Four men A, B, C, D and four women W, X, Y, Z are sitting around a table facing each other. If i. No two men or women are sitting together. ii. W is to the right of B iii. Y is facing X and is to the left of A iv. C is to the right of Z. Then who are the two persons sitting adjacent to D?

The key is condition (i): men and women must alternate around the table, so with eight seats the men occupy alternate chairs and the women occupy the others. Fix Y at seat 2, so X sits opposite at seat 6. Condition (iii) makes A sit at seat 3, immediately to Y's left. The remaining women, Z and W, take seats 4 and 8. If W were at seat 4, B would have to be at seat 3, which is already A's, so W is at seat 8 and B at seat 7. Condition (iv) then puts Z at seat 4 and C at seat 5, leaving D at seat 1.

Seat 1 has neighbours at seats 8 and 2, which are W and Y. Mirroring the direction of 'left' and 'right' gives the same answer, so the result is robust.

• A (W and Y): correct.
• B (X and W): X sits directly opposite D, not beside him.
• C (X and Z): Z sits at seat 4, two places from D, so Z is not adjacent.
• D (W and Z): Z is never next to D in any valid arrangement.

This is a coded-logic, seating-arrangement question. The skill is building the alternating frame first, then placing the fixed-relation pairs before the free ones.

Trap: Aspirants often skip the alternation rule in (i) and place two men together, which generates several false placements and a wrong neighbour pair.