Unit 14 · Ordering Deduction
Five School Teams — Find the Correct Order
Lesson 1 of 6
This is a great starting point for ordering problems: three clues, five teams, one winner to find. The secret is to always start with the clue that gives you a fixed position — once you anchor Yellow at 3rd, the other positions fall into place very quickly.
Three-clue chain ordering questions appear regularly in the easy range of OC TS and reward students who work through the clues in the right order rather than trying to hold everything in their head at once.
The examiner wants to see whether you can build a position chain from relative clues — "after Red but before Yellow" compresses three positions into one locked sequence. Students who try to guess from the options rather than building the chain often confuse 1st and 2nd.
Five teams or people compete in a race or ordering task. One clue fixes a position (e.g. "Yellow finished third"). A chain clue ties two others around that anchor (e.g. "Green after Red but before Yellow"). A final clue places the remaining two relative to the anchor. You must identify who came first.
Best approach: Always start with the fixed-position clue — it is your anchor. Then read the chain clue and ask: "If Yellow is 3rd, where must Red and Green go?" Place them, then use the final clue to slot in the last two. Write down your chain as you go — do not try to track five positions in your head.
Question
There are five school teams: Red, Yellow, Green, Orange and Blue. A member of each team competes in the 100m race. You don't see the race but a friend tells you the following facts:
- Yellow finished third.
- Green finished after Red but before Yellow.
- Blue beat Orange but finished after Yellow.
Who won the race?
Select an answer to see the explanation.
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