Ready to challenge your thinking? Logic puzzles are a great way to exercise your brain and improve your reasoning skills. Here are three tricky ones.
They may seem confusing at first, but with a bit of systematic thinking, you can untangle the twists!
Logic puzzles train your brain to think systematically, a skill essential for unraveling the twists and turns of complex computer programs.
Here, we'll tackle three logic puzzles that will make you think twice.
Puzzle 1: Married vs. Unmarried Riddle
Meet Apu, Rita, and Bikash: Apu is looking at Rita. Rita is looking at Bikash. Apu is married, but Bikash is not, and we don't know whether Rita is married or not.
Can you tell if a married person is looking at an unmarried person?
Time to Solve: 2 minutes.
Solution to Married vs. Unmarried Riddle
Think With a Plan:
The key to this puzzle is to represent the information logically that is easy to analyze.
Let us use the greater than symbol ">" to identify who (on the left) is looking at whom (on the right). Also, mark "M" for married and "U" for unmarried. Since Rita's marital status is unknown, we'll mark her with a "?". So,
- Apu is looking at Rita - symbolized by Apu (M) > Rita (?) (">" means "looking at").
- Rita is looking at Bikash - symbolized by Rita (?) > Bikash (U).
Now, let's consider both possibilities for Rita's marital status:
- Rita is Married:
- Apu (M) > Rita (M): In this case, a married person (Apu) is not looking at an unmarried person (Rita).
- Rita (M) > Bikash (U): Here, a married person (Rita) is looking at an unmarried person (Bikash).
- Rita is Unmarried:
- Apu (M) > Rita (U): Again, a married person (Apu) is looking at an unmarried person (Rita).
The Answer:
No matter if Rita is married or not, a married person (Rita or Apu) is looking at an unmarried person (Bikash or Rita). So the answer is Yes.
Puzzle 2: The Race to Finish the Oranges
Five friends, A, B, C, D, and E, are having an orange-eating competition. Here's what we know about the order they finished:
- A finished before B, but behind C and D finished before E, but behind B.
Can you determine the finishing order from first to last?
Time to Solve: 2 minutes.
Solution to the Race to Finish the Oranges Riddle
Think Like an Expert:
Similar to the last puzzle, use ">" to represent who finished before (on the left) whom (on the right). The person on the left of ">" signifies finishing earlier.
- A finished before B: A > B
- A finished behind C: C > A
- D finished before E: D > E
- D finished behind B: B > D
Now, we can combine these inequalities:
Start with C > A, join it with A > B. Result: C > A > B. Find B > D. Join it with the result till now: C > A > B > D. Finally, join D > E:
Final result: C > A > B > D > E.
The Answer:
The finishing order is C A B D E. So, C is the champion and E finishes last.
Puzzle 3: Counting Ducks by the Lake
Apu is enjoying a peaceful day by the lake. He spots a few ducks swimming around. Here's the tricky part. He saw:
- Two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck and one duck in the middle.
How many ducks are there in total?
Time to Solve: 3 minutes.
Solution to the Counting ducks by the Lake Riddle
Think Like a Logician:
Don't jump to conclusions! It's tempting to assume there are five ducks. But don't assume. The first impulse may not be correct.
Logical Reasoning is the Key:
Let's use A, B, and C to represent a minimum number of three ducks and check whether these three can satisfy all the conditions. Also, we will use ">" symbol to identify which duck is in front and which behind.
- First: Two ducks in front of one duck: Assume a general scenario (all ducks are same):
- B, C > A (This means ducks B and C are in front of duck A).
- Second: Two ducks behind one duck: We can analyze this in three ways:
- B > C and A: This would mean duck B is in front of both C and A: Possible. Combine with first: B > C > A.
- C > A and B: This would mean duck C is in front of both A and B: Possible. Combined result: C > B > A.
- A > B and C: This would mean duck A is in front of both B and C: Wrong as both B and C were in front of A.
- Third: One duck in the middle: Looking at our both possible established orders (B > C > A) or (C > B > A) , one duck C or B is indeed in the middle.
The Answer:
There are exactly three ducks (A, B, and C). The wording "exactly" is important because more or fewer ducks wouldn't satisfy all the given conditions.
Think out why!
More puzzles to enjoy
From our large collection of interesting puzzles enjoy: Maze puzzles, Riddles, Mathematical puzzles, Logic puzzles, Number lock puzzles, Missing number puzzles, River crossing puzzles, Ball weighing puzzles and Matchstick puzzles.
You may also look at the full collection of puzzles at one place in the Challenging brain teasers with solutions: Long list.
Enjoy puzzle solving while learning problem solving techniques.