CAT 2025 Slot 3 · DILR · Question 13

CAT 2025 Slot 3 previous year question on Mixed DI (Radar, Triangular, Stock etc), with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Mixed DI (Radar, Triangular, Stock etc)DATA INTERPRETATION -High LevelMultiple choiceMedium

Set 3: Puzzle Solving Competition — this question belongs to a set. Read the full set with all 4 questions →

Anirbid, Chandranath, Koushik, and Suranjan participated in a puzzle solving competition. The competition comprised 10 puzzles that had to be solved in the same sequence, i.e., a competitor got access to a puzzle as soon as they solved the previous puzzle. Some of the puzzles were visual puzzles and the others were number-based puzzles. The winner of the competition was the one who solved all puzzles in the least time.

The following charts describe their progress in the competition. The chart on the left shows the number of puzzles solved by each competitor at a given time (in minutes) after the start of the competition. The chart on the right shows the number of visual puzzles solved by each competitor at a given time (in minutes) after the start of the competition.

Which of the following is the closest to the average time taken by Anirbid to solve the number-based puzzles in the competition?

  1. A

    3.3 minutes

  2. B

    2.5 minutes

  3. C

    3.8 minutes

  4. D

    4.0 minutes

Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option D

Anirbid (red) solves puzzles 1 to 10 at minutes 4, 9, 11, 14, 19, 22, 27, 29, 33 and 37.

Number-based puzzles are 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 10. Their solving times:

Puzzle 2: 9 − 4 = 5; puzzle 3: 11 − 9 = 2; puzzle 5: 19 − 14 = 5; puzzle 6: 22 − 19 = 3; puzzle 7: 27 − 22 = 5; puzzle 10: 37 − 33 = 4.

Total = 24 minutes over 6 puzzles, so the average is 4.0 minutes.

Check against the visual chart: Anirbid's visual count rises at 4, 14, 29 and 33 – puzzles 1, 4, 8 and 9 – and these take 4 + 3 + 2 + 4 = 13 minutes; 13 + 24 = 37, his finishing time.

Shortcut: total time 37 minus time on visual puzzles 13 gives 24 minutes for 6 number-based puzzles.

Hence, the answer is option 4.

More Mixed DI (Radar, Triangular, Stock etc) questions

All Mixed DI (Radar, Triangular, Stock etc) PYQs →

Take this paper as a timed test
Real exam timing, instant score, rank and topic-wise analysis.

Practice timed →