Palindrome date

"October 2, 2001" in MMDDYYYY format is a palindrome (a string that reads the same forwards as it does backwards). Pretty cool, check it out: 10/02/2001 --> 10022001. When was the last date before October 2, 2001 that is also a palindrome?

Saving The Prisoners

There are some prisoners(say 500) to whom the death sentence is annouced. But being liberal the jailar gave a chance and annouced a day before to the prisoners that
"I will keep a colored hat on your head, it will be either Red or Blue,
I will make you stand each one on the stairs (rule or clue - the top most stair guy can see all the prisoners hats and thier colors down to him, means standing one person per stair)
**Rule - No one is allowed to see their hat color but can see all others who are down to them.
I will come to each person from top stair to down and ask their hat color, if you say correct color.. .you are escaped.. else shot"

Then the prisoners gathered and decided on one strategy so that maximum people can be saved.

what is that strategy and how many prisoners can be escaped?

Find The Truth Teller...

There are three persons in a room
One of them always tells the truth, but the others are "alternate liars": they tell the truth then lie, then truth, etc, but you do not know if they will start by telling the truth or a lie...
You can ask three questions that MUST be answered by Yes or No.
Find the truth teller.

Anyone with previous knowledge on information theory and coding would find it more easy...

Locking up gifts?

You want to send a valuable object to a friend securely. You have a box which can be fitted with multiple locks, and you have several locks and their corresponding keys. However, your friend does not have any keys to your locks, and if you send a key in an unlocked box, the key could be copied en route. How can you send the object securely?

Knight vs Dragon

A dragon and knight live on an island. This island has seven poisoned wells, numbered 1 to 7. If you drink from a well, you can only save yourself by drinking from a higher numbered well. Well 7 is located at the top of a high mountain, so only the dragon can reach it.

One day they decide that the island isn't big enough for the two of them, and they have a duel. Each of them brings a glass of water to the duel, they exchange glasses, and drink. After the duel, the knight lives and the dragon dies.

Why did the knight live? Why did the dragon die?

Glass half full???

You are in an empty room and you have a transparent glass of water. The glass is a right cylinder, and it looks like it's half full, but you're not sure. How can you accurately figure out whether the glass is half full, more than half full, or less than half full? You have no rulers or writing utensils.

Handshakes Problem..

Four couples attended a party. One couple was you and your spouse; another was Pat and Chris. Some people shook hands with one another, but nobody shook hands with oneself or with one's own spouse.

After the party, you asked each person (except yourself) how many different people the person had shaken hands with. Each person replied with a different number--and each person's reply was truthful.

You shook hands with Pat. Did your spouse shake hands with Pat? With Chris?

Gold Chain Problem

A man has a gold chain with 7 links. He needs the service of a laborer for 7 days at a fee of one gold link per day. However, each day of work needs to be paid for separately. In other words, the worker must be paid each day after working and if the laborer is ever overpaid he will quit with the extra money. Also he will never allow himself to be owed a link.

What is the fewest number of cuts to the chain to facilitate this arrangement and how does that guarantee payment?

5 Pirates and the gold problem

Five pirates have 100 gold coins. they have to divide up the loot. In order of seniority (suppose pirate 5 is most senior, pirate 1 is least senior), the most senior pirate proposes a distribution of the loot. they vote and if at least 50% accept the proposal, the loot is divided as proposed. Otherwise the most senior pirate is executed, and they start over again with the next senior pirate. What solution does the most senior pirate propose? Assume they are very intelligent and extremely greedy (and that they would prefer not to die).

Which one is heavier??

Which one will be heavier if u try to lift it : 1 kg of cotton or 1 kg of gold ??

Cows and the grass meadow problem

A grass meadow grew equally thick and fast. It was known tat 70 cows could eat it up in 24 days and 30 cows could eat it up in 60 days. How many cows would crop the grass in 96 days??

Red and blue marbles problem

you have two jars, 50 red marbles, 50 blue marbles. you need to place all the marbles into the jars such that when you blindly pick one marble out of one jar, you maximize the chances that it will be red. (when picking, you'll first randomly pick a jar, and then randomly pick a marble out of that jar) you can arrange the marbles however you like, but each marble must be in a jar.

Jelly Bean problem..

U have three jars that are all mislabeled. one contains peanut butter jelly beans, another grape jelly jelly beans, and the third has a mix of both. how many jelly beans would you have to pull out, and out of which jars, to find out how to fix the labels on the jars?

Coins on the table problem

There is a table on which a number of coins are placed. You also know that there are as many coins with Head up as many coins with Tail up. Now you have to divide the coins (number of coins is even) into two equal piles such that number of coins with Heads up and Tails up in either piles be the same. The catch is you are blind folded and you cannot determine the sides (for sure) if you are blinded.. How will u do it?

Numerical Puzzle

Can u Make 37,using five 5's??

Contaminated Pill problem

You have 5 jars of pills. Each pill weighs 10 gram, except for contaminated pills contained in one jar, where each pill weighs 9 gm. Given a scale, how could you tell which jar had the contaminated pills in just one measurement?

Top Three

There are 25 horses and your objective is to find the fastest 3 among them. You can conduct races and the number of horses participating in a single race is 5. Calculate the minimum number of races by which you can find the top three?

Note : Races gives you positions and races are not timed.

Crossing the bridge !

A,B,C and D have got 17minutes to cross a bridge. A takes 10minutes,B takes 5 minutes, C takes 2 minutes and D takes 1 minute to cross the bridge. They only have one lantern and for each crossing of this bridge they require the lantern. The bridge can support only two persons at a time. Is it possible to cross the bridge in 17minutes. If possible,how?

The King and his Poisoned Wine problem

A king is having a feast. His intelligence officer comes up to him 30 days before the feast and tells the king that 1 of his 1,000 bottles of wine had been poisoned by his enemies. The poison kills immediately after 29 days, but has no other effects beforehand. The king has only 10 wine tasters. How will he find out which bottle of wine was poisoned in time for the feast?

Coloring the Cube

U are given a cube and 6 different colors.. In how many ways can u color the cube by coloring each side with a unique color ??