PUZZLES

1. You have 3 boxes: Box A: Only Apples Box, B: Only Oranges and box C: Apples
and Oranges (mixed). But all boxes are mislabelled. By picking just one fruit from
a box, how many fruits do you need to pick to label all boxes correctly?
2. You have 4 bottles of milk. One of them is poisonous, while the other 3 are non-
poisonous. There is a rat that dies exactly after 10 hours of drinking the poisoned
bottle. You have a clock that measures time only in hours. Suggest an optimal
strategy to identify the poisoned bottle within 24 hours
3. There are three houses on each side of the road. These six houses are labelled
as P, Q, R, S, T, and U. The houses are of different colours,
namely, Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, and White. The houses are of different
heights.
• T, the tallest house, is exactly opposite to the Red-coloured house.
• The shortest house is exactly opposite to the Green coloured house.
• U, the Orange coloured house, is located between P and S.
• R, the Yellow-coloured house, is exactly opposite to P.
• Q, the Green coloured house, is exactly opposite to U.
• P, the white-coloured house, is taller than R, but shorter than S and Q.
• What is the colour of the tallest house and how many houses are taller than
the house R?

4. Two candles of equal length are lit together. The thicker one lasts 6 hours while
the thinner one lasts 4 hours. After some time, the thicker candle is twice as long
as the thinner one. How long ago were they lit?
5. Three players each get a red or blue hat decided by a coin toss. They can see
others’ hats but not their own and must say “red,” “blue,” or “pass.” The team
wins if at least one guess is correct and no one guesses wrong. If all pass or
someone guesses wrong, they lose. What strategy should they use to maximize
their winning chance, and can it be better than 50%?
6. Ways to Reach Bottom Right in 6x6 Grid
You begin in the top left corner of a 6x6 grid, and your objective is to move to the
bottom right corner. There are just two directions you can move: right or down.
Both diagonal and backward movements are prohibited. How many different
ways are there to get from the start to the finish?
7. You have ₹15 and go to a shop where each chocolate costs ₹1. The shopkeeper
also offers a deal: you can exchange 3 empty chocolate wrappers for 1 additional
chocolate. So, how many chocolates can you eat at maximum?
8. Given two hourglasses of 4 minutes and 7 minutes, the task is to measure 9
minutes.
9. A lady buys an item worth Rs.100 with a fake Rs.500 note. The shopkeeper takes
change from another shopkeeper and gives her Rs.400 plus the item. Later, when
the note is found fake, he returns Rs.500 to the other shopkeeper. In total, he
loses Rs.100 (the item) + Rs.400 (the change), which is Rs.500.
10. In a 50-over ODI with 300 balls, no extras or overthrows, and a maximum of 3
runs per ball with the batsman always retaining strike, what is the maximum runs
a batsman can score?
11. A man is assigned a task and doubles the amount of work he does each day. If he
completes the entire task in 18 days, how many days does it take him to
complete 25% of the task?
12. A man fell into a 50m deep well. He climbs 4 meters up and slips 3 meters down
in one day. How many days would it take for him to come out of the well?
13. You have 5 chain segments of 3 links each. Breaking a link costs $1 and welding
it back costs $3. How can you join all 5 segments into one continuous chain for
under $15?
14. Rama visits 4 temples. At each temple, his money doubles on entry, and he
donates Rs.100 on exit. After the 4th temple, he has no money left. How much
money did he have at the start?

15. Two creepers Jasmine and Rose climb a cylindrical tree starting from the same
point. By the time they reach the first branch, the rose has made 3 complete
twists, and the jasmine has made 5. How many times do they cross, excluding
the bottom and top?
16. Given are ten balls, the task is to place these 10 balls in five lines such that each
line contain exactly 4 balls.
17. A circular track is 1 km long. Two runners start from the same point, one running
clockwise at 6 km/hr and the other counterclockwise at 4 km/hr. How many
times will they meet in 30 minutes?
18. A square cake is cut into 4 equal pieces. Without rearranging the pieces, what is
the minimum number of cuts needed to divide it into 8 equal pieces?
19. A cat is hiding in one of five boxes placed in a row. Each night, it moves to an
adjacent box. Each morning, you can open one box to check. What strategy will
guarantee that you eventually find the cat?
20. On the island of Knights and Knaves, knights always tell the truth and knaves
always lie. If A says, “We are both knaves,” who is who?