The position(s) of how many letters will remain unchanged if all the letters in the word ‘LAUNDER’ are arranged in English alphabetical order?

Correct — B. Write the word out, write it sorted underneath, and compare slot by slot.

LAUNDER = L A U N D E R
Sorted = A D E L N R U

Rule: a letter counts only if the same letter stands in the same numbered slot in both rows.

Slot 1 L vs A, slot 2 A vs D, slot 3 U vs E, slot 4 N vs L.
Slot 5 D vs N, slot 6 E vs R, slot 7 R vs U.

Not one slot matches, so the count is zero — None, option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Three — Three letters do come within one slot of holding still — A moves 2 to 1, N moves 4 to 5, R moves 7 to 6 — but a near-miss is not a match.
• (c)
  Two — Two would need any pair of letters to hold their slots. A ends at slot 1 rather than 2 and R ends at slot 6 rather than 7, so neither holds.
• (d)
  One — One is what you get by spotting N at slot 4 in LAUNDER and assuming it stays. In ADELNRU, N stands at slot 5.

This stem asks for the fixed points of a sort: letters that occupy the same numbered slot before and after alphabetical ordering.

The method is mechanical. Write the original with slot numbers, write the sorted word beneath it, and compare column by column. Nothing is decided by how the two words look side by side.

Zero is a perfectly ordinary answer, and here None is the key.

Key facts

• LAUNDER sorted alphabetically is ADELNRU.
• All seven letters change slot, so the answer is None.
• Three letters land one slot away from their original position: A (2 to 1), N (4 to 5) and R (7 to 6).

Common traps

• Sorting in your head, which is where the one-slot near-misses become false matches
• Counting a letter as fixed because it appears in both rows rather than in the same slot
• Refusing to accept None and forcing a positive count out of the near-misses

No directly related past PYQ was found.