Ranking and Order
About 5 min · Logical Reasoning · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 299 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Ranking and Order problems test your ability to determine positions of objects or people in a linear arrangement based on given conditions.
Key ideas
- Linear Arrangement: Objects or people arranged in a single line, either horizontal (left to right) or vertical (top to bottom). Each position is unique.
- Rank from Top/Left vs Bottom/Right: The same person occupies different numerical ranks depending on which end you count from. Understanding this dual perspective is the foundation of all problems.
- Total Elements Formula: If someone is Rth from one end and Sth from the other end in a line, then Total = R + S - 1. The "-1" accounts for counting the same person twice.
- Conversion Formula: When total N is known and someone is Rth from top, their rank from bottom = N - R + 1. This works symmetrically in reverse.
- Overlapping Positions: When two people's positions are given from different ends, you can often determine their relative positions or the minimum total in the line.
Quick reference
- Core formula: Total = Rank_top + Rank_bottom - 1
- Flip formula: Rank_bottom = Total - Rank_top + 1
- Between count: |Position_A - Position_B| - 1
- After removals: Subtract from both total and relevant ranks
- Same person from both ends: They must satisfy both rank conditions simultaneously
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. In a class of 35 students, Priya ranks 12th from the top. What is her rank from the bottom?
2. Rahul is 7th from the left end and 14th from the right end in a row of students. How many students are there in the row?
3. In a row of 40 students, Amit is 16th from the left. After some students leave from the right end, Amit becomes 11th from the right. How many students left the row?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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