Passage

Direction for the following 3 (three) items : Consider the given information and answer the three items that follow. When three friends A, B and C met, it was found that each of them wore an outer garment of a different colour. In random order, the garments are: jacket, sweater and tie; and the colours are: blue, white and black. Their surnames in random order are: Ribeiro, Kumar and Singh. Further, we know that : 1. neither B nor Ribeiro wore a white sweater 2. C wore a tie 3. Singh's garment was not white 4. Kumar does not wear a jacket 5. Ribeiro does not like to wear the black colour 6. Each of the friends wore only one outer garment of only one colour

What is the colour of the tie ?

(a) Black
(b) Blue ✓ UPSC's answer
(c) White
(d) Cannot be determined

Why the answer is (b)

• C wore the tie (clue 2). Clue 1 tells us a white sweater was worn, by someone who is neither B nor Ribeiro; C wore a tie, so A wore the white sweater and B the jacket.

• A is not Ribeiro (clue 1) and not Singh, whose garment was not white (clue 3), so A is Kumar — consistent with Kumar not wearing a jacket (clue 4).

• Clue 1 names B and Ribeiro as two different people, so B is not Ribeiro; B is therefore Singh and C is Ribeiro.

• Ribeiro does not wear black (clue 5), and white is taken, so C's tie is blue and B's jacket is black.

• Result: A – Kumar, white sweater; B – Singh, black jacket; C – Ribeiro, blue tie.

• Hence the tie is blue, option (b).

Why the other options are wrong

(a) Black: Black is B's jacket, not the tie.
(c) White: White is A's sweater, not the tie.
(d) Cannot be determined: The tie's colour can be fixed as blue.

Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2016, held on 7 August 2016. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.