Tricky Riddles
Hi everyone,
Myself and the other interns at my firm have started a weekly branch riddle initiative, with management giving gift cards to those who solve the riddles the fastest. Seeing as many interviews have riddles to test thinking on your feet, I was hoping to hear some good and tricky riddles that you know or have been asked before.
Two of my favorites below. The second one is pretty easy IMO but I still like it to see how quickly people get it.
1) you are the last person in line waiting to board a plane. Everybody has an assigned seat on their ticket. The first person to board does not look at their ticket and sits in a random seat. Everybody else boards in order, sitting in their assigned seat if its available, or in another random seat if theirs is already occupied. What are the odds that you (the last person in line) end up sitting in your assigned seat?
2) you are standing at a sink with a 5 gallon bucket and a 3 gallon bucket. How do you get exactly 4 gallons into the 5 gallon bucket?
Second one is a classic, first one has a good trick to it, I like it!
Thank you so much!
Let me try my hand at the first one:
So essentially, you have 2 main outcomes: Either the first guy takes your seat or not. If he doesn't, but he sits in someone else's seat that isn't his, the process repeats itself--the next person takes the next seat if it's theirs, OR they take a random seat because the first guy is sitting in their seat.
So really, because the process repeats itself if the first guy doesn't take your seat, then the problem essentially becomes "He takes your seat or he doesn't" because at the end of it all, either someone is or isn't going to take your seat at random.
Given that there's only 2 possibilities, and they are random, I say 50/50.
Also, let's say there's only 2 people on the plane: you and him. 50/50 shot again.
so I say 50%, final answer.
That's what I got too!
50% isn’t odds. It’s a percentage.
I asked ChatGPT the 2nd riddle and this was its answer...
Its not reasoning at all - its just scraped this answer from the internet - its a very common riddle.
How does the 5 gallon bucket hold 6 gallons of water?
a breeze for GPT4:
The second question is a modular arithmetic question, so there are two ways of answering it by starting with filling the five gallon bucket OR by starting with filling the three gallon bucket.
1) Fill up 3 gallon bucket
2) Pour that into the 5 gallon bucket
3) Refill 3 gallon bucket
4) Pour that into the 5 gallon bucket until it's full. Now, you have 1 gallon in the 3 gallon bucket
5) Empty the 5 gallon bucket
6) Pour the 1 gallon you have in the 3 gallon bucket, into the 5 gallon bucket
7) Fill up the 3 gallon bucket and chuck it into the 5 gallon bucket. Mission complete
Riddle: You're in an impenetrable box that has no windows or doors. All that is inside the box is you, a table, and a mirror on one wall. How do you escape?
Answer: You look around in the box, you then look in the mirror and see what you saw, you take the saw and cut the table in half. You take the two halves and put them together to make a (w)hole. you jump through the hole to escape.
Was asked this while doing bows and toes in college the first week into pledging :)
That's a fun one, thanks
Take the wolf, come back empty, take a sheep, take the wolf, take the second sheep, and finally take the wolf?
Yep.
1) Take wolf to other side
2) Return to original side empty
3) Take sheep to other side (This sheep will permanently stay here)
4) Return to original side with wolf
5) Take sheep to other side
6) Return to original side empty
7) Take wolf to other side
You come to a fork in the road with one path leading to death and the other to safety. At the fork, there is a house, and two sisters live in the house and know which path is safe. One sister always tells a lie, and the other sister always tells the truth. You are allowed to ask one question to one sister to figure out which path is safe... What is the question you ask?
A classic for sure, thank you!
I might know a different version of this, wouldn’t you have to ask both of the sisters for the answer to work?
You ask what the other sister would say, right?
Yes, I believe so. Let's say the correct path is to the right. These would be the sisters' responses to the question, "Which direction would your sister tell me to go?"
Always Truth Sister: "My sister would tell you to go left."
Always Lie Sister: "My sister would tell you to go left."
Basically you ask either sister that question and you pick the path they didn't say.
Yes, that's the answer!
Easier one but how does one take a cylinder and cut it into eight equal pieces with just three cuts?
Slice it into quarters like so - ⊕
Then slice it one last time horizontally perpendicular to the previous 2 cuts.
Two good ones:
I. I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
II. You see a boat filled with people. It has not sunk, but when you look again you don’t see a single person on the boat. Why?
Is the second one a couples' cruise? First one I can't think of.
Well done, that is correct. The first one is tricky. If no one gets it by EOD Ill give a hint
First one is a map
Nicely done
What US State is round on the sides and high in the middle?
Ohio
Winner winner chicken dinner
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