A person is standing on the first step from the bottom of a ladder. If he has to climb 4 more steps to reach exactly the middle step, how many steps does the ladder have ?

The correct option is 9.

Let us break down the problem step-by-step to understand why this is the correct answer:

1. Initial Position:
The person is initially standing on the first step of the ladder.
Let the steps of the ladder be numbered sequentially from bottom to top as 1, 2, 3, and so on.
Therefore, the initial position is step 1.

2. Climbing Steps:
The person climbs 4 more steps from the first step.
His new position is calculated as:
$$1+4=5$$
So, he reaches the 5th step.

3. Identifying the Middle Step:
According to the problem statement, this 5th step is exactly the middle step of the ladder.
By definition, if a step is exactly in the middle, it has an equal number of steps below it and above it.

4. Determining the Total Number of Steps:
Since the 5th step is the middle step:
• There are 4 steps below the 5th step (steps 1, 2, 3, and 4).
• There must also be exactly 4 steps above the 5th step (steps 6, 7, 8, and 9).
Thus, the total number of steps is:
$$4\text{(steps below)}+1\text{(middle step)}+4\text{(steps above)}=9$$

Hence, the ladder has a total of 9 steps.