Game Theory and Game Strategies

Logic puzzles involving game theory, determining optimal strategies for games, or the design of games

In this sharing game theory puzzle, 3 friends take turns taking from a jar of 1000 candies to share. For example, the 1st friend could take 500 candies, then the 2nd friend could take 400, and the 3rd friend would take the remaining 100.

No one wants to be seen as greedy, but no one wants to end up with the fewest candies either. As such, their goals are (in order of preference):

Not end up with the most candies, nor the fewest candies
End up with as many candies as possible

All of them are logical, rational, know each other’s goals, but cannot communicate before or during sharing. How many candies should each friend end up with?

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Brain Teasers and Puzzles

First to 100

Tags Difficulty - Medium, Game Theory and Game Strategies, Interview Brain Teasers

You and a friend play “first to 100”, a game in which you start with 0, and you each take turns adding an integer between 1 and 10 to the sum. Whoever makes the sum reach 100 is the winner.

Is there a winning strategy? If so, what is it?

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Brain Teasers and Puzzles

Last Chocolate Game

Tags Difficulty - Hard, Game Theory and Game Strategies, Logic Puzzles

Two friends are playing a game with two boxes of chocolates. They take turns taking out some number of chocolates from the boxes, and whoever takes the last chocolate wins. Each turn they can take chocolates one of two ways:

Take any number of chocolates from a single box
Or take an equal number of chocolates from each box

If there are 25 chocolates in one box and 35 in the other, what is the winning strategy?

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Brain Teasers and Puzzles

Card Pairing Game

Tags Difficulty - Medium, Game Theory and Game Strategies

You are playing a game with your friend using a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Each round, you flip over two cards:

If both cards are black, you keep the cards and earn one point.
If both cards are red, your friend keeps the cards and earns one point.
If one card is red and one is black, the cards are set aside in a discard pile.

What is the probability that you end up with more points than your friend when all the cards in the deck have been used up?

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Brain Teasers and Puzzles

Rigging a Vote

Tags Difficulty - Easy, Game Theory and Game Strategies, Interview Brain Teasers, Logic Puzzles

There are five candidates participating in an unusual election. There are four rounds of voting, and only two candidates participate in each round, with the winner moving on and the loser dropping out. This means first candidate 1 will run against candidate 2, then the winner will run against candidate 3, and so on, with the winner of the last round being elected.

Polling shows that Stephen Hawking is not very popular. There are five equal-sized groups in the voting population, and polling shows they prefer the candidates in the following order:

Group 1: Einstein > Newton > Maxwell > Hawking > Curie
Group 2: Newton > Curie > Maxwell > Einstein > Hawking
Group 3: Curie > Maxwell > Einstein > Newton > Hawking
Group 4: Einstein > Newton > Hawking > Curie > Maxwell
Group 5: Newton > Maxwell > Einstein > Hawking > Curie

But Hawking has a secret weapon – he gets to choose the order the candidates participate in each round.

Is there a way for Hawking to organize the rounds such that he wins?

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