Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumOrder and Ranking

A network administrator is establishing a 5-step automated security protocol. The five steps—Backup Creation, Database Sync, Malware Scan, System Initialization, and User Authentication—must be arranged in a specific sequence based on the following constraints:

1. The Database Sync must occur exactly two steps after User Authentication.
2. The Malware Scan must occur sometime after System Initialization, but before Backup Creation.
3. The Database Sync cannot be the final step, and User Authentication cannot be the first step.

Arrange the five security steps in the correct chronological order from first to last.

  1. 1System Initialization
  2. 2User Authentication
  3. 3Malware Scan
  4. 4Database Sync
  5. 5Backup Creation

Answer

The correct sequence is: System Initialization, User Authentication, Malware Scan, Database Sync, and Backup Creation.
The rules restrict the User Authentication and Database Sync pair strictly to steps 2 and 4. The remaining three steps (System Initialization, Malware Scan, Backup Creation) must maintain a strict relative order to satisfy the second rule, naturally falling into the remaining slots 1, 3, and 5.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the fixed positions for User Authentication and Database Sync based on constraints 1 and 3.
User Authentication must be step 2 and Database Sync must be step 4.
They have a fixed gap of one step between them. They cannot be steps 1 and 3 (User Authentication cannot be first), nor steps 3 and 5 (Database Sync cannot be last). Therefore, they must occupy steps 2 and 4.
2
Assign the remaining three steps (System Initialization, Malware Scan, and Backup Creation) to the empty slots.
System Initialization is step 1, Malware Scan is step 3, and Backup Creation is step 5.
Constraint 2 requires them to be in the strict relative order: System Initialization -> Malware Scan -> Backup Creation. The only remaining empty slots are 1, 3, and 5, so they must sequentially fill these slots.

Key Concept

Relative Positional Arrangement and Constraint Satisfaction
Estimated Time:1m 30s
Rate this question

Topics

Order and Ranking

More questions from this topic