Engineers and graduates — Syllogisms Aptitude Question
Engineers and graduates: Statements: All engineers are graduates. Some graduates are unemployed. Conclusions: I. Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Syllogisms
- Section: Logical Reasoning
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 75 seconds
Question
Statements:
- All engineers are graduates.
- Some graduates are unemployed.
Conclusions: I. Some engineers are unemployed. II. Some unemployed people are graduates.
Which conclusion follows?
Options
- Only I
- Only II
- Both
- Neither
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: B. Only II
Worked solution
- The unemployed graduates may all lie outside the engineers, so I does not follow.
- 'Some graduates are unemployed' reverses to 'some unemployed people are graduates': II follows.
Answer: Only II.
The idea
'Some' statements reverse freely; 'all' statements never do. Checking whether a conclusion is just a premise restated is the quickest test.
Shortcut. The middle term 'graduates' is never covered in full (predicate of an 'all', subject of a 'some'), so no engineer–unemployed link follows; II is statement 2 simply converted.
Common trap. "Both" — reasoning that engineers are graduates and some graduates are unemployed, so some engineers must be; the unemployed graduates can all be non-engineers.