The position of how many letters will remain unchanged if each of the letters in the word FRIEND is arranged in alphabetical order?

Correct — A.
Rule: sort the letters, then compare position by position.

FRIEND: F R I E N D
Sorted: D E F I N R

1: F → D, 2: R → E, 3: I → F
4: E → I, 5: N → N, 6: D → R

Just N, in position 5, keeps its place → One, option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Four — Four would leave just two letters moving. In fact five move: F, R, I, E and D all land somewhere new, and N alone stays in place 5.
• (c)
  Three — Three would need two more letters besides N to hold their places. None does: I goes from 3rd to 4th, E from 4th to 2nd, F from 1st to 3rd, and R and D move too.
• (d)
  Five — Five is the count of letters that move, not those that stay. The question asks how many positions remain unchanged: just N's.

Arranging a word's letters in alphabetical order gives a new cluster of the same length. A letter's position is unchanged only if the same letter sits at the same place in both.

Write the two versions one above the other and read down the columns. For FRIEND that is F/D, R/E, I/F, E/I, N/N, D/R: a single match.

Key facts

• FRIEND sorted alphabetically is DEFINR.
• N is 5th in both FRIEND and DEFINR.
• Letters that stay plus letters that move add up to the word's length: 1 + 5 = 6.

Common traps

• Counting the letters that move (five) instead of those that stay (one)

No directly related past PYQ was found.