is not posted at Bengaluru.
    8. Aarti is not posted at Bengaluru.

    Which of the following combinations is correct?

    1. Aarti — HR — Mumbai
    2. Chetna — Marketing — Chennai
    3. Esha — Finance — Delhi
    4. Dinesh — Operations — Bengaluru
    Show answer

    Answer: C — Esha — Finance — Delhi

    The completed grid is Aarti — Marketing — Mumbai, Bhaskar — Operations — Pune, Chetna — HR — Chennai, Dinesh — Technology — Bengaluru, Esha — Finance — Delhi. Each wrong option is wrong in exactly one element, which is how this question type is built: A gives Aarti the right city and the wrong department (clue 1 forbids HR); B gives Chetna the right city and the wrong department (Marketing is Aarti’s); D gives Dinesh the right city and the wrong department (Operations is Bhaskar’s, by clue 3). Checking one element per option and moving on is faster than verifying all three.

  4. Set 1. Five executives — Aarti, Bhaskar, Chetna, Dinesh and Esha — head five different departments of a company (Finance, HR, Marketing, Operations and Technology) and are posted at five different offices (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune), in some order.

    1. Aarti heads neither Finance nor HR.
    2. The head of Technology is posted at Bengaluru.
    3. Bhaskar heads Operations.
    4. Bhaskar is posted at neither Mumbai nor Delhi.
    5. The executive posted at Delhi heads Finance.
    6. Chetna is posted at Chennai.
    7. Esha is not posted at Bengaluru.
    8. Aarti is not posted at Bengaluru.

    The head of Marketing is posted at:

    1. Chennai
    2. Delhi
    3. Mumbai
    4. Pune
    Show answer

    Answer: C — Mumbai

    Marketing is Aarti’s: clue 1 rules out Finance and HR for her, clue 3 gives Operations to Bhaskar, and question 1 established that Technology is Dinesh’s — so Marketing is all that remains. Aarti is at Mumbai, by the elimination in question 2. Note how little of this required going back to the clues: three of the four questions in this set are answered by reading the finished grid, which is the argument for building the grid first.

  5. Set 2. A company launched six products — P, Q, R, S, T and U — one in each month from January to June, in some order.

    1. R was launched either in the first month or in the last month.
    2. U was launched in March.
    3. P was launched in the month immediately before Q.
    4. S was launched in the month immediately after Q.

    Which product was launched in April?

    1. P
    2. Q
    3. S
    4. T
    Show answer

    Answer: A — P

    Clues 3 and 4 together make a block: P immediately before Q, and S immediately after Q, so P, Q and S occupy three consecutive months in that order. Clue 2 fixes U in March, so the block cannot include March — and the only run of three consecutive months among January, February, April, May and June is April–May–June. So P is in April, Q in May and S in June. Recognising the block is the whole puzzle; trying the months one at a time takes four times as long and is where the clock goes.

  6. Set 2. A company launched six products — P, Q, R, S, T and U — one in each month from January to June, in some order.

    1. R was launched either in the first month or in the last month.
    2. U was launched in March.
    3. P was launched in the month immediately before Q.
    4. S was launched in the month immediately after Q.

    How many products were launched after Q?

    1. None
    2. One
    3. Two
    4. Three
    Show answer

    Answer: B — One

    Q is in May, so only June follows it, and June is S — one product. The complete order is R (January), T (February), U (March), P (April), Q (May), S (June): once the April–May–June block is placed, clue 1 puts R in January because June is taken by S, and T takes the one month left. Answering "two" is the standard slip, from counting Q itself among the launches that come after it.

  7. Set 2. A company launched six products — P, Q, R, S, T and U — one in each month from January to June, in some order.

    1. R was launched either in the first month or in the last month.
    2. U was launched in March.
    3. P was launched in the month immediately before Q.
    4. S was launched in the month immediately after Q.

    Which product was launched in the month immediately before U?

    1. P
    2. Q
    3. R
    4. T
    Show answer

    Answer: D — T

    U is in March, so the question asks who is in February — and that is T. Notice that T is fixed by nothing but exclusion: no clue mentions T at all. Once the P–Q–S block takes April, May and June, and clue 1 puts R in January (June being unavailable), February is the only month left and T is the only product left. Items that appear in no clue are always placed last, and a candidate who looks for a clue about T will not find one.

  8. Set 2. A company launched six products — P, Q, R, S, T and U — one in each month from January to June, in some order.

    1. R was launched either in the first month or in the last month.
    2. U was launched in March.
    3. P was launched in the month immediately before Q.
    4. S was launched in the month immediately after Q.

    How many products were launched between T and Q?

    1. One
    2. Two
    3. Three
    4. Four
    Show answer

    Answer: B — Two

    T is in February and Q is in May, so the months strictly between them are March and April — U and P, which is two products. "Between" excludes the two named items, and the reliable way to answer is to subtract positions and drop one: Q is fifth, T is second, 5 − 2 − 1 = 2. Answering "three" comes from counting the gap in months (February to May is three steps) rather than the launches inside it, and answering "four" from including T and Q themselves.