The letters of the word "FAINTS" are rearranged in alphabetical order. How many of the letters occupy the same position in the original word and in the alphabetically arranged word?

Introduction / Context:
This question is a word and position puzzle. You are given the word FAINTS and asked to compare its original arrangement with a new arrangement where the letters are sorted into alphabetical order. The goal is to count how many letters stay in exactly the same position in both versions. Problems of this type test your attention to detail and your ability to work with ordering of letters both visually and conceptually, which can appear in reasoning and verbal ability sections of competitive exams.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The original word is FAINTS.
• We must arrange its letters in alphabetical order based on standard English alphabetical sequence.
• The new ordered form uses the same six letters: A, F, I, N, S, and T.
• We then compare positions one by one between the original word and the alphabetical version.
• We count how many letters are in the same position in both words.

Concept / Approach:
The key idea is to perform an alphabetical sort of the letters and then match positions. Alphabetical order for the letters involved is A, F, I, N, S, T. Once you write the sorted version, you can line it up with the original word and check each position. You are not checking whether the same letters appear, but whether the same letter appears in the same position number in both sequences. That is what the question means by their order in the word and in the alphabetical order remaining the same.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Write the original word with positions: position 1 F, position 2 A, position 3 I, position 4 N, position 5 T, position 6 S. Step 2: List the letters of FAINTS and sort them alphabetically: A, F, I, N, S, T. Step 3: Write the alphabetically ordered form with positions: position 1 A, position 2 F, position 3 I, position 4 N, position 5 S, position 6 T. Step 4: Compare the letters at each position in the two forms. Step 5: At position 1, original has F and sorted has A, which do not match. Step 6: At position 2, original has A and sorted has F, which do not match. Step 7: At position 3, original and sorted both have I, which is a match. Step 8: At position 4, original and sorted both have N, which is another match. Step 9: At position 5, original has T and sorted has S, which do not match. Step 10: At position 6, original has S and sorted has T, which do not match.
Verification / Alternative check:
From the step by step comparison, we have matches only at positions 3 and 4. That means exactly two letters, I and N, retain their positions when the word is sorted alphabetically. To confirm, you can quickly reconstruct: original FAINTS and sorted AFINST. Only the middle part IN appears in the same positions in both words. No other positions match. This double check ensures that no letter has been overlooked and that the count of two is correct.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
One would be correct only if a single position matched, which is not the case. Three would require an additional matching position such as the first or last letter, but we see that F and A swap their places and S and T swap theirs when sorted. Nil would mean no position matches at all, which is clearly not true because both the third and fourth positions match. Therefore, Two is the only option consistent with our detailed comparison.

Common Pitfalls:
A common mistake is to misread the question and simply count how many letters are common between the two words, which will always be all of them because they are anagrams. Another pitfall is to arrange the letters incorrectly in alphabetical order, for example by misplacing F and A. To avoid errors, always write positions explicitly and compare them line by line rather than trying to do it mentally in one step.

Final Answer:
Exactly two letters, I and N, remain in the same position when FAINTS is rearranged alphabetically.