SBI Clerk Reasoning Questions with Answers: Quick Answer
This set has 20 original Reasoning questions with full step-by-step explanations, written at SBI Clerk Mains level. In the SBI Clerk Mains, Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude is one combined section of 50 questions for 60 marks in 45 minutes — about 54 seconds per question — so the set is built the way the real section behaves: two puzzles that eat time if you fumble them, then fast one-mark syllogism, coding and inequality questions that reward method over memory. Every question here is original, written for this page, and every puzzle has been checked by brute force in code so that exactly one answer fits. Work the set timed at 45 minutes for the 20 questions, then read every explanation, including the ones you got right.
Key takeaway: Puzzles decide your Reasoning score. In this set, questions 1 to 8 come from two arrangements, and the whole puzzle is worthless if you misread one condition. Read the conditions twice, draw the diagram once, and only then touch the questions. The single questions after that are pure method: syllogism by Venn diagram, coding by letter positions, inequalities by combining the chain before looking at the conclusions.
What This Set Covers
| Block | Questions | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Floor puzzle | 1–5 | Seven people on seven floors, five conditions, one arrangement |
| Circular seating | 6–8 | Eight people around a table, facing the centre |
| Syllogism | 9–11 | Two statements, two conclusions, Venn-diagram method |
| Coding-decoding | 12–14 | Letter-position sums, +1 shift code |
| Inequalities | 15–17 | Direct chains, combining before concluding |
| Mixed reasoning | 18–20 | Blood relation, direction sense, letter series |
| Total | 20 | Mains level, 5 options each |
The answer key at the bottom spreads across all five options — A 5, B 5, C 4, D 4, E 2 — so no option dominates, and no option repeats more than twice in a row. If your own mock answers cluster on one letter, that is a signal to re-check, not a pattern to trust.
How to Use This Set
Give yourself 45 minutes and no breaks, the way the Mains timer works — once the section ends, you cannot return to it. Attempt the two puzzles first while your mind is fresh, but set a hard limit: if a puzzle is not drawn in 4 minutes, move on and come back. Mark every question you guessed, and after the timer, rework the guessed ones before reading the explanations. A question you got right by guessing is still a gap. Keep a notebook of the exact step where you went wrong — misread condition, wrong Venn overlap, letter-position slip — because the same three slips cause most Reasoning losses.
Floor Puzzle: Questions 1–5
Seven people — A, B, C, D, E, F and G — live on seven different floors of a building, floor 1 at the bottom and floor 7 at the top. Read the conditions and work out the full arrangement before answering.
- A lives on floor 4.
- B lives immediately above E.
- C lives two floors above D.
- F lives on an even-numbered floor.
- G lives on floor 1.
- F lives above B.
Working (read this only after trying): G is on floor 1 and A is on floor 4, leaving floors 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 for B, C, D, E and F. B immediately above E means the pair (E, B) sits on consecutive floors, and C two above D means (D, C) is a pair two apart. Trying the pairs against the free floors leaves only one fit: E on 2 and B on 3, D on 5 and C on 7, and F on 6, which is even and above B. The full arrangement, top to bottom, is: floor 7 — C, floor 6 — F, floor 5 — D, floor 4 — A, floor 3 — B, floor 2 — E, floor 1 — G. This was verified by brute force: with these six conditions, exactly one arrangement exists.
Q1. Who lives on the topmost floor?
A. F B. D C. C D. A E. G
Answer: C — C. The topmost floor is floor 7, and the arrangement puts C there. The trap is F: F is high up on floor 6, but one floor below the top.
Q2. Who lives immediately below A?
A. E B. B C. G D. F E. D
Answer: B — B. A is on floor 4, so immediately below is floor 3, where B lives. Note that B is immediately above E, which is the same fact from the other side — if you placed the (E, B) pair correctly, this question is free.
Q3. How many people live between D and E?
A. 1 B. 3 C. 2 D. 4 E. 0
Answer: C — 2. D is on floor 5 and E is on floor 2, so floors 4 and 3 sit between them, holding A and B. Count people, not floors: the gap is 5 − 2 − 1 = 2.
Q4. Who lives on floor 6?
A. C B. F C. D D. B E. A
Answer: B — F. F is the only person on an even floor above B that fits the remaining floors, and it lands on floor 6. C is above F on floor 7 and D is below on floor 5.
Q5. Which of the following pairs live on adjacent floors?
A. A and C B. B and D C. D and E D. C and F E. F and G
Answer: D — C and F. C is on floor 7 and F on floor 6, so they are neighbours. Check the rest: A (4) and C (7) are three floors apart, B (3) and D (5) have one floor between them, D (5) and E (2) are far apart, and F (6) and G (1) are five floors apart.
Circular Seating: Questions 6–8
Eight people — P, Q, R, S, T, U, V and W — sit around a circular table, all facing the centre. Work out the full seating before answering.
- P sits second to the right of Q.
- R sits third to the left of P.
- S sits immediately to the left of R.
- T sits opposite Q.
- U sits second to the left of W.
- V sits immediately to the right of T.
Working (read this only after trying): Facing the centre, "right" runs anticlockwise and "left" runs clockwise. Fix Q, and the first three conditions pin P, R and S in a block; T opposite Q and U second to the left of W fix the rest, with V immediately right of T settling the last two seats. Going clockwise from P, the order is P, U, Q, R, S, V, T, W. This was verified by brute force: with these six conditions, exactly one seating exists (up to rotation).
Q6. Who sits second to the left of P?
A. Q B. S C. T D. R E. V
Answer: A — Q. Facing the centre, left runs clockwise. Clockwise from P comes U first and Q second, so Q sits second to the left of P. The trap is counting from Q instead of from P, which lands on R — always start counting from the person the question names.
Q7. Who sits opposite S?
A. T B. U C. W D. V E. P
Answer: E — P. In an eight-seat circle, opposite means four seats away. S is at clockwise position 4 and P is at position 0 — four apart in either direction. The trap is T: T is opposite Q, not opposite S.
Q8. How many people sit between Q and T?
A. 1 B. 2 C. 4 D. 3 E. 5
Answer: D — 3. Q and T are opposite each other, so there are exactly three people on each side between them: clockwise from Q come R, S and V before T, and the other way come U, P and W. Opposite pairs always have three people between them in an eight-seat circle.
Syllogism: Questions 9–11
Draw a quick Venn diagram for each set of statements. A conclusion follows only if it is true in every diagram the statements allow.
Q9. Statements: All pens are books. Some books are tables.
Conclusions: I. Some pens are tables. II. Some tables are books.
A. Only conclusion I follows B. Only conclusion II follows C. Both conclusions I and II follow D. Neither conclusion follows E. Either conclusion I or II follows
Answer: B — Only conclusion II follows. "Some books are tables" converts directly to "some tables are books", so II follows. But the pens could sit entirely inside the part of books that are not tables, so I does not follow.
Q10. Statements: No cat is a dog. All dogs are animals.
Conclusions: I. No cat is an animal. II. Some animals are dogs.
A. Only conclusion I follows B. Both conclusions I and II follow C. Neither conclusion follows D. Only conclusion II follows E. Either conclusion I or II follows
Answer: D — Only conclusion II follows. "All dogs are animals" means the dogs circle sits inside the animals circle, so some animals are definitely dogs — II follows. But cats could still be animals without being dogs, so I does not follow.
Q11. Statements: Some flowers are red. All red are colours.
Conclusions: I. Some flowers are colours. II. Some colours are flowers.
A. Neither conclusion follows B. Only conclusion I follows C. Only conclusion II follows D. Either conclusion I or II follows E. Both conclusions I and II follow
Answer: E — Both conclusions I and II follow. The flowers that are red are also colours, since all red things are colours, so I follows. And "some flowers are colours" converts to "some colours are flowers", so II follows as well.
Coding-Decoding: Questions 12–14
Use the letter positions A = 1 to Z = 26. When a code adds the positions, check it against both examples before applying it.
Q12. In a certain code, CAT is written as 24 and DOG is written as 26. How is BIRD written in the same code?
A. 31 B. 32 C. 33 D. 34 E. 35
Answer: C — 33. The code adds the letter positions: CAT = 3 + 1 + 20 = 24, and DOG = 4 + 15 + 7 = 26. So BIRD = 2 + 9 + 18 + 4 = 33.
Q13. In a certain code, MANGO is written as NBOHP. How is APPLE written in the same code?
A. BQQMF B. BPPMF C. BQQME D. AQPMF E. BQQNF
Answer: A — BQQMF. Each letter moves one step forward: M → N, A → B, N → O, G → H, O → P. Applying the same +1 shift to APPLE gives BQQMF.
Q14. In a certain code, WATER is written as XBUFS. How is LIGHT written in the same code?
A. MJHIU B. MKHIU C. MJHJU D. MJHIV E. NJHIU
Answer: A — MJHIU. WATER → XBUFS is a +1 shift on every letter: W → X, A → B, T → U, E → F, R → S. Apply the same shift to LIGHT: L → M, I → J, G → H, H → I, T → U, giving MJHIU. The traps are the single-letter slips: MKHIU shifts I by two, and NJHIU shifts L by two.
Inequalities: Questions 15–17
Combine the whole chain before testing any conclusion. A conclusion follows only if the combined chain forces it.
Q15. Statements: A > B ≥ C = D < E.
Conclusions: I. A > D. II. E > C.
A. Only conclusion I follows B. Both conclusions I and II follow C. Only conclusion II follows D. Neither conclusion follows E. Either conclusion I or II follows
Answer: B — Both conclusions I and II follow. A > B and B ≥ C = D gives A > D, so I follows. E > D and D = C gives E > C, so II follows.
Q16. Statements: P < Q ≤ R = S > T.
Conclusions: I. P < S. II. T < Q.
A. Only conclusion I follows B. Only conclusion II follows C. Both conclusions I and II follow D. Neither conclusion follows E. Either conclusion I or II follows
Answer: A — Only conclusion I follows. P < Q and Q ≤ R = S gives P < S, so I follows. But T is only known to be below S, and Q is only known to be at or below R = S, so nothing fixes T against Q — II does not follow.
Q17. Statements: X ≥ Y > Z, Z < W.
Conclusions: I. X > W. II. Y > W.
A. Only conclusion I follows B. Only conclusion II follows C. Neither conclusion follows D. Both conclusions I and II follow E. Either conclusion I or II follows
Answer: C — Neither conclusion follows. X and Y are both above Z, and W is also above Z, but the statements give no link between W and the X–Y side. W could be above or below either of them, so neither conclusion is forced.
Mixed Reasoning: Questions 18–20
Q18. Pointing to a photograph, Ramesh said, "She is the daughter of my grandfather's only son." Who is she to Ramesh?
A. Mother B. Sister C. Daughter D. Aunt E. Cousin
Answer: B — Sister. The grandfather's only son is Ramesh's father, and the father's daughter is Ramesh's sister. The word "only" is doing the work: without it, the son could have been an uncle.
Q19. A man walks 5 km north, turns right and walks 3 km, turns right again and walks 5 km, then turns left and walks 2 km. How far is he from his starting point, and in which direction?
A. 5 km west B. 3 km east C. 10 km south D. 5 km east E. 2 km north
Answer: D — 5 km east. Track the position: 5 km north, then 3 km east, then 5 km south brings him back to his starting latitude, 3 km east of the start. The final left turn faces east, and 2 km more makes 5 km east of the start.
Q20. Find the next term in the series: A, C, F, J, O, ?
A. U B. T C. V D. S E. W
Answer: A — U. The gaps grow by one each time: A → C is +2, C → F is +3, F → J is +4, J → O is +5, so the next gap is +6 and O + 6 = U.
Answer Key
| Question | Answer | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | 11 | E |
| 2 | B | 12 | C |
| 3 | C | 13 | A |
| 4 | B | 14 | A |
| 5 | D | 15 | B |
| 6 | A | 16 | A |
| 7 | E | 17 | C |
| 8 | D | 18 | B |
| 9 | B | 19 | D |
| 10 | D | 20 | A |
Key spread across the 20 questions: A 5, B 5, C 4, D 4, E 2 — no option above 30%, and no option repeats more than twice in a row.
Common Mistakes in SBI Clerk Reasoning
- Solving puzzle questions without the full arrangement. If you answer from a half-drawn diagram, one wrong seat poisons every question on that puzzle. Finish the diagram first; the five questions then take seconds each.
- Mixing up left and right in circular seating. Everyone faces the centre, so left is clockwise and right is anticlockwise. The single most common error in this section is reading them the other way round.
- Treating "some" as "all" in syllogism. "Some books are tables" never lets you conclude anything about all books, and a conclusion that is merely possible does not follow — it must be true in every diagram.
- Answering inequalities from one statement only. The chain must be combined first. In Q17, each statement alone looks informative, but together they leave W unconnected to X and Y.
- Spending Mains time on one puzzle. The Reasoning and Computer Aptitude section gives you 45 minutes for 50 questions. A puzzle that will not resolve in 4 minutes should be skipped and revisited only after the single questions are banked.
Memory Tricks for Reasoning
- Floor puzzles: write floors 7 to 1 downwards on paper before placing anyone — top-to-bottom order prevents the most common slip, which is numbering from the bottom while thinking from the top.
- Seating: fix one person at the top of your circle and build clockwise from there; never rotate the diagram halfway through.
- Syllogism: "All A are B" means the A circle sits inside B; "some A are B" means the circles overlap; "no A is B" means they are separate. Three pictures cover every question.
- Coding: memorise A = 1, E = 5, J = 10, O = 15, T = 20, Z = 26. Every letter position is one step from one of those six anchors.
- Inequalities: rewrite the chain as a single line with the symbols in order before reading the conclusions — if two letters never meet in one chain, no conclusion can connect them.
SBI Clerk Reasoning FAQs
How many Reasoning questions are there in the SBI Clerk Mains?
50 questions in the combined Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude section, for 60 marks in 45 minutes. Prelims Reasoning is a separate 35-question, 35-mark section in 20 minutes.
Is there negative marking in SBI Clerk Reasoning?
Yes — one-fourth of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for each wrong answer, in both Prelims and Mains. A wrong guess in Mains costs 0.3 marks on a 1.2-mark question. With five options, a blind guess is exactly break-even on average ((1/5 × 1.2) − (4/5 × 0.3) = 0.24 − 0.24 = 0), so the penalty alone does not make guessing a losing bet — but a guess still costs time at 54 seconds a question, so guess only after eliminating options.
Are puzzles asked in SBI Clerk Mains Reasoning?
Yes, heavily. Puzzles and seating arrangement typically make up 12 to 20 questions of the Prelims Reasoning section and remain the biggest block in Mains, alongside syllogism, inequalities, coding-decoding and blood relations.
How do I improve speed in Reasoning puzzles?
Practise one puzzle type at a time until the diagram is automatic, then mix types under a timer. The jump comes from drawing the diagram once and answering five questions from it, not from solving each question separately.
Does SBI Clerk Mains have a sectional cut-off?
No. SBI prescribes no minimum qualifying marks for individual tests in Mains — only a minimum aggregate, with a 5% relaxation for SC, ST, OBC, PwBD and ex-serviceman candidates. Your Reasoning score still matters because final merit is Mains marks only.
Which topics should I finish first for SBI Clerk Reasoning?
Syllogism, inequalities, coding-decoding and blood relations first — they are method-based and each question takes under a minute once the method is fixed. Then puzzles and seating, which need diagram practice but carry the most marks.
Are the questions in this set from previous SBI Clerk papers?
No. Every question in this set is original and written for this page. For real previous-year papers, see the SBI Clerk previous year question paper note.
Practice Next for SBI Clerk Reasoning
- Pattern and syllabus: SBI Clerk syllabus and exam pattern 2026, SBI Clerk admit card 2026, SBI Clerk result 2026, SBI Clerk cut off 2026.
- More solved sets: SBI Clerk English questions, SBI Clerk Quant questions, Caselet DI for SBI Clerk, Puzzles for SBI PO.
- Method notes: Blood relation questions for bank exams, Circular seating arrangement tricks, Floor puzzle questions for bank exams, Coded inequality tricks.
- Mock tests: SBI Clerk Mains Full Mock Test 01, SBI Clerk Mains Reasoning Sectional Mock Test 01, SBI Clerk Reasoning Ability Sectional Mock Test 01.
- Hubs: SBI Clerk 2026 and SBI Clerk mock tests (free).
- Browse all study notes.
Sources: SBI Clerk syllabus and exam pattern note (official advertisement CRPD/CR/2026-27/17, 11 August 2026 — Mains Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude 50 questions, 60 marks, 45 minutes; Prelims Reasoning 35 questions in 20 minutes; 1/4 negative marking; no sectional cut-off; final merit on Mains marks only); house topic-weightage table (puzzles and seating 12–20 questions). Puzzle arrangements verified by brute-force enumeration in code (floor puzzle and circular seating each have exactly one solution under the stated conditions). All 20 questions were re-checked after drafting, including the Q6 left/right count and the Q14 letter shifts. As of 6 November 2026.