60-second revision
- Draw the frame first: floors bottom to top, boxes bottom to top, days Monday to Sunday.
- Place definite clues first, then the clues chained to them.
- 'Only two between' fixes a gap of three positions, in either direction.
- 'Immediately above/after' means the very next position; 'above/after' alone only fixes the side.
- Branch into cases when a clue allows two places; negative clues usually kill all but one.
- Months with 31 days: January, March, May, July, August, October, December.
- For two attributes (person and colour, day and subject), use a grid and fill both at once.
What makes a puzzle
A bank-exam puzzle gives a set of people or objects, a frame of positions (floors, boxes, days, months) and 6–10 clues that together allow exactly one arrangement. Usually five questions share one puzzle, so solving it fully and correctly is worth more than speed on any single question.
| Type | Frame | Typical clue |
|---|---|---|
| Floor | Floors 1 (bottom) to n (top) | A lives two floors above B |
| Flat | Floors × flats (west/east) | C lives in the east flat, directly below D |
| Box | Positions 1 (bottom) to n (top) | Only one box between P and the red box |
| Day | Monday to Sunday | E's class is on the day just after F's |
| Month | A given list of months | G is in a month with 30 days |
| Comparison | Heaviest to lightest | H is heavier than only two people |
| Two attributes | Grid: positions × names × property | The person who likes green lives on 3 |
The case method
- Draw the frame with every position written out.
- Place every definite clue (someone on floor 3, a box at the bottom, a meeting on Thursday).
- Place clues linked to those (immediately above, two days after, opposite in the list).
- When a clue fits two places, write Case 1 and Case 2 side by side and continue both.
- Apply each remaining clue to every live case; cross out any case that breaks a clue.
- Fill the leftover position by elimination and check every clue once more.
Worked example: W, X, Y and Z live on floors 1 to 4. X lives on an even floor. Only one person lives between X and Z. Y lives on a floor above W. Case 1: X on 2, Z on 4. Case 2: X on 4, Z on 2. In both cases W and Y share floors 1 and 3, so W is on 1 and Y on 3. Both cases survive, so one more clue is needed — say 'Z lives above X' — which keeps only Case 1: W 1, X 2, Y 3, Z 4. If two cases survive every clue, answer only what is the same in both.
Scheduling with days and months
When the frame is a list of months, positions are counted in the list, not in the calendar. 'Only one person between' means one month of the list between them. Know the calendar facts: 30 days in April, June, September and November; 28 or 29 in February; 31 in the rest. For days, 'after' means later in the same week unless the question says the week wraps around.
Comparison puzzles
Write names in one vertical chain from heaviest (or tallest, richest) to lightest. Turn 'heavier than only two' into 'exactly two below', and 'second heaviest' into 'exactly one above'. If numeric values are given for some people, every other person's value must fit between their neighbours in the chain.
Two-attribute grids
When each person also has a colour, subject or city, make a table with positions as rows and two columns, one for the name and one for the attribute. A clue like 'C lives just above the person who likes Green' links the two columns; fill them together. Negative clues ('does not like White') are best recorded as small crosses in the grid.
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