Trying to sort students according to their voting preferences to work together

Hi All,
I've just recently been getting into Excel to make my teacher life easier. Ultimately what I'm after is a way to identify when 2 students have selected each other in the following format.
On the y axis you have the list of all the students. On the x axis you have the same students, and the data set shows the voting preference of each student. Assume they've given 3 preferences ranked 1,2 and 3 according to who they'd most like to work with.
Is it possible to have the students who select each other get highlighted green or something?
Example: Student 1 selects Student 2 with their first preference and Student 2 also selects student 1 with their first preference. Then both of their number 1 voting cells turn green.

Alternatively if that's not possible, I would also appreciate a version where preferences don't matter and you just put an X in the cells that indicate a student wants to work with another.

Would be eternally grateful for any assistance! Thanks in advance legends!

Preferences in columns B, C and D

3 helper columns in F, G and H
F2=TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,TRANSPOSE(SORT(TRANSPOSE($A2:B2))))
G2=TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,TRANSPOSE(SORT(TRANSPOSE($A2:C2)))),B2,""))
H2=TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,TRANSPOSE(SORT(TRANSPOSE($A2:D2)))),B2,""),C2,""))

Conditional formatting applies to range: =$B$2:$D$27
CF formula 1 for direct matching: ==COUNTIFS(F$2:F$27,F2)>1
CF formula 2 for indirect matching: ==COUNTIFS($F$2:$H$27,F2)>1

Thanks so much for that awesome spreadsheet! For some reason I'm getting the #NAME? error. How would I be able to edit it so that I can write the names of the kids in where it says Student 1, student 2 etc

Are you using Excel365?

Nah, I'm using the Excel 2019 version

I just opened it up using Excel 365 and it's coming up with the names now. How would I then change those preferences?

Just type over.

Over the formula?

Yes, in columns A to D.

Why doesn't it work for Excel 2019? Is there any way I can get it to work for offline Excel?

SORT function is not available in Excel 2019.

I cannot express my gratitude enough to you! Thank you so much!

You are welcome. Sorry unable to help with older Excel version formulas.

Perhaps do a filter in column A.

You are an absolute wizard, and I am forever in your debt. Thank you so much!

You are most welcome!