Question

Direction: Read the passage and answer. Ten friends sit in two opposite rows of five each (North: Venkat, Manohar, Ravi, Prasanth, Tilak; South: Vidya, Maya, Divya, Keerthi, Anu — not in order). Each North seat faces exactly one South seat. Conditions: Manohar faces the friend using a Ford at an extreme; Ravi sits second to the right of Manohar; the Honda user is not Ravi; Venkat sits exactly in the middle of Ravi and the Nissan user (Nissan is not Manohar); Keerthi is not at an extreme, uses Tata, and sits opposite a Fiat; the Maruthi user sits opposite the person immediately left of Keerthi; the Toyota user (not Anu) sits opposite Prasanth; Tilak is not at an extreme, sits opposite the Chevrolet user who is adjacent to Divya and to the Mahindra user; Vidya uses neither Chevrolet nor Toyota.

Question: Which is the car used by Maya?

• A. Toyota
• B. Chevrolet
• C. Mahindra
• D. Ford

Hint:

After locking extremes and “opposite” pairs, translate “exactly in the middle,” “immediately left,” and brand adjacencies into column numbers. Once seats are fixed, names follow by simple elimination.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Step 1: Fix the North layout using Manohar & Ravi.
Manohar must be at the left extreme (else “second to the right” is impossible).
\(\Rightarrow\) Manohar = North~1; Ravi = North~3. The seat facing Manohar (South~1) is Ford.

Step 2: Place Tilak and the Chevrolet block.
Tilak is not at an extreme and sits opposite Chevrolet. Only North~2 fits Tilak, so South~2 = Chevrolet. That Chevrolet user is adjacent to Divya and the Mahindra user, so South~1 & South~3 are {Divya, Mahindra} in some order. Since South~1 is already Ford, it must be Divya, hence South~3 = Mahindra.

Step 3: Prasanth–Toyota and Venkat–Nissan.
The Toyota user (not Anu) sits opposite Prasanth. Checking positions, Prasanth must be North~5 \(\Rightarrow\) South~5 = Toyota.
“Venkat sits exactly in the middle of Ravi (North~3) and the Nissan user” \(\Rightarrow\) Venkat = North~4 and Nissan = North~5 (so Prasanth uses Nissan).

Step 4: Fix Keerthi and deduce who is at South~5.
Keerthi is non-extreme, uses Tata, opposite a Fiat. The only non-extreme South seat left is South~4, so Keerthi = South~4 (Tata) and North~4 (Venkat) = Fiat.
Vidya uses neither Chevrolet (South~2) nor Toyota. Thus Vidya cannot be at South~5. The remaining person for South~5 is Maya. Therefore, Maya uses Toyota.

\[ \boxed{\text{Maya\ uses\ a\ Toyota.}} \]