1) You have 3 switches in a room. One of them is for a bulb in next room.

You cannot see

whether the bulb is on or off, until you enter the room. What is the minimum number of times
you need to go in to the room to determine which switch corresponds to the bulb in next
room?
Answer - 1
2) You have 3 bags with you one with pink toys only, one with blue toys only and one with
a mix of two colours. But, the labels on all three bags are wrong. What is the minimum
number of draws you would need to make, in order to identify all three bags correctly.
Answer - 1
3) There are 10 stacks of 10 coins each. Each coin weights 10 grams. However, one stack of
coins is defective and each coin in that stack weights only 9 grams. What is the minimum
number of weights you need to take to find which stack is defective? How?
Answer - The trick in solving this puzzle lies in creating a weighted stack for measurement.
You can find the defective stack in one measurement. How? You take 1 coin from the first
stack, 2 coins from the second, 3 from the third and so on. In total you will have 55 coins. If
all of them were non-defective, they would weigh 550 grams. If stack 1 is defective, the
measure would read 549 grams. If stack 2 is defective, you will read 548 grams and so on.
So by taking one measurement you can identify, which is the defective stack.
4) You have 25 horses and you can race only 5 of them simultaneously. Assuming you do
not have access to stop-watch, how many times would you need to race the horses to find
the 3 fastest horses?
Answer - You need 7 races to find out the fastest horses. First do 5 races and identify all the
winners, then make them run simultaneously to identify top 3 horses among the winners.
The winner of the 6th race is the fastest horse of the bunch. Now, we need to find the
second and third so we take second and third position horses from the group of fastest
horse along with the second position horse from the group of horse who came 2nd in sixth
race and race them along with the position 2 and position 3 horses from 6th race. The
winner and runner up of this race are your second and third best horses.
5) You have 20 blue and 13 red balls in a bag. You pull out 2 balls one after another. If the
balls are of same colour, then you replace them with a Blue ball but if they are of different
colour, you replace them with a Red ball. Once you take out the balls, you do not put them
back in the bag so the balls keep reducing. What would be the colour of the last ball
remaining in the bag?
Answer - The right answer is Red. This puzzle looks like a difficult one, till you find out the
solution. But, the minute you get the solution, you feel that this was dead simple. If you pull
out 2 red balls, you replace them with a blue ball. On the other hand, if you pull out one red
and one blue you replace it with a red ball. So, the red balls would always be odd in
numbers either you remove 2 together or remove 1 and add 1 so they remain odd
always. Hence, the last ball to stay in the bag would be a red ball.
6) 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 - The proportion of boys to girls is 1:1
7) Four people need to cross a rickety bridge at night. Unfortunately, they have only one
torch and the bridge is too dangerous to cross without one. The bridge is only strong enough
to support two people at a time. Not all people take the same time to cross the bridge. Times
for each person: 1 min, 2 mins, 7 mins and 10 mins. What is the shortest time needed for all
four of them to cross the bridge?
Answer - A and B cross first using up 2 minutes.
A comes back making it 3
C and D cross making it 13 minutes
then B crosses back over making it 15 minutes.
And finally A and B cross together to make it 17 minutes!

8) People are waiting in line to board a 100-seat airplane. Steve is the first person in the line.
He gets on the plane but suddenly cant remember what his seat number is, so he picks a
seat at random. After that, each person who gets on the plane sits in their assigned seat if
its available, otherwise they will choose an open seat at random to sit in. The flight is full
and you are last in line. What is the probability that you get to sit in your assigned seat?

Answer - The probability is indeed .