1. There is a man that lives on the top floor of a very tall building.

Every day he gets

the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon
returning from work though, he can only travel half way up in the lift and has to walk
the rest of the way unless it's raining! WHY?
The man is very short and so can only reach half way up the lift buttons! However, if
it is raining then he will have his umbrella with him and so can press the higher
buttons with it.
2. A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the scene, but
the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon says, "I
can't operate on this boy, he is my son!" How can this be?
The surgeon is the boy's mother.
3. A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, jumper, gloves and
balaclava. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps off. A
black car is coming towards him with its light off too but somehow manages to
stop in time. How did the driver see the man?
It was daytime.
4. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?
A square manhole cover can be turned and dropped down the diagonal of the
manhole. A round manhole cannot be dropped down the manhole. So for safety and
practicality, all manhole covers should be round.
5. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the
same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?
They were two of a set of triplets (or quadruplets etc.)
6. You are participating in a race. You overtake the second. What position do you
finish?
If you answer that you arrived first, then you are absolutely wrong!!! If you overtake
the second and you take his place, you arrived second!!!
7. You are participating in a race. ...If you overtake the last then you arrive...?
If you answer that you arrived second last then you are wrong again. Tell me, how you
can overtake the LAST!!!!
8. Once there was loving couple travelling in a bus in a mountainous
area. They wanted to get down at some place. The couple disembarked
the bus and it moved on. As the bus moved on a humongous rock fell
on the bus from a mountain and crushed the bus to crumbs. Everybody on
board was killed. The couple upon seeing that, said, "We wish we could
be on that bus?" Why did they say that?
In case they had decided not to get down, the resulting time delay
could have been avoided and the rock would have fallen after the bus
had passed off.
9. At the end of the day one market stall had 16 apples and 48 oranges left. Another
market stall had 36 apples and 24 oranges left. What is the difference between the
percentages of apples left in the two market stalls?
35%.
First stall 16 out of 64 = 25%.
Second stall 36 out of 60 = 60%.
Difference in percentages = 35%.

10. You have a birthday cake and have exactly 3 cuts to cut it into 8 equal pieces. How
do you do it?
The correct answer is to cut the cake in quarters (4 pieces) using 2 of the cuts, then
stack all 4 of the pieces and then split all four of the stacked pieces with the third cut.
11. Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum number [of] guesses needed to
find a specific number if you are given the hint higher or lower for each guess you
make?
This may be considered a trick question, since its deceptively easy. Read the
question carefully and youll note that the question asks for the minimum number of
guesses. Think about it someone can guess the right question on their first try
right?
So, the answer here would be 1, since it would take only one correct guess to find a
specific number. But, what if we wanted to find the maximum number of guesses?
Well, think about this one. What if the number that you have to guess is 1 and you
start guessing from 1,000? Then, if the person who knows the number keeps saying
lower, then you would guess 999,998,9976,5,4,3,2, and finally until you get to 1. This
means that the maximum number of guesses is 999.
12. Suppose that you are standing in a hallway next to 3 light switches, which are all
off. There is another room down the hallway, where there are 3 incandescent light
bulbs each light bulb is operated by one of the switches in the hallway. Because the
light bulbs are in another room, you cannot see them since you are standing in the
hallway. How would you figure out which switch operates which light bulb, if you can
only go the room with the light bulbs one time, and only one time?
What about the light bulbs? Well, we do know that incandescent light bulbs get hot
when they are on. We know that the longer an incandescent light bulb stays on the
hotter it gets.
So, if we turn one switch off after 5 minutes, turn the second one on, and leave the
last one off then what happens? Well, the light bulb corresponding to the first switch
will still be warm (even though its off), the bulb corresponding to the second switch
will be on, and the bulb corresponding to the last switch will be off. This is enough
information so that we can go into the attic only once and figure out which switch
belongs to which light bulb.
13. You are given 8 pennies, 7 of which weigh exactly the same, but one penny weighs
less than the other 7. You also have a judge scale. Find the one penny that weighs the
least in less than 3 steps.
First, you split the 8 pennies into 3 groups of pennies 2 groups with 3 pennies each
and 1 group with 2 pennies. Then, you compare the weight of the first two groups of 3
pennies each by putting them on the scale.
Scenario #1: The 2 groups weigh the same. This means the lightest coin is in the
group of 2. So, take those 2 pennies and compare them to each other and find the
lightest coin.
Scenario #2: The 1st group weighs more than the 2nd group. Take group #2 (3
pennies) and pick any 2 pennies out of that group of 3. If they weight the same, then
the third penny is lighter. If they dont weigh the same then the lighter one is
obviously the lightest penny.
14. Suppose you have a 3 litter jug and a 5 litter jug (this could also be in gallons). The
jugs have no measurement lines on them either. How could you measure exactly 4
litters using only those jugs and as much extra water as you need?

First Answer:
Step 1: First, fill the 5 litter jug and then pour it into the 3 litter jug. The 5 litter jug now
has only 2 litters left.
Step 2: Next, empty out the 3 litter jug. Then, pour the 2 litters from the 5 litter jug to
the 3 litter jug. So, now the 3 litter jug has 2 litters.
Step 3: Fill the 5 litter jug again, and pour 1 litter into the 3 litter jug. Now, whats left
in the 5 litter jug? Well, exactly 4 litters! Theres your answer.
Second Answer:
Step 1: First fill the 5 litters jug by 3 litters jug 2 times. After filling the 5 litters jug full,
1 litter water will be remaining in 3 litters jug.
Step 2: Next, empty out the 5 litters jug. Then, pour the 1 litter water of 3 litters jug in
to 5 litters jug.
Step 3: Now fill the 3 litters water from the 3 litter jug in to 5 litters jug. Now 5 litters
will have 4 litters water.
15. Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night.
Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for
seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and its
only strong enough to support two people at any given time.
Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1 minute,
another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the slowest camper takes 10 minutes
to cross. How can the campers make it across in exactly 17 minutes?

Camper-1: 1 Minute,
Camper-2: 2 Minutes,
Camper-5: 5 Minutes,
Camper-10: 10 Minutes
First camper-1 and camper-2 will go and camper-1 will return. So total 3 minutes gone.
Now camper-5 and camper-10 will go (total time: 10+3=13) and camper-2 will return.
So total time is now 15. Now camper-1 and camper-2 will go. Now total time is exactly
17 minutes.

C1, C2,C5,C10----------------------------------------------------------------
C5,C10---------------------------(2 min)---------------------------- C1,C2
C1, C5,C10------------------------(2+1=3 mins)--------------------C2
C1 ------------------------(3+10=13 mins)---------------------C2,C5,C10
C1,C2 <------------------------(13+2=15 mins)-------------------C5,C10
------------------------(15+2=17 mins)--------------------C1,C2,C5,C10
16. You wake up one morning and theres been a power outage. You know you have
12 black socks and 8 blue ones. How many socks do you need to pull out before
youve got a match?
Pick three because out of three, two will be of same colour.
17. Youre trying to get to Truthtown. You come to a fork in the road. One road leads
to Truthtown (where everyone tells the truth), the other to Liartown (where everyone
lies). At the fork in the road is a man from one of those towns . You get to ask him one
question to discover the way. Whats the question?
To find the way to Truthtown, ask the man, Which way is your hometown? Then, go
whichever way he points: If hes from Liartown, hell point to Truthtown, and if hes from
Truthtown, hell point to Truthtown.
18. How many cubes are at the center of a Rubiks Cube?
There is only one cube at the center of a Rubiks Cube.
19. You have two containers, one holds five gallons, the other holds three. You can have as
much water as you want. Measure exactly four gallons of water into the five gallon container.
Fill up the three-gallon container and pour it into the five-gallon container. Do it again --
there will be one gallon left in the three-gallon container. Empty the five, pour in the one, fill
the three again and pour it into the firve-gallon container -- you have four!
20. You have two sticks and matchbox. Each stick takes exactly an hour to burn from one end
to the other. The sticks are not identical and do not burn at a constant rate. As a result, two
equal lengths of the stick would not necessarily burn in the same amount of time. How
would you measure exactly 45 minutes by burning these sticks?
The answer is really simple. Since the sticks do not burn at a constant rate, we can not use the
length of the stick as any sort of measurement of time. If we light a stick, it takes 60 minutes
to burn completely. What if we light the stick from both sides? It will take exactly half the
original time, i.e. 30 minutes to burn completely.
0 minutes Light stick 1 on both sides and stick 2 on one side.
30 minutes Stick 1 will be burnt out. Light the other end of stick 2.
45 minutes Stick 2 will be burnt out.
21. A farmer bought a goat, a wolf and a cabbage from the market. On his way home, he has
to cross a river. He has a small boat which only allows him to take one thing with him at a
time. The farmer cannot leave the cabbage and the goat together (the goat would eat the
cabbage) nor can he leave the goat and the wolf together (the wolf would eat the goat). How
does he cross the river without losing any of the things he bought?
The farmer takes the goat with him and leaves it on the other side of the river. Then he comes
back to the side of the river where he left the wolf and cabbage together. He then takes the
cabbage with him. When he reaches the other side, he leaves the cabbage and brings the goat
back with him. Then he leaves the goat and takes the wolf with him. He then drops the wolf
off with the cabbage and finally comes back for the goat. So this way, the farmer avoids
leaving the goat and the cabbage or the wolf and the goat together unattended.
22. You are standing outside a room next to three switches, all of which are off. Each switch
operates a different light bulb in the room. The room door is closed, so you cannot see which
switch operates which bulb. You are only allowed to go into the room once. Determine which
switch operates which bulb.
First, we turn the first switch on and leave the other two off. After 5 minutes, we turn the first
switch off, turn the second switch on and leave the third switch off. Then we go into the room
and touch one of the bulbs which is turned off. After that, it would be easy to tell that the first
switch matches the warm bulb, the second switch matches the bulb thats turned on and the
third switch matches the colder bulb.
23. You have 3 baskets, one with apples, one with oranges and one with both apples and
oranges mixed. Each basket is closed and is labelled with Apples, Oranges and Apples
and Oranges. However, each of these labels is always placed incorrectly. How would you
pick only one fruit from a basket to place the labels correctly on all the baskets?
Say you pick a fruit from the basket labelled Apples and Oranges. Surely this basket will
have either apples or orange. If this fruit is an apple in the basket labelled Apples and
oranges. We have two closed basket labelled Apples and Oranges. It is sure that they do not
have the right things according to labelled. The basket labelled Apples may have oranges or
mixed. The basket labelled Oranges may have Apples or mixed, but since we have found
apples in the basket labelled Mixed, so the basket labelled Orange can contain only mixed. If
Orange labelled basket has mixed then the basket labelled Apples will have Oranges. You
can apply the same logic if you assume you picked an orange from the basket labeled as
Apples and Oranges.
24. You are given two hourglasses. One measures 4 minutes and one measures 7 minutes. How
would you measure exactly 9 minutes?
Step Time 4 minute timer 7 minute timer
1 0 min Start Start
2 4 mins Flip 3 minutes left
3 7 mins 1 minute left Flip
4 8 mins Stop Flip (1 minute left)
5 9 mins

Stop




25. You want to send a secret message to your friend Sathish in the post. You dont trust the
postal company. So you put your message in a box with a lock. But you are not allowed to
send a key!How can you get your message through securely?
Send the box with the lock to Sathish. Sathish cant open it, but can put another lock on the
box. Sathish sends this box with the 2 locks back to you, you unlock your lock and send it
back to Alex again. So there is just Alexs lock on the box and Alex can now open it.