Author Archives: Alok Goyal

Puzzle #171: Buying Dimsums

Posted on February 19, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This is a beauty of a puzzle sent by Suman Saraf – thanks Suman! A fast food restaurant sells dimsums in boxes of 7 and 3. What’s the greatest number of dimsums a person cannot buy. Generalize it for p … Continue reading →

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Solution to Puzzle #169: Division of a Cake

Posted on February 19, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This puzzle was not as easy as it looked…many people sent solution, but only Suman Saraf and his daughter Mahi sent the correct ones. To copy a line I really liked from Suman’s solution – The essence of fair or envy … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #170: Rectangle and the Oil Well

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This is a wonderful puzzle that I saw today after a long time. I was asked this puzzle in an interview in Microsoft back in 1994 March – yes it has been a long time! I saw it today in … Continue reading →

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Solution to Puzzle #168: Who Gets the Easter Eggs?

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This was a very counterintuitive puzzle, and a relatively difficult one, though one does not need to know any specific mathematical construct for it. Only two people (father – daughter pair) got the correct answer – Mahi and Suman Saraf! … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #169: Division of a Cake

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This is a very old puzzle. I remember this puzzle being asked by my Chemistry teacher in Class XI – Dr. Ravi Gopinath, someone was has had a strong influence in my passion for puzzles. I got reminded of this … Continue reading →

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Solution to Puzzle #167: 4 Rats in a Star

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This was a relatively simple puzzle, and I received correct answers from Mahi Saraf, Pratik Poddar, “Mashex” and Prakhar. Well done all! The answer is 2178 (RATS) Here is the explanation: Since the product is four digits long, RATS can … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #168: Who Gets the Easter Eggs?

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This is a delightful and a very counterintuitive puzzle, again from the NSA collection. Original puzzle has been written by Tim C., an Applied Research Mathematician at NSA. Alice has a dozen cartons, arranged in a 3×4 grid, which for … Continue reading →

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Solution to Puzzle #166: Donut Sharing

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This was a very simple puzzle, perhaps a bit too simple and I therefore received only two correct responses – Pratik Poddar and Mahi Saraf – well done both! I am taking the liberty of reproducing the answer from Mahi: … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #167: 4 Rats in a Star

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Alok Goyal

Yet another wonderful puzzle from the NSA collection. Please do have your children try this one! RATS x 4 = STAR Each instance of a letter stands for the same digit, no two letters represent the same digit, and R … Continue reading →

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Solution to Puzzle #165: Truth & Lies – 7 of them!

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Alok Goyal

This was a very interesting puzzle, and I got many correct solutions, and I was delighted to see many children come back with solutions this time. I got correct solutions from Mahi Saraf and a joint team of Abhiram, Anisha … Continue reading →

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