Pariksha SaathiCircular Seating Arrangement
A circular table has no "ends," so clues are always relative to another person — not an absolute position — and left/right flips depending on whether everyone faces the center or faces outward. Here’s the approach, one shared puzzle with six fully worked questions, and a few more to try yourself.
Written by Mahesh Srivastava, Founder of Pariksha Saathi. Published: 2026-10-05. Editorial standards & corrections
The approach, quickly
- There’s no "extreme left" or "extreme right" on a circle — every clue describes a position relative to someone else (immediately left/right of X, opposite X), never an absolute seat number.
- When everyone faces the CENTER, a seated person’s own right hand points in the counter-clockwise direction as seen from above — the opposite of what a top-down map suggests. (If everyone faced outward instead, right would match clockwise.)
- "Opposite" only has a single, unambiguous seat when the total number of people is even — directly across the circle. With an odd number of people, no seat is exactly opposite another, so well-posed questions avoid relying on it.
- Fix one person’s seat as a reference point (position doesn’t matter which, since the whole arrangement can be rotated), then place everyone else by their stated relationship to that person or to each other.
Worked examples
1. Six people — A, B, C, D, E and F — sit around a circular table, all facing the center. A sits immediately to the right of B. C sits immediately to the left of B. D sits directly opposite B. E sits immediately to the right of D. F sits immediately to the left of D. Who sits immediately to the right of A?
Solution
- Fix B’s seat as a reference. Since everyone faces the center, "right" runs counter-clockwise: A (immediately right of B) is the next seat counter-clockwise from B, and C (immediately left of B) is the next seat clockwise from B.
- D is directly opposite B. E (immediately right of D) is the next seat counter-clockwise from D; F (immediately left of D) is the next seat clockwise from D.
- Going clockwise around the table: B, C, E, D, F, A — and back to B. The seat immediately to the right (counter-clockwise) of A is F.
Answer: F
2. Using the same arrangement, who sits directly opposite E?
Solution
- From the full clockwise order — B, C, E, D, F, A — E and A are three seats apart in either direction, which is directly opposite on a table of six.
Answer: A
3. Using the same arrangement, who sits immediately to the left of A?
Solution
- "Left" runs clockwise when facing the center. The next seat clockwise from A, going back to the start of the order (B, C, E, D, F, A), is B.
Answer: B
4. Using the same arrangement, how many people sit between C and F, counting clockwise starting from C?
Solution
- From the clockwise order B, C, E, D, F, A: starting right after C and moving clockwise, E and D come before reaching F — 2 people.
Answer: 2
5. Using the same arrangement, how many people sit between D and A, counting counter-clockwise starting from D?
Solution
- Moving counter-clockwise from D (the reverse of the clockwise order B, C, E, D, F, A) visits E, then C, then B, then A — so E, C and B sit between D and A.
Answer: 3
6. Using the same arrangement, who sits two seats to the right of C?
Solution
- "Right" moves counter-clockwise. One seat right of C is B; two seats right of C is A.
Answer: A
Try these yourself
Using the same arrangement above, answer these, then check against the answer.
1. Using the same arrangement, who sits directly opposite A?
Answer: E
2. Using the same arrangement, who sits immediately to the left of F?
Answer: A
3. Using the same arrangement, how many people sit between B and D, counting clockwise starting from B?
Answer: 2
4. Using the same arrangement, who sits two seats to the left of E?
Answer: F
5. Using the same arrangement, how many people sit between A and D, counting clockwise starting from A?
Answer: 3
All 11 practice questions on Circular Seating Arrangement, with answers →
Where this comes up
Circular Seating Arrangement is a regular Reasoning topic in exams Pariksha Saathi covers — SSC CGL, SSC MTS, SSC CHSL, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, SBI PO and SBI Clerk — especially common in banking-exam papers, testing the same clue-elimination skill as linear Seating Arrangement with the added left/right-facing twist.
Keep practising
Solve the questions above before opening the answers. Explain each step in your own words, then revisit any mistakes.
Go to practice questions →