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MS is said to ask riddles during interviews and here is one I liked. This is old but fun. I am sure this will get solved quickly:

If you had an infinite supply of water and a 5 quart and 3 quart pail, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts?

Good Luck!

Fill the 5. Dump 5 into 3. (Until 3 is full.) Throw away 3. Dump 5 into 3. Refill 5. Dump 5 into 3. 5 contains 4.

Hi,

Isn't a "quart" one of those sub-atomic particles from quantum physics???


Cheers,

Brendan

Isn't a "quart" one of those sub-atomic particles from quantum physics???

Only if 't' is 'k', and, if that is the case, we have much darker issues at hand.

No quart is the place where I go to say, "I plead the 5th!" Seriously, that was easy, maybe stupid easy. Any riddles from you guys?

Once upon there was a thief in the desert. He came upon a town which he wanted to enter, because he desperately needed some food. A guard was standing near the entrance, demanding people to give a passphrase.

The thief located the cactus nearest to the guard, and sat down behind it to eavesdrop on the guard when a man came along.

The guard demanded: what is the passphrase to 12?
The man answered 6, and was allowed entry.

Great, the thief thought sarcastically.

Another group passed by. The guard demanded the passphrase to the number 6
The answer turned out to be 3, and the thief noticed the pattern.

He walked up to the guard, and it asked the passphrase for the number 8. The thief responded 4, but instead of the expected passage, he was taken prison.

He later figured that the correct answer would have been 5, but he never knew why.

Do you?

Combuster wrote:Once upon there was a thief in the desert. He came upon a town which he wanted to enter, because he desperately needed some food. A guard was standing near the entrance, demanding people to give a passphrase.

The thief located the cactus nearest to the guard, and sat down behind it to eavesdrop on the guard when a man came along.

The guard demanded: what is the passphrase to 12?
The man answered 6, and was allowed entry.

Great, the thief thought sarcastically.

Another group passed by. The guard demanded the passphrase to the number 6
The answer turned out to be 3, and the thief noticed the pattern.

He walked up to the guard, and it asked the passphrase for the number 8. The thief responded 4, but instead of the expected passage, he was taken prison.

He later figured that the correct answer would have been 5, but he never knew why.

Do you?

Simple. You take the number the guard gives you and subtract from it 3 times the number of digits in the number.

12 is a two digit number so you would do: 12 - ( 3 * 2 ) = 6
6 is a one digit number so: 6 - ( 3 * 1 ) = 3
Therefore with 8, a 1-digit number, you should get: 8 - ( 3 * 1 ) = 5

Nice attempt, but the answer to 4 turned out to be 4.

twelve = 6 characters
six = 3 characters
eight = 5 characters
four = 4 characters

You shall also learn how to bluff properly . Some questions are meant for bluffing only ...
You cannot possibly give a good answer in the given time constraints ....
eg
1) Redesign the ATM machine ?

2) Design a super duper pepper machine ?

list go'es on n on ...
Riddle asked to me was simple , involved solving a simple quadratic .
That's all
Regards
Sandeep Mathew

SandeepMathew wrote:1) Redesign the ATM machine ?

The Automated teller machine machine?

That and the usage of "PIN number": Personal Identification Number Number.

What number do you cut in half to get zero?

-JL

What number do you cut in half to get zero?

Eight.

What do these mean, or what are they, or whats the pattern:?
1)
11
23
58
13
21
34

2)
112358134711235813471123581347112358134711235813471123581347112358134711235813471123581347112358134711235813471123581347

3)
12->6->3->5->4->4

-JL

1) is the fibonnaci sequence with the digits grouped in pairs

1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89...

I guess 2) is also a modification of the fibonacci sequence.
3) is the pattern Combuster posted: Each number is constructed by counting the letters of the previous number (written down as a word).