The puzzle
Karan, Manish, Imran, Pooja, Isha sit in a single row, all facing north. Seat 1 is the far-left end and seat 5 is the far-right end. Using the clues below, work out the order from left to right.
- Pooja sits immediately to the right of Karan.
- Imran sits somewhere to the left of Pooja.
- Pooja sits immediately to the left of Manish.
- Isha sits immediately to the right of Manish.
Question: What is the seating order from far-left to far-right?
Reveal the answer
Answer: Imran, Karan, Pooja, Manish, Isha (left to right).
Seat 1ImranSeat 2KaranSeat 3PoojaSeat 4ManishSeat 5Isha
- Start: 120 possible left-to-right orders of 5 people.
- Clue 1 — "Pooja sits immediately to the right of Karan." leaves 24 possibilities.
- Clue 2 — "Imran sits somewhere to the left of Pooja." leaves 12 possibilities.
- Clue 3 — "Pooja sits immediately to the left of Manish." leaves 3 possibilities.
- Clue 4 — "Isha sits immediately to the right of Manish." leaves 1 possibility.
- Exactly one order survives every clue — that is the answer.