Classic logic puzzles in which you infer or deduce actions and outcomes based on information provided
Hasan and Lauren attended a dinner party with 4 other couples. Since some people already knew some of the other guests, every person at the dinner party shook hands with every person they had not met before.
Lauren noticed that everyone else (excluding Lauren herself) ended up with a different number of handshakes!
Can you figure out how many people Hasan shook hands with?
Continue reading “Handshake Puzzle”Which logical statement(s) below must be correct?
After the results of an election, you are told that one candidate has received the majority of the votes, but you don’t know which candidate. You have exactly one opportunity to hear the votes, but:
Given these restrictions, is there a way figure out which candidate received the majority of votes?
Continue reading “Majority Vote Puzzle”Abe, Ben, and Catelyn were playing 1-on-1 tennis matches one afternoon. After each match, the winner stayed on the court and the loser was replaced by the person who sat out.
At the end of their session, Abe had played 8 matches, Ben had played 12 matches, and Catelyn had played 14 matches. Ben was particularly exhausted as he had played all of the last 7 matches.
Is it possible to figure out who played and who won in the 4th match?
Continue reading “Tennis Match Mystery”A bicycle shop has some unique bicycles. Each bike is identical, and each bike’s front and back wheels has at least one spoke each. You don’t know how many bicycles are in the shop, but you know there are between 200 and 300 spokes in total.
If you knew the exact number of spokes, you would be able to figure out the number of bicycles.
You don’t know the exact number of spokes, but just knowing the fact that you would be able to figure it out with that information allows you to deduce the answer. How many bicycles and spokes are there?
Continue reading “Deducing Bicycle Spokes”There are three playing cards in a row.
There is a heart to the left of a diamond. There is a five to the right of a jack. There is a club to the left of a diamond. There is a queen to the left of a club.
What are the three cards?
Continue reading “Guess the Playing Cards”Five pirates are figuring out how to divide up a newly plundered treasure of 100 gold coins. From most senior to least senior: Pirate A, Pirate B, Pirate C, Pirate D, and Pirate E. The rules:
What is the greatest number of coins that Pirate A can distribute to himself?
This is a classic logic puzzle, occasionally encountered in tech interviews many years ago.
Preparing for a brain teaser interview? Check out our ultimate guide to brain teaser interviews.
Continue reading “5 Pirates Puzzle”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:
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?
Continue reading “Rigging a Vote”There is an island known for its people with blue eyes, yet there is at least one green-eyed person on the island. No one knows the color of their own eyes, as there are no reflective surfaces on the island and discussion of eye color is forbidden, but they can see everyone else’s eye color. If any islander were to come to know that they do not have blue eyes, they would leave the island in shame before the next sunrise.
One day, an outsider visits the island and remarked how there was at least one islander with green eyes. Within the day, every islander had heard and understood this new information.
Assuming departures from the island are noticed by everyone by the next day, and assuming each islander is highly logical and is able to keep track of all other islanders’ eye colors and actions – what happens to the islanders and does it depend on the number of green-eyed islanders?
This is a classic logic puzzle, also known under a different story (but same core logic) as Josephine’s Problem.
Continue reading “Island of Blue Eyes”There are three identical boxes of apples and oranges, except one contains all apples, one contains all oranges, and one contains a mix.
The boxes are labeled “apples”, “oranges”, and “apples and oranges” but all 3 boxes were labeled incorrectly!
You have the opportunity to inspect fruit from the boxes one at a time, without looking inside the box. What is the fewest number of fruit you need to inspect to correctly label the contents of the identical boxes?
This was a popular brainteaser in some engineering interviews a while back, including a software quality assurance engineer interview at Apple.
Preparing for a brain teaser interview? Check out our ultimate guide to brain teaser interviews.
Continue reading “Boxes of Apples and Oranges”