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Games and Tournaments for CAT Exam Logical Reasoning – Part 2

Thursday, June 18th, 2020

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In our previous post on games and tournaments part-1, we discussed about two of the popular types of questions when it comes to games and tournament questions. So, if you are looking for questions on new types of data representation or questions based on seeding in a tennis tournament, probably you should read that. However, there is another popular type of questions with respect to Games and Tournaments and that is – Football / Hockey tournament questions in which we have to find out Goals scores, winners, ties, etc.

In such tournaments, all competitors play a fixed number of matches. Points are awarded for wins / draws / losses. Then an overall ranking is decided by total points or average points per match. Sometimes other factors such as goals scored / goals faced also come into the picture to resolves ties in ranking.

Question: “Sixteen teams have been invited to participate in the ABC Gold Cup cricket tournament. The tournament was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the teams are divided into two groups. Each group consists of eight teams, with each team playing every other team in its group exactly once. At the end of first stage, the top four teams from each group advance to the second stage while the rest are eliminated. The second stage comprised several rounds. A round involves one match for each team. The winner of a match in a round advances to the next round, while the loser is eliminated. The team that remains undefeated in the second stage is declared the winner and claims the Gold Cup.

The tournament rules such that each match results in a winner and a loser with no possibility of a tie. In the first stage, a team earns one point for each win and no points for a loss. At the end of the first stage, teams in each group are ranked on the basis of total points to determine the qualifiers advancing to the next stage. Ties are resolved by a series of complex tie-breaking rules so that exactly four teams form each group advanced to the next stage.”

Now questions were asked on – Total number of matches, minimum number of wins required for a team to guarantee advance (or possible advance) to next stage, maximum number of matches that a team can win in the first stage without advancing, etc.

In first stage, teams are divided into two groups of 8 teams each. There they play a match against everyone exactly one ie 8C2 matches in every group. So 2*8C2 = 56 matches for the first stage.

In second stage, there are 8 teams in a knockout stage. There will be one winner, so 8 – 1 = 7

So, total number of matches is 56 + 7 = 63

For a team to advance to the second stage, it should be among the top 4 in its group. Total points on stake in a group is the same as the total number of matches which is 8C2 = 28. To guarantee advance, it can have 3 teams with the same or more points. There can be 5 teams with 5 wins or 5 points. So, 5 wins is not good enough to ensure a birth in round 2. However, 6 wins  will guarantee its advance. This also tells us that a team might have 5 wins but still not advance.

To figure out the minimum wins required to possibly advance, let us look at the method for ‘n’ teams.

n/2 – 1 teams should win maximum no. of matches.

n/2 + 1 teams should have exactly the same number of wins.

So in this question, the top 3 teams can have a maximum of 7 + 6 + 5 = 18 points.

All other teams (5) have a combined score of 28 – 18 = 10 points. Their individual score is 2 points each and one of these five teams will advance to second stage.

So, minimum wins required to advance is 2.

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Let us look at another type of question in which we are given a table and we have to fill it. Given below is a random table at the end of hockey tournament. For each win two points were awarded and for a draw one point was given. We also know that the South Africa – Spain match was a draw. No two teams have the exact same count for Win/Draw/Loss and Australia has won more matches than Spain. Figure out the result of every match from the table given below:

 

Team Name	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Points
India				0	6
Pakistan					6
Australia					3
Spain					3
South Africa

Each team has played 4 matches.

A team can get a score of 6 in two ways:

3 Wins and 1 loss or 2 wins and 2 draws.

India did not lose, so it will have 2 wins and 2 draws whereas on the other hand Pakistan will have 3 wins

No. of matches played will be 5C2 = 10

The total no. of points at stake is 20. South Africa has the left-over points which is 2.

We also know that the South Africa – Spain match was a draw.

So, now our table looks like this:

Team Name	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Points
India	4	2	2	0	6
Pakistan	4	3	0	1	6
Australia	4				3
Spain	4		Min(1)		3
South Africa	4		Min(1)		2

2 Points can be achieved by 1 Win, 0 Draw, 3 Loss OR 2 Draw, 2 Loss.

We know that both Spain & South Africa have at least 1 Draw. This means that South Africa’s 2 points are by 2 Draw, 2 Loss

Team Name	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Points
India	4	2	2	0	6
Pakistan	4	3	0	1	6
Australia	4				3
Spain	4		Min(1)		3
South Africa	4	0	2	2	2

3 Points can be achieved by 1 Win, 1 Draw, 2 Loss OR 3 Draw, 1 Loss.

As no two teams have the same Win/Draw/Loss count, one of the above applies to Australia whereas the other one applies to Spain. As Australia has won more matches, it will get the 1 Win, 1 Draw, 2 Loss.

Our final table will look like this:

Team Name	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Points
India	4	2	2	0	6
Pakistan	4	3	0	1	6
Australia	4	1	1	2	3
Spain	4	0	3	1	3
South Africa	4	0	2	2	2

Now, let us try and analyze the match results for the 10 matches (in no special order):

Pakistan has won 3 and lost 1. Pakistan cannot win against India as India did not lose a match. So,

Match 1 – India beat Pakistan

Match 2 – Pakistan beat Australia

Match 3 – Pakistan beat Spain

Match 4 – Pakistan beat South Africa

We also know the result of South Africa Vs Spain

Match 5 – South Africa & Spain drew the match.

Spain has lost against Pakistan and it needs to draw all other matches.

Match 6 – India & Spain drew the match

Match 7 – Australia & Spain drew the match

Australia cannot draw another match as it has only 1 draw. It cannot win against India as India has no losses. So, it must have lost against India and the win must have come against the remaining team ie South Africa.

Match 8 – India beat Australia

Match 9 – Australia beat South Africa

The only match remaining between India & South Africa must have been a draw as India scored wins against Pakistan and Australia.

Match 10 – India & South Africa drew the match

 

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Full set of questions from CAT about games and tournaments.

1) What is the total number of matches played in the tournament?

a. 28 b. 55 c. 63 d. 35

2) The minimum number of wins needed for a team in the first stage to guarantee its advancement to the next stage is:

a. 5 b. 6 c. 7 d. 4

3) What is the highest number of wins for a team in the first stage in spite of which it would be eliminated at the end of first stage?

a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4

4) What is the number of rounds in the second stage of the tournament?

a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4

5) Which of the following statements is true?

a. The winner will have more wins than any other team in the tournament.

b. At the end of the first stage, no team eliminated from the tournament will have more wins than any of the teams qualifying for the second stage.

c. It is possible that the winner will have the same number of wins in the entire tournament as a team eliminated at the end of the first stage.

d. The number of teams with exactly one win in the 2nd stage of the tournament is 4.

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Phew!! I hope that you lasted this long without actually playing the game of “Banging head against the wall”. If you liked this post and think it was helpful, please share it.

CAT Exam 2018 Questions from Logical Reasoning

Logical Reasoning – Set 1: An ATM dispenses exactly Rs. 5000 per withdrawal using 100, 200 and 500 rupee notes.
Logical Reasoning – Set 2: 1600 satellites were sent up by a country for several purposes. The purposes are classified as broadcasting (B), communication (C), surveillance (S), and others (O). 
Logical Reasoning – Set 3: You are given an n×n square matrix to be filled with numerals so that no two adjacent cells have the same numeral.
Logical Reasoning – Set 4: Adriana, Bandita, Chitra, and Daisy are four female students, and Amit, Barun, Chetan, and Deb are four male students. Each of them studies in one of three institutes – X, Y, and Z.
Logical Reasoning – Set 5: Twenty four people are part of three committees which are to look at research, teaching, and administration respectively.
Logical Reasoning – Set 6: Fuel contamination levels at each of 20 petrol pumps P1, P2, …, P20 were recorded as either high, medium, or low.
Logical Reasoning – Set 7: Fun Sports (FS) provides training in three sports – Gilli-danda (G), Kho-Kho (K), and Ludo (L).?
Logical Reasoning – Set 8: According to a coding scheme the sentence Peacock is designated as the national bird of India is coded as 5688999 35 1135556678 56 458 13666689 1334 79 13366
Logical Reasoning – Set 9: The base exchange rate of a currency X with respect to a currency Y is the number of units of currency Y which is equivalent in value to one unit of currency X.
Logical Reasoning – Set 10: Seven candidates, Akil, Balaram, Chitra, Divya, Erina, Fatima, and Ganeshan, were invited to interview for a position.?
Logical Reasoning – Set 11: Each visitor to an amusement park needs to buy a ticket. Tickets can be Platinum, Gold, or Economy. Visitors are classified as Old, Middle-aged, or Young. ?

CAT Exam 2018 Questions from Data Interpretation

Data Interpretation – Set 1: A company administers a written test comprising of three sections of 20 marks each – Data Interpretation (DI), Written English (WE) and General Awareness (GA), for recruitment.
Data Interpretation – Set 2: The multi-layered pie-chart below shows the sales of LED television sets for a big retail electronics outlet during 2016 and 2017.
Data Interpretation – Set 3: There are only four brands of entry level smartphones called Azra, Bysi, Cxqi, and Dipq in a country.
Data Interpretation – Set 4: An agency entrusted to accredit colleges looks at four parameters: faculty quality (F), reputation (R), placement quality (P), and infrastructure (I).
Data Interpretation – Set 5:  Each of the 23 boxes in the picture below represents a product manufactured by one of the following three companies: Alfa, Bravo and Charlie.

CAT Exam 2017 Questions from Logical Reasoning

Logical Reasoning – Set 1: Eight friends: Ajit, Byomkesh, Gargi, Jayanta, Kikira, Manik, Prodosh and Tapesh are going to Delhi from Kolkata
Logical Reasoning – Set 2: In an 8 X 8 chessboard a queen placed anywhere can attack another piece if the piece is present in the same row
Logical Reasoning – Set 3: A tea taster was assigned to rate teas from six different locations – Munnar, Wayanad, Ooty, Darjeeling, Assam and Himachal.
Logical Reasoning – Set 4: Four cars need to travel from Akala (A) to Bakala (B). Two routes are available, one via Mamur (M) and the other via Nanur (N).
Logical Reasoning – Set 5: A new airlines company is planning to start operations in a country.
Logical Reasoning – Set 6: In a square layout of size 5m × 5m, 25 equal sized square platforms of different heights are built.
Logical Reasoning – Set 7: There are 21 employees working in a division, out of whom 10 are special-skilled employees (SE) and the remaining are regular skilled employees (RE).
Logical Reasoning – Set 8: Healthy Bites is a fast food joint serving three items: burgers, fries and ice cream.
Logical Reasoning – Set 9: A high security research lab requires the researchers to set a pass key sequence based on the scan of the five fingers of their left hands. When an employee first joins the lab, her fingers are scanned in an order of her choice, and then when she wants to re-enter the facility, she has to scan the five fingers in the same sequence.

CAT Exam 2017 Questions from Data Interpretation

Data Interpretation – Set 1: An old woman had the following assets: Rs. 70 lakh in bank deposits
Data Interpretation – Set 2: There were seven elective courses – El to E7 – running in a specific term in a college. Each of the 300 students enrolled had chosen just one elective from among these seven.
Data Interpretation – Set 3: Funky Pizzaria was required to supply pizzas to three different parties. The total number of pizzas it had to deliver was 800, 70% of which were to be delivered to Party 3 and the rest equally divided between Party 1 and Party 2.
Data Interpretation – Set 4: Simple Happiness index (SHI) of a country is computed on the basis of three parameters: social support (S), freedom to life choices (F) and corruption perception (C).
Data Interpretation – Set 5: Applicants for the doctoral programmes of Ambi Institute of Engineering (AIE) and Bambi Institute of Engineering (BIE) have to appear for a Common Entrance Test (CET).
Data Interpretation – Set 6: A study to look at the early teaming of rural kids was carried out in a number of villages spanning three states, chosen from the North East (NE), the West (W) and the South (S).
Data Interpretation – Set 7:At a management school, the oldest 10 dorms, numbered 1 to 10, need to be repaired urgently, The following diagram represents the estimated repair costs (in Rs. Crores) for the 10 dorms. For any dorm, the estimated repair cost (in Rs. Crores) is an integer.

Other posts related to Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

Games and Tournaments for CAT Logical Reasoning – Part 1
How to solve logical reasoning problems based on team selection and group formation?
How to solve Logical Reasoning questions based on Ranking and Ordering
Logical Reasoning Basics – How to solve coin picking / matchstick related problems?
Basics of Data Interpretation – Approximation
Application of Quantitative Ability Concepts in Logical Reasoning Puzzles and Data Interpretation Sets
Cube Based Puzzles in Logical Reasoning for CAT Exam Preparation
How to prepare for LRDI
How to prepare for Logical Reasoning
How to Prepare for Data Interpretation
How to Solve Number Series Questions in Logical Reasoning
Tricks to Solve Blood Relations Problems in Logical Reasoning
Coded Inequality – Tips and Tricks to Solve Questions in Logical Reasoning
CAT Concepts – Introduction to Data Sufficiency
Basics of Data Interpretation – Approximation

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