What will you learn from this article?
- Concept of order
- Different Formulas and tricks for solving questions
- Types of questions seen in the examinations
Exam Connect
Order as a topic is very straightforward and scoring. It is one of those topics which is seen across all of the competitive examinations. It is a short topic but with significant mark weightage.
Order
This chapter is all about numbers and letter sequences in a particular pattern. In these questions, you are required to find out how many times a letter or number satisfying the conditions specified in the questions occurs. There are two subcategories of questions which are seen under this topic:
- Order in numbers
- Order in alphabets
Order in Numbers
In this type of question, a series of numbers is given and, the candidate has to find out the numbers which follow the given condition.
Common Mistake: While solving question these types of questions, students often check and evaluate one number/alphabet at a time, which is very cumbersome and time-consuming.Â
 Example Question: How many 3s are there in the following number sequence, which is immediately proceeded by a ‘5’ and immediately followed by an ‘8’?
 5 8 1 4 9 2 1 3 5 3 8 4 8 3 5 4 7
Solution: Like in this question we are asked to find the number ‘3s’ which are preceded by a ‘5’ and followed by an ‘8’,
So the numeric key for this question would be 5 3 8,
Therefore, while scanning through the given series, we will be looking out for a 5 3 8.
5 8 1 4 9 2 1 3 5 3 8 4 8 3 5 4 7
So there is only one sequence of 5 3 8 present in the given series. Hence the answer is 1.
Example Question: Which of the following will be the last digit of the second-highest number after the position of the digits in each of the numbers given below is reversed?
459 824 912 567 369 512 114
Solution: Firstly, we will reverse the given number and arrange them in the ascending order.
215 219 411 428 765 954 963
Therefore, the last digit of the second-highest number is 4.
Order in Alphabets
In this type of question, a series of English alphabets are given and, the candidate has to find out the alphabets which follow the given condition.
Example Question: In the following series, how many W’s are between a Q and an E?
Q W E W Q W E Q E E E W Q Q E W Q W Q
Solution: Since the order of Q and E is not mentioned, we will consider both Q W E and E W Q.
 Q W E W Q W E Q E E E W Q Q E W Q W Q
 As we can see, there are four such pairs which follow the conditions.
Continue with Order and Ranking topic with the next article on Ranking: Concept and Types of Questions.
