Directions (25-29): Study the information carefully and answer the questions given below.

Seven friends - P, Q, R, S, T, U, and V - went to attend a cooking class for a week from Monday to Sunday, not necessarily in the same order. Each person prepared a different number of dishes during these classes.

Q prepared the most dishes. The person who prepared the least dishes attended immediately after R. S prepared the 2ndmost dishes and attended on Sunday. T and the person who prepared the second-most dishes attended on consecutive days. Q prepared 5 dishes more than T who prepared 6 dishes more than P. P attended the classes immediately after the person who prepared 9 dishes. The person who prepared 10 dishes attended immediately before the person who prepared 8 dishes. Q attended on Wednesday, while V attended on Friday. There were 2 people between R and the person who prepared 6 dishes. Only One person prepared half number of dishes than the other one.

Who prepared the least number of dishes?

To find who prepared the least number of dishes, we can analyze the clues step-by-step to determine the day of attendance and the number of dishes prepared by each of the seven friends (P, Q, R, S, T, U, and V).

Step 1: Determine the attendance days of the friends
Let us map the days of the week from Monday to Sunday:

• S attended on Sunday and prepared the 2nd most dishes.
• T and the person who prepared the second-most dishes (S) attended on consecutive days. Since S is on Sunday, T must have attended on Saturday.
• Q attended on Wednesday.
• V attended on Friday.

Step 2: Position P and R
We are given that P attended the classes immediately after the person who prepared 9 dishes.

• P cannot be on Monday (no day before Monday).
• P cannot be on Wednesday (Q), Friday (V), Saturday (T), or Sunday (S).
• If P were on Thursday, the person who prepared 9 dishes would be Q (on Wednesday). However, Q prepared the most dishes. If Q = 9, then T = Q - 5 = 4, and P = T - 6 = -2, which is impossible as the number of dishes cannot be negative.
• Thus, P must have attended on Tuesday, meaning the person who attended on Monday prepared 9 dishes.

• We are told: "There were 2 people between R and the person who prepared 6 dishes."
• If R is on Thursday, the person who prepared 6 dishes must be on Monday. But Monday's person prepared 9 dishes. This is a contradiction.
• Therefore, R must have attended on Monday (preparing 9 dishes), which means U attended on Thursday.
• With 2 people between R (Monday) and the 6-dishes preparer, U (Thursday) must have prepared 6 dishes.

Step 3: Find the number of dishes prepared by each person

• We are given: "The person who prepared the least dishes attended immediately after R." Since R attended on Monday, the person who prepared the least dishes attended on Tuesday, which is P.
• The clue states: "The person who prepared 10 dishes attended immediately before the person who prepared 8 dishes." The only consecutive days available to fit 10 and 8 dishes are Friday (V) and Saturday (T). Therefore, V prepared 10 dishes and T prepared 8 dishes.
• Using the relations for Q and P:
  $P\; =\; T\; -\; 6\; =\; 8\; -\; 6\; =\; 2$
  $Q\; =\; T\; +\; 5\; =\; 8\; +\; 5\; =\; 13$
• We also know S prepared the second-most dishes. Since Q (most) = 13, and the counts are all distinct, S must have prepared less than 13.
• The clue states: "Only one person prepared half the number of dishes than the other one." Since U prepared 6 dishes, S must have prepared 12 dishes (making 6 half of 12). No other pair satisfies a 1:2 ratio.

Conclusion:
The final distribution of dishes is:

• Monday: R (9 dishes)
• Tuesday: P (2 dishes) - Least
• Wednesday: Q (13 dishes) - Most
• Thursday: U (6 dishes)
• Friday: V (10 dishes)
• Saturday: T (8 dishes)
• Sunday: S (12 dishes)