Matching questions will provide us with a group of people (or items) with certain characteristics or items. For instance, a person will have a name, a particular job, a particular car, be wearing a shift of a specific colour or living on a particular floor. We will be given clues to help us match each person with their respective characteristics.
Matching questions occur in CAT and most other MBA entrance tests each year, as they are a great way to test your logical reasoning. Such questions are similar to logical reasoning puzzles that you may have solved as a child. The question will have some information given, along with a set of clues that give us the information required to solve the case. We need to pay attention and use each detail to match each person with the relevant characteristics.
We can use tables to solve such questions. Sometimes, we may not be able to solve the entire case, but will be given additional clues in the questions to help us solve it fully. Let us solve some questions to understand in more detail.
Concept Case 1
A, B, C, D and E are 5 friends. Each of them is wearing a different coloured shirt and has a different profession. The following information is known about them:
1) Neither A nor C is a Lawyer or Professor.
2) Neither D nor E is wearing a Pink or Black coloured shirt.
3) The Doctor is wearing a Pink coloured shirt.
4) C is wearing a Grey coloured shirt.
5) E is not wearing a Red coloured shirt.
6) The Scientist is wearing a Yellow coloured shirt.
7) The Professor wears a Black coloured shirt.
8) One of the friends is an Engineer.
9) All the professions and shirt colours of the 5 friends are mentioned above.
Solution
We form a table with each friend in a different column and then match the shirt colour and profession.
Start with the direct clues in statement 4).
From statement 1) we know that both A and C is not Lawyer or Professor.
From statement 2) we know that both D and E is not wearing Pink or Black colour shirt.
From statement 5) we know that E is not wearing a Red coloured shirt.
Statement 9) says that all the colours and professions of the five friends are mentioned above and Grey is already taken by C. We have already noted that E is not wearing a shirt coloured Pink, Black or Red, therefore, the only colour left is Yellow. So we can conclude that E is wearing a Yellow coloured shirt.
According to statement 6), the Scientist is wearing a Yellow coloured shirt, hence, we can conclude that E is a Scientist.
According to statement 7), the Professor is wearing a Black coloured shirt. Therefore A, C and D cannot be the Professor. So we can conclude that B is the Professor and is wearing a Black coloured shirt.
According to statement 2), D cannot be the person wearing a Pink coloured shirt. The only other person left over is A. And statement 3) states that the Doctor is wearing a Pink coloured shirt. So we can conclude that A is the Doctor wearing a Pink coloured shirt.
Red is remaining. So we can conclude that D is the person wearing a Red coloured shirt.
According to statement 1), C cannot be the Lawyer. Therefore we can conclude that D is the Lawyer.
According to statement 8), One of the friends is an Engineer. The only person leftover is C. So we can conclude that C is the Engineer.
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