Calculating total matches in a knockout tournament
Question
In a tournament of Chess having 150 entrants, a player is eliminated whenever he loses a match. It is given that no match results in a tie/draw. How many matches are played in the entire tournament?
Options
151
150
149
148
Explanation
The tournament is a strict knockout format where losing a match directly eliminates a player. To determine the overall winner, every single player except the final champion must be eliminated.
Since there are 150 entrants and only 1 winner, exactly 150 - 1 = 149 players must be eliminated. Because each match eliminates exactly one player, the total number of matches must equal the total number of eliminations. Therefore, exactly 149 matches are played.
Answer: (c).
Question details
Year
2022
Paper
CSAT
Question
Q17
Section
Logical & Analytical Reasoning
Sub-topic
Logical Puzzles / Tournaments
Type
Factual single
Difficulty
Medium
Source hint
Chess tournament of 150 entrants
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