This is another beautiful puzzle that I got through my daughter (Anisha) and her friend (Abhiram), which they got in Alok Mittal’s Mathematical Circles class.

In a line up of 10 soldiers, what is the least number of soldiers that can be picked in order of either ascending or descending heights? Assume that no two soldiers have the same height. Soldiers can be picked from anywhere in the line, but their order of standing cannot be changed.

Please send your answers either directly on the blog site as comments, or to me at alokgoyal_2001@yahoo.com. If you like the puzzle, please share it with others. If you have interesting puzzles to share, please send them to me at my e-mail given above.

Happy Sunday!