Puzzles Interview Questions


  • Consider an n by n grid of squares. A square is said to be a neighbour of another one if it lies directly above/below or to its right/left. Thus, each square has at most four neighbours. Initially, some squares are marked. At successive clock ticks, an unmarked square marks itself if at least two of its neighbours are marked. What is the minimum number of squares we need to mark initially so that all squares eventually get marked?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/19966/

  • Substitute digits for the letters to make the following relation true. S T I L L + W I T H I N -------------------- L I M I T S Note that the leftmost letter can't be zero in any word. Also, there must be a one-to-one mapping between digits and letters. e.g. if you substitute 3 for the letter S, no other letter can be 3 and all other S in the puzzle must be 3.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26782/

  • Substitute digits for the letters to make the following Division true O U T ------------- S T E M | D E M I S E | D M O C ------------- T U I S S T E M ---------- Z Z Z E Z U M M -------- I S T Note that the leftmost letter can't be zero in any word. Also, there must be a one-to-one mapping between digits and letters. e.g. if you substitute 3 for the letter M, no other letter can be 3 and all other M in the puzzle must be 3.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26789/

  • If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15. What is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? ( The answer to this is not zero!)
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26792/

  • A series comprising of alphabets contains 13 letters. The first seven letters in the given series are A, E, F, H, I, L, M Can you find the next two letters?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26797/

  • .Which number in the series does not fit in the given series: 1 4 3 16 6 36 7 64 9 100
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26800/

  • .Which number in the series does not fit in the given series: 1 4 3 16 6 36 7 64 9 100
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26803/

  • What are the next three numbers in the given series? 1 1 2 1 2 2 3 1 2 2 3 2 3 3 4 1 2 2 3 2 3 3 4 2 3 3 ?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26808/

  • A cricket team of 11 players lined up in a straight line to have their photograph. The captain was asked to stand in the center of the line-up. 1) Bharat and Bhavin stood to the right of the captain 2) Two players stood between Bhagat and Bhairav 3) Seven players stood between Bhadrik and Bhanu 4) Bhavesh stood to the right of Bhuvan 5) Bhola and Bhumit stood either side of Bhagat 6) Bhavik and Bhumit stood to the left of the captain 7) Six players stood between Bhavin and Bhagat 8 ) Two players stood between Bhagat and Bhavik Who is the captain? Can you tell the positions of all the palyers?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26811/

  • In the middle of the confounded desert, there is the lost city of "Ash". To reach it, I will have to travel overland by foot from the coast. On a trek like this, each person can only carry enough rations for five days and the farthest we can travel in one day is 30 miles. Also, the city is 120 miles from the starting point. What I am trying to figure out is the fewest number of persons, including myself, that I will need in our Group so that I can reach the city, stay overnight, and then return to the coast without running out of supplies. How many persons (including myself) will I need to accomplish this mission?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26814/

  • There are 10 statements written on a piece of paper: 1. At least one of statements 9 and 10 is true. 2. This either is the first true or the first false statement. 3. There are three consecutive statements, which are false. 4. The difference between the numbers of the last true and the first true statement divides the number, that is to be found. 5. The sum of the numbers of the true statements is the number, that is to be found. 6. This is not the last true statement. 7. The number of each true statement divides the number, that is to be found. 8. The number that is to be found is the percentage of true statements. 9. The number of divisors of the number, that is to be found, (apart from 1 and itself) is greater than the sum of the numbers of the true statements. 10. There are no three consecutive true statements. Find the minimal possible number?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26817/

  • 500 men are arranged in an array of 10 rows and 50 columns according to their heights. Tallest among each row of all are asked to come out. And the shortest among them is A. Similarly after resuming them to their original positions, the shortest among each column are asked to come out. And the tallest among them is B. Now who is taller A or B ?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26818/

  • A rich man died. In his will, he has divided his gold coins among his 5 sons, 5 daughters and a manager. According to his will: First give one coin to manager. 1/5th of the remaining to the elder son. Now give one coin to the manager and 1/5th of the remaining to second son and so on..... After giving coins to 5th son, divided the remaining coins among five daughters equally. All should get full coins. Find the minimum number of coins he has?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/26819/

  • A goods can load wt only 100tones not more than that if inch more wt is added it will fall, So when the train was passing on the bridge a paper falls on it, Now will the train fall r not ? if it doesn't fall why?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/34342/

  • how to handle the puzzle?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/43752/

  • Q.500 men are arranged in an array of 10 rows and 50 columns according to their heights. Tallest among each row of all are asked to come out. And the shortest among them is A. Similarly after resuming them to their original positions, the shortest among each column are asked to come out. And the tallest among them is B. Now who is taller A or B ?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48075/

  • Your friend offers to play a game of dice with you. He explains the game to you. "We each get one die, the highest die wins. If we tie, I win, but since you always lose when you roll a one, if you roll a one you can roll again. If you get a one the second time you have to keep it." What is each person's probability of winning? What are the probabilities of winning if you can keep rolling until you get something besides a one?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48076/

  • You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls. He then says, "Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die." How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48077/

  • Q.At a movie theater, the manager announces that they will give a free ticket to the first person in line whose birthday is the same as someone who has already bought a ticket. You have the option of getting in line at any time. Assuming that you don't know anyone else's birthday, that birthdays are distributed randomly throughout the year, etc., what position in line gives you the greatest chance of being the first duplicate birthday?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48078/

  • Q.If given a rectangular cake with a rectangular piece removed (any size or orientation), how would you cut the remainder of the cake into two equal halves with one straight cut of a knife?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48079/

  • Q. There are four people who need to cross a bridge at night. The bridge is only wide enough for two people to cross at once. There is only one flashlight for the entire group. When two people cross, they must cross at the slower member's speed. All four people must cross the bridge in 17 minutes, since the bridge will collapse in exactly that amount of time. Here are the times each member takes to cross the bridge: Person A: 1 minute Person B: 2 minutes Person C: 5 minutes Person D: 10 minutes If Person A and C crossed the bridge initially, 5 minutes would elapse, because Person C takes 5 minutes to cross. Then Person A would have to come back to the other side of the bridge, taking another minute, or six minutes total. Now, if Person A and D crossed the bridge next, it would take them 10 minutes, totaling to 16 minutes. If A came back, it would take yet another minute, totally 17. The bridge would collapse with A and B on the wrong side. How can all four people get across the bridge within 17 minutes? Note: there is no trick-answer to this problem.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48080/

  • Q.You have someone working for you for seven days and you have one gold bar to pay them. The gold bar is segmented into seven connected pieces. You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day. If you are only allowed to make two breaks in the gold bar, how do you pay your worker?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48081/

  • Q.You have 5 jars of pills. Each pill weighs 10 grams, except for contaminated pills contained in one jar, where each pill weighs 9 grams. Given a scale, how could you tell which jar had the contaminated pills in just one measurement?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48082/

  • Q.There are three wise men in a room: A, B and C. You decide to give them a challenge. Suspecting that the thing they care about most is money, you give them $100 and tell them they are to divide this money observing the following rule: they are to discuss offers and counter-offers from each other and then take a vote. The majority vote wins. Sounds easy enough... now the question is, assuming each person is motivated to take the largest amount possible, what will the outcome be?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48083/

  • Q. You are given two 60 minute long fuse ropes (i.e. the kind that you would find on the end of a bomb) and a lighter. The fuses do not necessarily burn at a fixed rate. For example, given an 8 foot rope, it may take 5 minutes for the first 4 feet of the fuse to burn, while the last 4 feet could take 55 minutes to burn (a much slower rate) (5+55=60 minutes). Using these two fuses and the lighter, how can you determine 45 minutes? HINT: You can use the lighter any number of times
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48084/

  • There was a sheriff in a town that caught three outlaws. He said he was going to give them all a chance to go free. All they had to do is figure out what color hat they were wearing. The sheriff had 5 hats, 3 black and 2 white. Each outlaw can see the color of the other outlaw’s hats, but cannot see his own. The first outlaw guessed and was wrong so he was put in jail. The second outlaw also guessed and was also put in jail. Finally the third blind outlaw guessed and he guessed correctly. How did he know?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48085/

  • Q.One train leaves Los Angeles at 15 MPH heading for New York . Another train leaves from New York at 20mph heading for Los Angeles on the same track. If a bird, flying at 25mph, leaves from Los Angeles at the same time as the train and flies back and forth between the two trains until they collide, how far will the bird have traveled?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48086/

  • Q.A man is trapped in a room. The room has only two possible exits: two doors. Through the first door there is a room constructed from magnifying glass. The blazing hot sun instantly fries anything or anyone that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48087/

  • Q.Handel has been killed and Beethoven is on the case. He has interviewed the four suspects and their statements are shown below. Each suspect has said two sentences. One sentence of each suspect is a lie and one sentence is the truth. Help Beethoven figure out who the killer is. Joplin: I did not kill Handel. Either Grieg is the killer or none of us is. Grieg: I did not kill Handel. Gershwin is the killer. Strauss: I did not kill Handel. Grieg is lying when he says Gershwin is the killer. Gershwin: I did not kill Handel. If Joplin did not kill him, then Grieg did.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48088/

  • Q. There are 3 baskets. one of them have apples, one has oranges only and the other has mixture of apples and oranges. The labels on their baskets always lie. (i.e. if the label says oranges, you are sure that it doesn't have oranges only,it could be a mixture) The task is to pick one basket and pick only one fruit from it and then correctly label all the three baskets. HINT. There are only two combinations of distributions in which ALL the baskets have wrong labels. By picking a fruit from the one labeled MIXTURE, it is possible to tell what the other two baskets have.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48089/

  • Q.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 weighings how do you find the defective one?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48090/

  • Q.There are numbers from 1 to n, which are inverted such that it results in numbers from n to 1. If only two consecutive numbers are stampled at a time and are inverted, how many moves are required?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48091/

  • Q.You use any operation solve this problem 45-45=45 ?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48092/

  • Q.A sheet of paper has statements numbered from 1 to 45. For all values of n from 1 to 45, statement n says "At most n of te statements on this sheet are false". Which statments are true and which are false? A. The odd numbered statements are true and the even numbered are false. B. The even numbered statements are true and the odd numbered are false. C. All statements are true.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48093/

  • A cube is divided into 125 pieces.. then four columns are removed then coloured all side black.. i) how many 0 side painted cubes? ii) how many 1 side painted cubes? iii) how many 2 side painted cubes? iV) how many 3 side painted cubes? V) how many 4 side painted cubes?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48094/

  • Q.Three friends went to hotel for breakfast . After having breakfast total bill was Rs 25 . Each one contributed Rs 10. So total was Rs 30 . 30 is paid. waiter gave Rs 5 back to them . Three friend gave Rs 2 tips to waiter . From remaining Rs 3 each one took one rupee. As each one contributed ten . And each friend recieved one rupee back. Means each one had breakfast in nine rupee. So three friend had breakfast in 9+9+9=27. And Rs 2 is given to tips to waiter. So total money for breakfast for three friend was 27+2=29. Where is remaining one rupee?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48095/

  • Q.There are 3 societies A, B, C. A lent cars to B and C as many as they had already. After some time B gave as many tractors to A and C as many as they have. After sometime c did the same thing. At the end of this transaction each one of them had 24. Find the cars each orginally had.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48096/

  • Q.A big cube painted with yellow colour in all sides. if you cut it into 1000 cubes with same dimension. than how many cubes were without painted anyside. explain it?
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48097/

  • Q.How would you cut a cake in 8 pieces with only three cuts.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48098/

  • Q. Among 12 identical looking golf balls there is one that is defective in weight. It is either heavier or lighter than the standard one. You have a balance. You can only weigh 3 times to find out which one is defective and whether it is heavier or lighter.
    http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/48099/
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