Races: Head Starts, Winning Margins, and Relative Speed Quiz — 5 Free Questions

📖 Read the passage, then answer the questions below

In a 400-metre race, Runner A finishes the race in 50 seconds, while Runner B finishes the same race in 62.5 seconds. Assuming both runners maintain a constant speed throughout, Runner A crosses the finish line well before Runner B does.

In a separate 200-metre race between two other runners, Runner C, running at a constant speed of 8 metres per second, gives Runner D a 40-metre head start, and yet the two runners cross the finish line at exactly the same instant, resulting in a dead heat.

In a third race between Runner E and Runner F, over a distance of 1,000 metres, Runner E beats Runner F by 200 metres, or equivalently by 25 seconds, when both runners run the full 1,000-metre race at their own constant speeds.

Question 1

If Runner C and Runner D raced again over 400 metres, with Runner D again given a 40-metre head start, who would win?

Question 2

If Runner A and Runner E raced against each other over 1,000 metres at their respective speeds, who would finish first?

Question 3

When Runner A finishes the race, by how much distance is Runner B short of the finish line?

Question 4

What is Runner D's speed?

Question 5

What is the sum of the times taken by Runner E and Runner F to complete the 1,000-metre race?

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About Races: Head Starts, Winning Margins, and Relative Speed

CLAT's Quantitative Techniques section pairs a short data-rich scenario with several straightforward numeric questions -- here, relative speed applied to three separate invented races, so every answer can be worked out from the figures given, without any outside knowledge.

This quiz is built around three races: one measured by finishing times, one involving a head start that still ends in a dead heat, and one measured by both a winning distance and a winning time, all fully worked out up front. Every question below is answered using those same figures -- nothing new is introduced question to question.

The twenty-four questions move through the kind of angles CLAT actually tests: individual speeds, distances covered or still remaining, ratios and differences between runners, a "what if" rematch over a different distance, and a multi-statement combination question.

Only five of the twenty-four questions are shown on any single attempt, so replaying this quiz brings a genuinely different mix of angles on the same three races rather than the same five memorised by rote.