12 letters choose 7, that C(12,7) = 792 ways to choose 7 letters for somebody to sit at. Notice that order DOES NOT matter when picking the letters, because picking letters J,A,C,G,I,E,K is the same as picking the letters C,K,I,J,A,G,E. For each of those 792 ways to pick 7 letters, the 7 people can be arranged in P(7,7) or 7! = 5040 ways. Notice that here order DOES matter when choosing which person sits where, because if two people switch seats, that is a different seating arrangement. Answer = C(12,7)×P(7,7) = 792×5040 = 3991680 [In case that's not the right answer, it's because it was assumed that it was a round table mounted on a turn-table floor, so that no matter how you turned the people around, it would not count as a different seating arrangement, so the answer would be the above answer divided by the 12 ways the rotating floor could be turned.] Edwin