Category Archives: Puzzles

Puzzle #159:Winning Strategy with Coins

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Alok Goyal

This is a beautiful puzzle contributed by an ex-entrepreneur, Prateek Agarwal, who I met a few weeks back – thanks Prateek. You and your friend are playing a turn based game. There is a circular table of diameter 10cm and … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #158: Trees in a Row

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Alok Goyal

A very nice riddle contributed by Abhinav Jain, which appeared in Delhi Times. Thanks Abhinav. A man bought 10 trees from a local nursery.He wants his gardener to plant the 10 trees in 5 rows with 4 trees in each … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #157: The Journey of a Monk

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Alok Goyal

Thanks to Abhinav Jain for this wonderful puzzle! One morning at 6 am, a monk began climbing a tall mountain, which happened to only have one path to the top. He ascended the path at his leisure, taking some stops … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #156: Area of the 8th Block

Posted on October 9, 2016 by Alok Goyal

This is a beautiful puzzle contributed by Suman Saraf – thanks Suman! A wooden block is divided into eight smaller blocks by the three cuts, as shown in the figure. The areas of the seven visible blocks are labeled. What … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #155: Bugs on a Square

Posted on September 25, 2016 by Alok Goyal

This is a very famous puzzle that many of you would have seen in the past as well. I saw it recently in one of the Martin Gardner books again, but am reproducing it here from a New York Times … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #154: Can You Divvy Up the Gold?

Posted on September 17, 2016 by Alok Goyal

I continue my love affair with the NSA puzzles, and here is one more, third week in a row – thanks again Suman! We have done a few pirates and gold problems in the past. This one is slightly easier. … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #153: Get Your Gifts

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Alok Goyal

Another nice puzzle from the NASA collection sent to me by Suman Saraf. Four friends, Holly, Belle, Carol, and Nick, gather for May birthdays. Holly announces that she has a game before dinner. She hid gifts for each of her … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #152: The Four Weights

Posted on September 4, 2016 by Alok Goyal

Thanks to Suman Saraf for recently pointing me to NSA (National Security Agency’s) monthly puzzle blog. Here is a nice and simple problem that they posted in their April blog. Worth trying with your children! This puzzle created by Andy … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #151: Journey from 458 to 14

Posted on August 28, 2016 by Alok Goyal

This is a beautiful teaser contributed by Pooja Singh, who tried this with her 9 year old. So will encourage everyone to try this, it could be a nice, 5-minute puzzle! You begin with the number 458. You are only … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #150: The Tutu Coin Puzzle :-(

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Alok Goyal

This week marks a very sad week for me and for many of the regular readers of this blog. A very dear friend – Girish Tutakne (popularly known as Tutu at IIT Delhi)- passed away in a very unfortunate accident in … Continue reading →

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