Brainstorming Puzzles Set 2 – Top 3 Typists | Find the Best Arrangement | Win with Equal Heads

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”

-Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

Algorithmic thinking is really important as it enhances your thinking skills and can be nurtured with practice. (Refer the previous tutorial to know more about Algorithmic Thinking and try the puzzles before moving on to the solutions.)

Solutions for the previous problems

Puzzle 1.1 Solution – Married-Unmarried Dilemma

Correct Answer:  (A) Yes. The fact that an unmarried person is looking at a married person is true.

Explanation: If you think clearly Shivani’s marital status is irrelevant to the answer. If she is unmarried, then an unmarried person is looking at a married person (Shivani is looking at Aditya), and if she isn’t, still an unmarried person is looking at a married person (Aman is looking at Shivani).Thus, we conclude that the statement is true.

Puzzle 1.2 Solution – Save your Life from the mad King

Correct Answer: The prisoner says “Oh my majesty! I would be hanged to death“.

Explanation:
Scenario 1 – If the sentence said by the prisoner is true he should be killed by a sword(as per the puzzle statement) but if the King tries to kill the person with a sword then the sentence becomes false. So the king can not kill him with a sword.
Now for scenario 2, if the sentence said by the prisoner is false then he should be hanged to death(as per the puzzle statement) but if the King tries to kill the person by hanging him then the sentence becomes true(because the prisoner said that he will be hanged). So the king can not even hang him to death.
This way, this sentence saves him in both the scenarios and King will not be able to kill the prisoner.

Remember these kinds of puzzles trigger your thought process which in turn improves your algorithmic thinking. So, even if you are unable to solve a puzzle, just try to make a decent attempt, your brain will still receive an excellent stimulation.Various scientific demonstrations have also proved that the neurons rewire according to the stimulation provided to the brain and what is a better way to stimulate the brain than to challenge it with some brainstorming puzzles.

So here’s another feast ready for you. Lets put your mind back to some work:

Quiz 2.1  – Top 3 Typists

There’s a contest for typists to see who are the fastest. Twenty-five people participate in that contest but there are only 5 computers so maximum 5 people can compete at a time. The organizers want the contest to end as quickly as possible i.e they want to conduct only the minimum number of rounds needed to find top three among all the contestants. But they are confused as to how many rounds will be needed assuming that each person will type with the same speed in each round he participates. Can you help them?  (Hint: Make a matrix 5 x 5 and eliminate)

Have an answer? Post it in the comments. I’ll explain this in the next tutorial.

Solution Added – Solution of Top 3 typists puzzle

Quiz 2.2 – Find the Best Arrangement

Seven friends buy a big area of land together and decide to build their house in max possible rows(straight lines) with each row having three houses. For ex. if they build their houses in the following way only three rows are possible (one horizontal and two vertical). Can you help them find an arrangement for the maximum possible rows?

*      *

*      *

*  *  *

Now just think about it and post your answer in the comments. I’ll explain this in the next tutorial.

Solution Added – Solution of the best arrangement of houses puzzle

Quiz 2.3 – Win with Equal Heads

You participate in a game show where you are asked to enter a room blindfolded. There are twenty coins on the floor ten among them having heads side up and rest are all tails side up (all are fair coins i.e all have both a heads side and a tails side). If you can divide these coins into two sets such that each set is having an equal number of heads then you’ll win otherwise you’ll lose. Can you think of any strategy so that you’ll definitely take the prize back home?

Now just think about it and put a comment, after all, you wanna win the prize money :P. I’ll explain this in the next tutorial.

Solution Added – Solution of Win With Equal Heads puzzle

So start thinking and comment answer to the questions asked above and wait for the next post for the solutions.
Do Share and Subscribe and comment your opinion, queries and suggestions.
Keep Learning. Happy Learning 🙂 

Recommended -