RAS question
In a class, Kavita's rank from the top is 12th and her rank from the bottom is 30th. If three students fail and are removed from the list, what will be her rank from the bottom if the failed students ranked below her?
Correct answer: (C) 27th.
Kavita's new rank from the bottom is 27th after three students ranked below her are removed from the class list.
Explanation
Kavita is 12th from the top and 30th from the bottom, so the original class strength is 12 + 30 - 1 = 41; the subtraction avoids counting Kavita twice. The three failed students are all below Kavita, so removing them reduces only the number of students below her, not her rank from the top. The revised class strength is 41 - 3 = 38, while Kavita remains 12th from the top. Her new rank from the bottom is therefore 38 - 12 + 1 = 27th. This is the kind of order-and-position reasoning where the whole list, the candidate's fixed position, and the removed segment must be kept distinct.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 28th would result from miscounting the inclusive position by one after the class strength changes.
- (B) 30th ignores that three students below Kavita have been removed, so her bottom rank cannot remain unchanged.
- (D) 29th subtracts only one effective position from the bottom rank instead of all three students removed from below her.
Concept
This tests order-and-ranking under a changed list size, a standard Reasoning and Mental Ability concept. It recurs in RAS because small inclusive-counting errors can change the answer even when the arithmetic is simple.