puzzles:-

1)water bucket problem

-- Having an infinite supply of water and two containers, one for 3 liters and one for 5 liters,
how would you measure 4 liters?
Each step in the solution can be one of three things: Fill up a container all of the way, empty
a container completely, or use one container to fill up another as much as possible.
The solution to the original problem is: Fill the 5 litre bucket (completely). The buckets are
now 5/5 and 0/3. Pour the 5 litre bucket into the 3 litre one. They are now 2/5 and 3/3.
Empty the 3 litre bucket. They are now 2/5 and 0/3. Pour the 5 litre bucket into the 3 litre
one. They are now 0/5 and . Fill the 5 litre bucket. They are now 5/5 and . Pour the 5 litre
bucket into the 3 litre one. They are now 4/5 and 3/3. Now, you have one bucket with the
required amount of 4 litres.

2)How many trees can be planted equi-distant from each other in 2D as well as 3D
--- as pyramid shape

3). I was to imagine a situation where theres is an empty wet, water spilled room(ceiling
to floor height- 12 ft), a dead man(7 ft height) hung by a 3 ft rope. Im asked how could
the man hung himself there?
reply:- I said there had been a 2ft ice cube on which he might have stood and tied
himself and hung, (ice cube melting away killing him)

4) Im given 8 sticks to use to make two squares and four right angled triangles
reply:- a rhombus inside a square

5) I was given two non-uniform sticks which burn one hour each. I had to measure 15
minutes using them.
reply:- I set one stick to fire on both ends and the other stick on only end. I let the first
stick burn completely which measures me 30 minutes. Then I put the other end of the
burning second stick on fire and let it burn completely. Now, the second stick takes 15
minutes to burn completely

6) I was given 9 balls which all are identical except one which is hollow! How many trials
would you take to figure out the hollow one!
reply:- split into two halves of 4 each and 1 ball spare.

7) There are three ants on three corners of an equilateral triangle. they can move in any
direction but only along the triangle edges. probability that any two ants collide each
other.
reply:2/8
8) A puzzle was also asked we have a car which had 5 tyres(4 in use and 1 spare). The car had traveled
20,000 miles and all of its tyres has covered equal amount of distance and all the tyres has reached their
maximum limit and thus all are busted. What is the maximum limit of each tyre.

Reply Divide the lifetime of spare tire into 4 equal part i.e., 5000 and swap it at each completion of 5000
miles distance.
Let four tyres be A, B, C and D and spare tyre be S.
5000
KMs:
Replace
A
10000
KMs:
Put
A
back
to
its
original
position
15000
KMs:
Put
B
back
to
its
original
position
20000 KMs: Put C back to its original position and replace D with S

and
and

with
replace
replace

B
C

with
with

S.
S
S

All tyres are used upto their full strength.

9) There are 49 Horses, and you have to organise a horse racing competition. Maximum of 7 Horses can
be made to race at a time. How many minimum races you need to schedule the races such that we can
find
the
horses
with
first,
second
and
third
positions?
Ans=
9
Solution:
http://www.programmerinterview.com/index.php/puzzles/25-horses-3-fastest-5-races-puzzle/
10) Divide 6 eggs among 6 people and 1 egg still left in basket. How?(Ans. 6th person took the basket too
with the last egg)
11) Three ants are moving on equilateral triangle, starting with corners. What is the probability that they
never collide, given that their speed remains constant.
(Ans. (6/8))
12) Given 10 coins, create as maximum number of lines consisting of 4 coins each.

(Answer : make a star figure )

13) Two trains are on the same track a distance 100 km apart heading towards one another, each at a
speed of 50 km/h. A fly starting out at the front of one train, flies towards the other at a speed of 75 km/h.
Upon reaching the other train, the fly turns around and continues towards the first train. How many
kilometers does the fly travel before getting squashed in the collision of the two trains? (easy but tricky)
for solution check here :http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TwoTrainsPuzzle.html and some more puzzles

14) Sand Timer puzzle where I needed to measure 15 minutes using two 7 and 11 minutes sand timer.
Reply- Turn both the 7 and the 11. When the 7 runs out, start timing. The 11 will run for 4
more minutes, after which it can be flipped to reach 15.
15). Divide 6 eggs among 6 people and 1 egg still left in basket.
16)Make 1000 using eight 8s by only using +,-,*,/.
Reply 1) 888 + 88 + 8+ 8 + 8 = 1000
2) 888 + (8+8)*8 - 8 - 8 = 1000
3) ( 8888 - 888 ) / 8 = 1000
17)Number based puzzle.
18)A monkey climbs 3 step up during day and falls down 1 step during night. How much time required to
climb 30 m.
19)Day of month using 2 dice.
Reply- first dice :0,1,2,3,4,5

second dice :0,1,2,6,7,8

6 can be used for both 6 and 9.
20) Puzzles on calculate time using candles .

21) Puzzles on bucket for eg.A farmer needs 8 gallons of water. He has only
three unmarked buckets, two 6 gal lon and one 11 gallon bucket. How can he
collect 8 gallons of water using three unmarked buckets? Provide solution with
minimal water wastage
ReplyHere is the solution with 10 gallon water wastage.
OPERATIONS 6 6 11

Fill 6 gallon bucket with water 6 0 0

Empty 6 gallon bucket into 11 gallon bucket 0 0 6
Fill 6 gallon bucket with water 6 0 6
Fill 11 gallon bucket to full using filled 6 gallon bucket. This will leave 1 gallon water in 6
gallon bucket 1 0 11
Empty 11 gallon bucket into second 6 gallon bucket. 1 6 5
Empty 11 gallon bucket - wastage of 5 gallon water 1 6 0
Empty second 6 gallon bucket into 11 gallon bucket 1 0 6
Fill seccond 6 gallon bucket with water 1 6 6
Fill 11 gallon bucket to full using filled second 6 gallon bucket. This will leave 1 gallon water
in second 6 gallon bucket 1 1 11
Fill first 6 gallon bucket with 1 gallon water which is in second 6 gallon bucket 2 0 11
Empty 11 gallon bucket into second 6 gallon bucket. 2 6 5
Empty 11 gallon bucket - wastage of 5 gallon water 2 6 0
Fill 11 gallon bucket with water in both the 6 gallon buckets 0 0 11

22) You are given a match-box and two candles of equal size, which can
burn 1 hour each. You have to measure 90 minutes with these candles.
(There is no scale or clock). How do you do?
23) You have 8 balls which are identical(completely). You are given a
weighing scale. How many times would you measure to get the odd ball
out?
24) Three friends rent a room for Rs.30 by paying Rs.10 each. The owner
decides to give them a discount Rs.5 and gives it to the broker. The broker who
a cunning man takes Rs.2. and returns one rupee to each of them. So the sum
paid by each person would be Rs.9 which adds upto Rs.27 and the broker took
Rs.2 ,so the total is Rs.29 where did that Re.1 go?
Three friends paid 27 rupees for the room . And according owner they should have paid 25
rupees after the discount of 5 rupees . It means 27 - 25 = 2 rupees are left which are at
cunning man hence nothing is missing.
25) pirates of different ages have a treasure of 100 gold coins. On their ship,
they decide to split the coins using this scheme: The oldest pirate proposes how
to share the coins, the OTHER pirates (not including the oldest) will vote for or

against it. If 50% or more of the pirates vote for it, then the coins will be shared
that way. Otherwise, the pirate proposing the scheme will be thrown overboard,
and the process is repeated with the pirates that remain. Assuming that all 5
pirates are intelligent, rational, greedy, and do not wish to die, (and are rather
good at maths for pirates) what will happen?
Reply The oldest pirate will propose a 98 : 0 : 1 : 0 : 1 split, in other words the
oldest pirate gets 98 coins, the middle pirate gets 1 coin and the youngest gets
1 coin.
Let us name the pirates (from oldest to youngest): Alex, Billy, Colin, Duncan
and Eddie.
Working backwards:
2 Pirates: Duncan splits the coins 100 : 0 (giving himself all the gold). His vote
(50%) is enough to ensure the deal.
3 Pirates: Colin splits the coins 99 : 0 : 1. Eddie will accept this deal (getting
just 1 coin), because he knows that if he rejects the deal there will be only two
pirates left, and he gets nothing.
4 Pirates: Billy splits the coins 99 : 0 : 1 : 0. By the same reasoning as before,
Duncan will support this deal. Billy would not waste a spare coin on Colin,
because Colin knows that if he rejects the proposal, he will pocket 99 coins once
Billy is thrown overboard. Billy would also not give a coin to Eddie, because
Eddie knows that if he rejects the proposal, he will receive a coin from Colin in
the next round anyway.
5 Pirates: Alex splits the coins 98 : 0 : 1 : 0 : 1. By offering a gold coin to Colin
(who would otherwise get nothing) he is assured of a deal.
(Note: In the final deal Alex would not give a coin to Billy, who knows he can
pocket 99 coins if he votes against Alex's proposal and Alex goes overboard.
Likewise, Alex would not give a coin to Duncan, because Duncan knows that if
he votes against the proposal, Alex will be voted overboard and Billy will

propose to offer Duncan the same single coin as Alex. All else equal, Duncan
would rather see Alex go overboard and collect his one coin from Billy.)
26) Plant 10 plants in 5 rows such that each row has 4 plants. (Star shape)
27) There is 2 pot one red and one blue. one pot contains tressure.
Two statement are given
1. only one of the statement is correct.
2. Blue pot has the tressure. Find the tressure?
28) water bucket problem