Question

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on it.

An employee has been assigned the task of allotting offices to six of the staff members. The offices are numbered 1 to 6. The offices are arranged in a row and they are separated from each other by six foot high dividers. Hence voices, sounds and cigarette smoke flow easily from one office to another.

Miss Ruby needs to use the telephone quite often throughout the day. Mr. Minhas and Mr. Brar need adjacent offices as they need to consult each other often while working. Miss Harsha is a senior employee and has to be allotted office number 5, having the biggest window. Mr. Dongre requires silence in the offices next to his. Mr. Tanjore, Mr. Minhas and Mr. Dongre are all smokers. Miss Harsha finds tobacco smoke allergic and consequently the offices next to hers are to be occupied by non-smokers. Unless specifically stated, all the employees maintain an atmosphere of silence during office hours.

The ideal candidate to occupy the office furthest from Mr. Brar would be:

• A. Miss Harsha
• B. Mr. Minhas
• C. Mr. Tanjore
• D. Mr. Dongre

Hint:

First fix Miss Harsha in office 5, then use the smoke-allergy rule to force the non-smokers into offices 4 and 6, and the Minhas-Brar adjacency rule to place the rest.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Place the two people whose offices are fixed by direct rules.
Miss Harsha is a senior employee and must sit in office 5, since it has the biggest window.
Miss Harsha is allergic to tobacco smoke, so the offices next to hers, which are office 4 and office 6, must both be occupied by non-smokers.

Step 2: Work out who the non-smokers are.
The passage tells us Mr. Tanjore, Mr. Minhas and Mr. Dongre are smokers. That leaves Miss Ruby, Mr. Brar and Miss Harsha as the three non-smokers.
Since Miss Harsha already sits in office 5, the two non-smokers left to fill offices 4 and 6 must be Miss Ruby and Mr. Brar, in some order.

Step 3: Use the Minhas-Brar adjacency rule to fix the order.
Mr. Minhas and Mr. Brar must sit next to each other. If Mr. Brar were in office 6, his only possible neighbour would be office 5 or a non-existent office 7, and office 5 already belongs to Miss Harsha, so Mr. Minhas could never sit next to him. This is impossible, so Mr. Brar must be in office 4, which leaves Miss Ruby in office 6.
Since Mr. Minhas has to be next to office 4, and office 5 is taken, Mr. Minhas must be in office 3.

Step 4: Place the remaining two smokers.
Only offices 1 and 2 are left, for Mr. Dongre and Mr. Tanjore. Mr. Dongre needs silence in the office right next to his own, so he benefits most from sitting as far as possible from the office 3 to 4 zone, where Mr. Minhas and Mr. Brar consult each other often and are more likely to talk. Office 1 sits at the very end of the row with only one neighbour, so it is the natural, quieter spot for Mr. Dongre. That places Mr. Tanjore in office 2.
The full layout is: 1 = Dongre, 2 = Tanjore, 3 = Minhas, 4 = Brar, 5 = Harsha, 6 = Ruby.

Step 5: Find the office furthest from Mr. Brar.
Mr. Brar sits in office 4. The distance to office 1 is \(|4-1| = 3\), while the distance to office 6 is only \(|4-6| = 2\). So office 1, held by Mr. Dongre, is the office furthest from Mr. Brar.

Final Answer:
The person who ideally belongs in the office farthest from Mr. Brar is Mr. Dongre, since he is the one who needs quiet and benefits most from being away from the Minhas-Brar consulting pair. \[ \boxed{\text{Mr. Dongre}} \]