Basics and Approach to Solve Assignment Questions

Assignment questions are an integral part of the Analytical Reasoning section in various exams. Usually, you will find a set of three to four questions based on the data provided in the questions.

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The first step in solving such kind of sets is logically arranging the given directions in some sort of formation, generally a table or a diagram. The most important thing to be done is keeping in mind the negative information given in the set because ultimately you would arrive at an answer by keeping a track of directions of what can or cannot be done.

Solved Assignment Questions

Let us understand this better with the help of the following example.

Illustration: A landlord owns a two-storey apartment complex. The complex has four adjacent ground floor apartments, numbered 111, 112, 113, 114, respectively, and four upstairs apartments numbered 211, 212, 213, 214 such that 211 is directly above 111, 212 is directly above 112, and so on. The landlord keeps one apartment empty where he stays when he visits town, and rents out six others. Which one cannot be rented?

Nan lives in 114.

Hal would not live in 214, and Kit won't live next to Liz on the same floor.

Inga lives directly above Joe.

Unit 112 is being renovated and can't be rented.

Question 1: If Kit rents 213, then which apartment must Liz rent?

Solution: Read the directions and find out that there are 8 apartments in total. So, you draw a table which represents the apartments by its numbers and along with this number, write the name of the person who lives there.

The positive information given is that 112 is under construction. NAN lives in 114. KIT rents 213. As INGA lives directly above JOE, so only one possibility is left that INGA lives in 211 and JOE lives in 111. Now, the negative statements given are: Hal would not live in 214, and Kit won't live next to Liz on the same floor. This leads to the conclusion that LIZ will not live in 212 or 214 which are next to Kit's apartment and all others apart from 113 are occupied. So, LIZ rents 113. As HAL would not live in 214, he lives in 212.

Using the data you can make the following table and answer the question.

211	212	213	214
INGA	HAL	KIT	Empty
111	112	113	114
JOE	Under renovation	LIZ	NAN

With the help of this table, you can easily answer that Liz stays in 113.

Question 2: If Hal rents 111 and Joe rents 113, then which of the following CANNOT happen?

211 is empty
212 is empty
214 is empty
Inga lives in 213
Kit lives in 211

Solution: Using the given information, we can conclude that if HAL rents 111 and JOE rents 113 then INGA is at 213 and NAN is in room no. 114.

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From this information we can make this table:

211	212	213	214
		INGA
111	112	113	114
HAL	Under renovation	JOE	NAN

In this case, three rooms and two persons i.e. KIT and LIZ are left. If Room 214 is left empty then both would stay in 211 and 212 and would be together in any case. Hence the arrangement is possible only if one of them stays in 214. Hence the room 214 cannot be empty. Thus, the answer is Option no. 3.

Analytical Reasoning Assignment: Key Learning

Always try to arrange the given information into some tabular form, say, table or a diagram.
Keep in mind the negative information given in the set to eliminate the options.

Still in doubt about any concept or illustration? Post it in the comment section below for an immediate response.

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