Category Archives: Puzzles

River Crossing Puzzle

River crossing puzzle

Problem: Sailor Cat needs to bring a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across the river. The boat is tiny and can only carry one passenger at a time. If he leaves the wolf and the goat alone together, the wolf will eat the goat. If he leaves the goat and the cabbage alone together, Read More →

8 Balls Puzzle

8 ball puzzle

Problem: You have 8 balls. One of them is defective and weighs less than others. You have a balance to measure balls against each other. In 2 weighing, how do you find the defective one? Solution: Defective ball is light Make three Groups G1 – 3 balls G2 – 3 balls G3 – 2 balls First weight- Read More →

100 Prisoners and a Light bulb

light-bulb-100-prisoner-350x250

Problem: There are 100 prisoners are in solitary cells, unable to see, speak or communicate in any way with each other. There’s a central living room with one light bulb, the bulb is initially off. No prisoner can see the light bulb from his own cell. Everyday, the warden picks a prisoner at random, and Read More →

Sand Timer Puzzle

Sand timer

This Puzzle is one of the most commonly asked interview puzzle. Problem: You have two sand timers with you. One can measure 7 minutes and the other sand timer can measure 11 minutes. This means that it takes 7 minutes for the sand timer to completely empty the sand from one portion to the other. Read More →

17 Horses Puzzle

17 horses and 3 sons puzzle

Problem: A farmer wants to divide his 17 horses among his three sons. According to farmer the oldest son should get half of the horses,the middle son should get one third of the horses and the youngest son should get one ninth of the horses. When their father died they were not able to divide Read More →

3 Doors and Angel

Problem : You are given a choice of three doors by an Angel. You can choose only one of the doors among the three. Out of these three doors two contains nothing and one has a jackpot. After you choose one of the doors angel  reveals one of the other two doors behind which there Read More →

3 Mislabeled Jars

3 mislabeled jars of Apple and Orange

Puzzle: This problem is also called Jelly Beans problem. This is the most commonly asked interview puzzle. You have 3 jars that are all mislabeled. One jar contains Apple, another contains Oranges and the third jar contains a mixture of both Apple and Oranges. You are allowed to pick as many fruits as you want Read More →

3 Doors and Heaven

3 door and heaven puzzle

Problem: A person dies, and he arrives at the gate to heaven. There are 3 doors in the heaven. One of the door leads to heaven, second one leads to a 1-day stay at hell and then back to the gate and the third one leads to a 2 day stay at hell and then Read More →

3 Bulbs and 3 Switches

3 bulbs and 3 switches puzzle

This puzzle is perhaps not as ‘pure’ as the others, it doesn’t reduce to a mathematical model. But it is quite a common question asked in interviews so it’s worth looking at it… Problem: You are in a room with 3 switches which correspond to 3 bulbs in another room and you don’t know which Read More →

25 horses and 5 lanes

25 horse and 5 lanes puzzle

Problem: There are 25 horses and 5 lanes. You have no idea about which horse is better than other. Find in minimum possible races, the first three fastest running horses. Solution: We will have 5 races with all 25 horses Let the results be u1,u2,u3,u4,u5 v1,v2,v3,v4,v5 x1,x2,x3,x4,x5 y1,y2,y3,y4,y5 z1,z2,z3,z4,z5 Work through a process of elimination: Read More →

100 Doors Puzzle

100 doors toggle puzzle

Puzzle: : You have 100 doors in a row that are all initially closed. you make 100 passes by the doors starting with the first door every time. the first time through you visit every door and toggle the door (if the door is closed, you open it, if its open, you close it). the Read More →

Boys and Girls

boys girls google interview puzzle

Question: In a country where everyone wants a boy, each family continues having babies till they have a boy. After some time, what is the proportion of boys to girls in the country? (Assuming probability of having a boy or a girl is the same) Answer: “very simple”. Half the couples have boys first, and Read More →