Healthy Bites is a fast food joint serving three items: burgers, fries and ice cream. It has two employees Anish and Bani who prepare the items ordered by the clients. Preparation time is 10 minutes for a burger and 2 minutes for an order of ice cream. An employee can prepare only one of these items at a time. The fries are prepared in an automatic fryer which can prepare up to 3 portions of fries at a time, and takes 5 minutes irrespective of the number of portions. The fryer does not need an employee to constantly attend to it, and we can ignore the time taken by an employee to start and stop the fryer; thus, an employee can be engaged in preparing other items while the frying is on. However fries cannot be prepared in anticipation of future orders.
Healthy Bites wishes to serve the orders as early as possible. The individual items in any order are served as and when ready; however, the order is considered to be completely served only when all the items of that order are served. The table below gives the orders of three clients and the times at which they placed their orders:
| Client No. | Time | Order |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10:00 | 1 burger, 3 portions of fries, 1 order of ice cream |
| 2 | 10:05 | 2 portions of fries, 1 order of ice cream |
| 3 | 10:07 | 1 burger, 1 portion of fries |
Assume that only one client's order can be processed at any given point of time. So, Anish or Bani cannot start preparing a new order while a previous order is being prepared.
At what time is the order placed by Client 3 completely served?
Correct Answer :
10:25
Solution :
The correct option is C (10:25).
Let us trace the timeline of all orders because a new order cannot begin preparation until the previous order is completely prepared/served:
- Client 1: Starts preparation at 10:00 and is completely served at 10:10 (as determined in the previous question).
- Client 2: Can only start preparation after Client 1's order is completed, i.e., at 10:10.
* Client 2 orders: 2 portions of fries (takes 5 mins) and 1 ice cream (takes 2 mins).
* At 10:10, Bani starts the fryer for the 2 portions of fries (completed at 10:15).
* At 10:10, Anish (or Bani) starts the ice cream (completed at 10:12).
* Client 2's order is completely served when all its items are ready, which is at 10:15.
- Client 3: Can only start preparation after Client 2's order is completed, i.e., at 10:15.
* Client 3 orders: 1 burger (takes 10 mins) and 1 portion of fries (takes 5 mins).
* At 10:15, Anish starts preparing the burger (completed at 10:25).
* At 10:15, Bani starts the fryer for the 1 portion of fries (completed at 10:20).
* Client 3's order is completely served when the burger is finished at 10:25.
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