In the final semester, an engineering college offers three elective courses and one mandatory course. A student has to register for exactly three courses: two electives and the mandatory course. The registration in three of the four courses is: 45, 55 and 70. What will be the number of students in the elective with the lowest registration?

The number of candidates registered for 3 of the 4 courses is 45, 55, and 70.
There are 2 cases.
70 can be the total number of students registered in an elective or the mandatory course. 
Case (i):
70 students have registered in an elective. 
Each student will choose 2 elective.
=> Total number of electives chosen = 2* total number of students.
45+55+70 = 2*number of students.
Number of students = 170/2 = 85.
In this case, at least 45 students would have selected an elective. 

Case (ii):
70 students have registered in the mandatory class.
=> 45+55+x = 2*70
=> x =40.
As we can see, the number of students registered in an elective can be 40 or 45. Therefore, option E is the right answer.