CAT 2017 Slot 1 DILR Set 4 Q13–Q16

A DILR caselet from the Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) section of CAT 2017 Slot 1, with 4 questions (Scheduling). Answers are CAT's official key.

The set

This set relies on a figure in the original paper, which is not reproduced here. The questions and answers are below.

Healthy Bites is a fast food joint serving three items: burgers, fries and ice cream. It has two employees Anish and Bani who prepare the items ordered by the clients. Preparation time is 10 minutes for a burger and 2 minutes for an order of ice cream. An employee can prepare only one of these items at a time. The fries are prepared in an automatic fryer which can prepare up to 3 portions of fries at a time, and take 5 minutes irrespective of the number of portions. The fryer does not need an employee to constantly attend to it, and we can ignore time taken by an employee to start and stop the fryer; thus, an employee can be engaged in preparing other items while the frying is on. However, fries cannot be prepared in anticipation of future orders.

Healthy Bites wishes to serve the orders as early as possible. The individual items in any orders are served as and when ready; however, the order is considered to be completely served only when all the items of that order are served.

The table below gives the orders of three clients and the times at which they placed their orders:

[Figure in the original paper]

Question 13

Assume that only one client’s order can be processed at any given point of time. So, Anish or Bani cannot start preparing a new order while previous order is being prepared.
At what time is the order placed by client 1 completely served?

  1. A
    10:17
  2. B
    10:10
  3. C
    10:15
  4. D
    10:20

Answer: (B) 10:10 Scheduling MCQ

A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.

Question 14

Assume that only one client’s order can be processed at any given point of time. So, Anish or Bani cannot start preparing a new order while previous order is being prepared.
At what time is the order placed by client 3 completely served?

  1. A
    10:35
  2. B
    10:22
  3. C
    10:25
  4. D
    10:17

Answer: (C) 10:25 Scheduling MCQ

A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.

Question 15

Suppose the employees are allowed to process multiple orders at a time, but the preference would be to finish orders of clients who placed their orders earlier.
At what time is the order placed by client 2 completely served?

  1. A
    10:10
  2. B
    10:12
  3. C
    10:15
  4. D
    10:17

Answer: (A) 10:10 Scheduling MCQ

A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.

Question 16

Suppose the employees are allowed to process multiple orders at a time, but the preference would be to finish orders of clients who placed their orders earlier.
Also assume that the fourth client came in only at 10:35. Between 10:00 and 10:30, for how many minutes is exactly one of the employees idle?

  1. A
    7
  2. B
    10
  3. C
    15
  4. D
    23

Answer: (B) 10 Scheduling MCQ

A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.

Same concept in other years

See every question on Queue simulation: arrivals served by counters/rides/doctors in time slots.

More Scheduling questions from CAT

All 41 Scheduling questions asked since 2017.