Minute Mystery: Theater Seating

Bite-sized brain teaser to solve in a minute or less.

 

 

Theater Seating

Five friends—Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dana, and Ethan—are sitting in a row of five theater seats (numbered 1 to 5 from left to right). Use the clues below to determine their seating order.

 

 

Solution

Place Charlie: Since there are 5 seats and Charlie is in the middle, Charlie must be in seat 3.   Place Bob: Bob sits immediately to the left of Charlie. Therefore, Bob must be in seat 2.   Place Alice: Alice is not at either end. The available seats for Alice now are seats 4 (since seat 1 and seat 5 are ends, and seat 2 and 3 are occupied). So, Alice must be in seat 4.   Place Dana and Ethan: The remaining seats are 1 and 5. Clue 5 tells us that Ethan is somewhere to the right of Dana. This forces Dana to be in the leftmost available seat and Ethan in the rightmost available seat. Therefore, Dana goes to seat 1 and Ethan goes to seat 5.   Verify Clue 4: Dana (seat 1) and Ethan (seat 5) are not next to each other, which satisfies Clue 4. The seating order from left to right is: Seat 1: Dana Seat 2: Bob Seat 3: Charlie Seat 4: Alice Seat 5: Ethan