Puzzles Interview Preparation Guide
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Puzzles guideline for job interview preparation. Explore list of Puzzles frequently asked questions(FAQs) asked in number of Puzzles interviews. Post your comments as your suggestions, questions and answers on any Puzzles Interview Question or answer. Ask Puzzles Question, your question will be answered by our fellow friends.

63 Puzzles Questions and Answers:

1 :: 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 cant 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?

The value of L must be one more than W i.e. L=W+1 and there must be one carry from S+I=I. Also, the value of S must be 9 as S+I=I with one carry from T+T=M, which means that the value of T must be greater than 4.
From I+H=I, the value of H must be 0 as the value of S is 9.

Now, applying all those constraints and using trial-n-error, we get two possible answers.

9 7 1 6 6 9 8 5 3 3

+ 5 1 7 0 1 3 + 2 5 8 0 5 6
--------------- ---------------
6 1 4 1 7 9 3 5 6 5 8 9

The second answer
258056
+98533
---------
356589

is wrong as the value of both N and M is 6 here.

I have tried all the combinations and there seems to be only one solution i.e. the first one
517013
+ 97166
----------
614179



The other constraints that i have found while solving the question are :

L cant be 1
N cant be 8
H = 0
T can have only values 6/7/8
and corresponding M is 2/4/6

2 :: 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?

Players from left to right : Bhavik, (Bhadrik/Bhanu), (Bhola/Bhumit), Bhagat, (Bhola/Bhumit), BHUVAN, Bhairav, (Bharat/Bhavesh), (Bharat/Bhavesh), (Bhadrik/Bhanu), Bhavin

Let's number the positions 1 to 11 from left to right. Hence, the captain is at position 6. Now, looking at the clues 7, 5, 2 and 8 together:

Poistion 1 - Bhavik or Bhairav
Position 3 - Bhumit or Bhola
Position 4 - Bhagat
Position 5 - Bhumit or Bhola
Poistion 7 - Bhavik or Bhairav
Position 11 - Bhavin

From clue (3), the only possible positions for Bhadrik and Bhanu are Position 2 and Position 10.

Now there are 3 positions remaining - 6, 8 and 9 and remaining 3 players are Bhuvan, Bharat and Bhavesh. But from clue (1), Bharat stood to the right of the captain i.e. Bharat must be on position 8 or 9 as position 6 is for the captain. So either Bhuvan or Bhavesh is the captain.

From (4), Bhavesh stood to the right of Bhuvan. Hence, Bhuvan is the captain.
Players from left to right are : Bhavik, (Bhadrik/Bhanu), (Bhola/Bhumit), Bhagat, (Bhola/Bhumit), BHUVAN, Bhairav, (Bharat/Bhavesh), (Bharat/Bhavesh), (Bhadrik/Bhanu), Bhavin.

Thus,
* Bhavik(1), Bhagat(4), Bhuvan(6), Bhairav(7) and Bhavin(11) are the players whose positions are fixed.
* Bhadrik and Bhanu are at position 2 or 10.
* Bhola and Bhumit are at position 3 or 5.
* Bharat and Bhavesh are at position 8 or 9.

3 :: 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?

3 square marks initially at location (1,1), (1,2) and (2,1). Then it marks all square by considering atleast 2 marks square.

For an nxn grid of square, initially n squares should be marked in appropriate places so as to obtain solution....

Appropriate places should be chosen such that 2 initially marked squares should be neighbor of an unmarked square... Other initially marked squares should be placed such that, it should help in marking further squares...

4 :: 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!)?

7.5 degrees

At 3:15 minute hand will be perfactly horizontal pointing towards 3. Whereas hour hand will be towards 4. Also, hour hand must have covered 1/4 of angle between 3 and 4.

The angle between two adjacent digits is 360/12 = 30 degrees.

Hence 1/4 of it is 7.5 degrees.

in a one minute minute hand travel six degree and in a one minute hour hand travel half degree.in a three o clock there is nienty degree angle so when minute hand travel ninty degree in 15 minute and hour hand also travel 7.5 degree.so there is 7.5 degree angle is formed.

6 :: 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 ?

No one is taller, both are same as A and B are the same person.

As it is mentioned that 500 men are arranged in an array of 10 rows and 50 columns according to their heights. Let's assume that position numbers represent their heights. Hence, the shortest among the 50, 100, 150, ... 450, 500 is person with height 50 i.e. A. Similarly the tallest among 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ..... 48, 48, 50 is person with height 50 i.e. B

Now, both A and B are the person with height 50. Hence both are same.

In that question you mention 500 mens know then how will you say a&b both are persons
please clarify my doubt

7 :: 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?

The next letters in the series are N, O, R, S, U, X.
The pattern is - letters whose English names (Phonetic Pronunciations) start with vowels.

8 :: 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 doesnt fall why?

As the train had traveled a little bit distance to reach the bridge. hence the fuel has been reduced a little. thus the paper weight gets equated..

9 :: 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?

Total 4 persons (including you) required.

It is given that each person can only carry enough rations for five days. And there are 4 persons. Hence, total of 20 days rations is available.

1. First Day : 4 days of rations are used up. One person goes back using one day of rations for the return trip. The rations remaining for the further trek is for 15 days.

2. Second Day : The remaining three people use up 3 days of rations. One person goes back using 2 days of rations for the return trip. The rations remaining for the further trek is for 10 days.

3. Third Day : The remaining two people use up 2 days of rations. One person goes back using 3 days of rations for the return trip. The rations remaining for the further trek is for 5 days.

4. Fourth Day : The remaining person uses up one day of rations. He stays overnight. The next day he returns to the coast using 4 days of rations.

Thus, total 4 persons, including you are required.

10 :: Which number in the series does not fit in the given series:

1 4 3 16 6 36 7 64 9 100?

This is a series with odd positions containing position number whereas even positions containing square of the position.i.e. even position numbers are 4 16 36 64 100 and odd position numbers are 1 3 5 7 9

Hence, 6 does not fit in the series. It should be 5.