Nainital Bank PO: Reasoning Ability study guide

What the section tests

Nainital Bank PO Reasoning Ability checks whether you can derive a unique arrangement or conclusion from limited clues. Recurring types are circular and linear seating with facing directions, floor and box puzzles, syllogisms, inequality chains, coded inequalities, blood relations, direction sense, alphanumeric series, and data sufficiency.

Core rules

In syllogisms, draw the minimum Venn diagram; a conclusion is valid only if it is true in every diagram satisfying the statements. 'Some A are B' does not imply 'Some B are not A'.
In inequality chains, keep the direction of the opening. A > B ≥ C = D means A > D, but C < A; a conclusion using '≤' is false when only '<' is established.
In circular seating, fix one person and convert left and right relative to facing. For inward-facing people, left is clockwise; for outward-facing people, left is anticlockwise.
In puzzles with two variables, such as floor and colour, build a grid and fill definite pairs first; postpone either/or clues.

Worked example

Statements: All clerks are officers. Some officers are cashiers. Conclusion I: Some clerks are cashiers. Conclusion II: Some officers are clerks. Draw clerks inside officers; cashiers overlap officers but may not touch clerks. Conclusion I can fail, so it is not definitely true. Conclusion II is the converse of 'All clerks are officers' and is valid because the clerks set is non-empty. Answer: only II follows.

Traps

Treating a possibility as a certainty; reversing 'All A are B' into 'All B are A'; ignoring the word 'not' in a conclusion; misreading facing direction after a rotation clue; and choosing the first consistent arrangement instead of checking whether a second arrangement exists.