Scheduling Puzzles — Days, Months, Dates
Scheduling Puzzles — Days, Months, Dates
Scheduling puzzles place events across a line of days, months or dates — who travels on which day, whose exam falls in which month. They are really linear-order puzzles in disguise, so the same 'before and after' logic that runs seating runs these too. The one extra skill is remembering the fixed length of the line: seven days in a week, twelve months in a year, or a stated set of dates. That boundary is what turns a vague ordering into an exact position.
Draw the Line and Number It
Start by drawing the full line as numbered slots — Monday as one through Sunday as seven, or the given months in calendar order. Numbering the slots converts every 'earlier' and 'later' clue into arithmetic you can check at a glance. Without the numbered line you are forced to hold the whole week in your head; with it, a clue like 'three days after Tuesday' resolves to Friday in a single step and you record it as a mark rather than a memory.
Converting Before and After to Positions
Translate relationship clues into slot arithmetic immediately. 'A's trip is two days before B's' means position of A equals position of B minus two. 'C is scheduled after D but before E' fixes the order D-C-E and often pins C once D and E are placed. Treat 'before' as a smaller slot number and 'after' as a larger one, and the whole puzzle becomes adding and subtracting small numbers along a line you have already drawn. When a clue mixes two people, such as 'A travels before B but after C', break it into two separate slot comparisons and place each on the line one at a time rather than trying to honour both at once, which keeps the arithmetic simple and error-free.
Watch the Gap Words Carefully
Scheduling clues live and die on their gap words, so read them exactly. 'Immediately before' means the very next slot, while 'before' allows any earlier slot; 'exactly two days after' fixes a gap of two, while 'at least two days after' leaves several possibilities open. Mistaking a loose gap for a tight one invents a certainty the clue never gave and wrecks the grid. Underline the gap word in every scheduling clue before you place it so the arithmetic matches the wording. When a clue only loosely bounds a person, leave that slot open and let the tighter clues close it, rather than forcing a guess that a later clue then contradicts.
The Week and Month Reference
| Clue phrase | Meaning on the line | Example (Mon=1) |
|---|---|---|
| "the day after X" | X + 1 | after Tue = Wed |
| "three days before Y" | Y - 3 | before Fri = Tue |
| "immediately before Z" | Z - 1, adjacent | before Sun = Sat |
| "between Mon and Fri" | slots 2, 3 or 4 | Tue, Wed or Thu |
Solved Example
Example: Four people travel Monday to Thursday. Clue: R travels on Monday. Clue: S travels immediately after R. So S is Tuesday. Clue: T travels after S but not on the last day, so T is Wednesday and the remaining person takes Thursday. Numbering the days made 'immediately after' and 'after' resolve in one step each — the order is R-Mon, S-Tue, T-Wed, last person Thursday.
✗ Reading 'before' as 'immediately before' and forcing adjacency | ✓ Underlining the gap word and allowing any earlier slot
समय-सारणी पहेली रेखीय क्रम ही है। पहले दिनों/महीनों को क्रम में संख्या दें। 'पहले' = छोटी संख्या, 'बाद' = बड़ी संख्या। 'ठीक पहले' और 'पहले' का अंतर ध्यान से पढ़ें।
Exam Pointer — SBI Clerk often frames one puzzle around a week, a set of months or given dates, worth four to five questions. Treat it exactly like linear seating on a numbered line. The scoring trap is the gap words — 'immediately' versus plain 'before' — so read each clue's spacing precisely before you commit a placement.
60-Second Recap
- Scheduling is linear ordering on a fixed-length line.
- Number the slots: Mon=1 to Sun=7, or months in order.
- 'Before' = smaller slot, 'after' = larger slot.
- Underline gap words: 'immediately' fixes adjacency, 'before' does not.