Study the following information carefully and answer the questions given below:
Ten persons P to Y live in 10 storey building but not necessarily in the same order. The bottommost floor is numbered as 1 and so on till the topmost floor is numbered as 10.
V lives on prime numbered floor but below 4th floor. S lives below V but not on the ground floor. There are as many persons live above S as below P. More than three persons live between P and Y who lives above X. One person lives between T and Y. W lives just below R. U does not live below Q.
Four of the following five are alike in a certain way and hence form a group. Which of the following does not belong to that group?
Correct Answer :
T
Solution :
To find the person who does not belong to the group, let us first determine the floor arrangement of all ten persons (P to Y) on the 10-storey building from Floor 1 (bottommost) to Floor 10 (topmost).
Step 1: Position of V and S
V lives on a prime numbered floor below the 4th floor. The prime numbers below 4 are 2 and 3.
S lives below V but not on the ground floor (Floor 1).
If V lived on Floor 2, S would have to live on Floor 1, which violates the condition that S cannot live on the ground floor. Therefore, V must live on Floor 3, and S must live on Floor 2.
Step 2: Position of P
There are as many persons living above S as below P.
Since S lives on Floor 2, there are 10 - 2 = 8 floors above S.
Therefore, there must be 8 floors below P, which means P lives on Floor 9.
Step 3: Position of Y and X
More than three persons live between P and Y, and Y lives above X.
Since P is on Floor 9, Y must be on Floor 4 or lower to have more than 3 floors between them (at least 4 floors: Floors 8, 7, 6, and 5).
- If Y were on Floor 3, it would conflict with V.
- If Y were on Floor 2, it would conflict with S.
- If Y were on Floor 1, there would be no floor below Y for X to live on.
Thus, Y must live on Floor 4, and since Y lives above X, X must live on Floor 1.
Step 4: Position of T
One person lives between T and Y. Since Y lives on Floor 4, T can live on either Floor 6 or Floor 2. Since Floor 2 is already occupied by S, T must live on Floor 6.
Step 5: Position of R and W
W lives just below R. This requires two adjacent vacant floors.
Currently, the status of the floors is:
Floor 10: Vacant
Floor 9: P
Floor 8: Vacant
Floor 7: Vacant
Floor 6: T
Floor 5: Vacant
Floor 4: Y
Floor 3: V
Floor 2: S
Floor 1: X
The only adjacent vacant floors are Floor 8 and Floor 7. Therefore, R lives on Floor 8 and W lives on Floor 7.
Step 6: Position of U and Q
The remaining vacant floors are Floor 10 and Floor 5. Since U does not live below Q (meaning U lives above Q), U must live on Floor 10 and Q must live on Floor 5.
Summary of Floor Positions:
Floor 10: U
Floor 9: P
Floor 8: R
Floor 7: W (Prime floor)
Floor 6: T (Composite floor)
Floor 5: Q (Prime floor)
Floor 4: Y
Floor 3: V (Prime floor)
Floor 2: S (Prime floor)
Floor 1: X
Finding the odd one out:
Let us check the floors on which the given options live:
- V lives on Floor 3 (Prime number floor)
- T lives on Floor 6 (Composite/Even number floor)
- S lives on Floor 2 (Prime number floor)
- W lives on Floor 7 (Prime number floor)
- Q lives on Floor 5 (Prime number floor)
All the given persons except T live on prime-numbered floors. Therefore, T does not belong to the group.
Access expert-curated educational resources and study materials—completely free.
Create, conduct, and manage professional online assessments with Mindyard. Perfect for teachers and institutes.
Copyright © 2026 Mindyard. All Rights Reserved.