Circular Seating Arrangement

• The key convention: when people sit facing the centre of a round table, the clockwise-next neighbour is on their LEFT, and the clockwise-previous neighbour is on their RIGHT.
• How to find the person sitting exactly opposite someone at an evenly spaced round table.
• How the convention flips when people face outward, away from the centre.

1. Facing the centre convention — clockwise = left, counter-clockwise = right (this feels backwards at first — always double-check with your own body facing an imaginary centre).
2. Opposite seat — with N people evenly spaced, the opposite person is N/2 seats away (only exact for even N).
3. Facing outward — reverses the convention: clockwise = right, counter-clockwise = left.
4. Second-to-the-left / second-to-the-right — move 2 seats in the stated direction using the convention above.

Six friends sit around a round table facing the centre. Clockwise order: A, B, C, D, E, F. Who is immediately to the left of A?

Step 1 — facing centre, so clockwise-next = left
Step 2 — clockwise order after A is B
Answer: B is immediately to the left of A.

• Assuming clockwise always equals "right" — it only does so when people face outward, not when facing the centre.
• Miscounting the opposite seat when the number of people is odd (there is no single exact opposite seat).
• Forgetting to re-apply the reversed convention in "facing outward" questions.

• If 6 people face the centre in clockwise order A,B,C,D,E,F, who is opposite C?
• If they instead face outward, who is now immediately to the right of A?
• Why does facing outward reverse the left/right convention?

Open the Practice tab for graded questions on Circular Seating Arrangement.