Difficult Logical Puzzles - 1

Logical reasoning puzzle questions are often asked in bank PO, SSC, government exams and many entrance tests. These are mostly arrangement-based or picture puzzles. Such questions intend to check your analytical, deductive and problem solving abilities. Here is a compilation of a series of different logical reasoning puzzles with answers. This set contains 10 difficult puzzles based on the concepts of logical reasoning.
Solve the given questions and check your level of preparation:
Q.1. Move 4 matchsticks to make 3 squares of different sizes.
Suggested Action
FREE Live Master Classes by our Star Faculty with 20+ years of experience. Register Now
The following is the image after moving 4 matchsticks:
Q.2. A male and a female person are sitting on the bench.
"I'm a male," says the person with brown hair.
"I'm a female," says the person with black hair.
If at least one of them is lying, who is male and who is female?
A simple analysis shows that the persons either have to be both lying or both telling the truth. Since we are told that at least one of them is lying, the person with brown hair is the female person and the person with black hair is the male person.
(Atleast one means one or more than one)
Q.3. Leo, Dolly, and Tommy are related to each other.
i. Among the three are Leo’s legal spouse, Dolly’s sibling, and Tommy’s sister-in-law.
ii. Leo’s legal spouse and Dolly’s sibling are of the same sex.
Who do you know is a married man?
If Leo’s spouse is Dolly, then Dolly’s sibling cannot be Leo and must be Tommy; then Tommy’s sister-in-law cannot be Dolly and must be Leo. If Leo’s spouse is Tommy, then Tommy’s sister –in-law cannot be Leo and must be Dolly; then Dolly’s sibling cannot be Leo and must be Dolly; then Dolly’s sibling cannot be Tommy and must be Leo. Then, in any case, all three of Leo, Dolly. And Tommy are accounted for and Tommy’s sister-in-law is a female. So, from [2], Leo’s spouse and Dolly’s sibling are both males.
In summary:
                Leo’s spouse        Dolly’s sibling        Tommy’s Sister in law
                Male                        Male                          Female
Case I    Dolly                        Tommy                          Leo
Case II   Tommy                        Leo                            Dolly
Case II is eliminated because Leo and Tommy cannot both be males and married to each other. So Case I is the correct one and you know Dolly is a married man. Leo is a married woman, Dolly and Tommy are brothers, and Leo is Tommy’s sister-in-law.
Q.4. The President decides to give a prisoner, who is about to be sentenced to death, one last chance to live. There are 2 doors, one - the life door and the other - the death door. There is one security person standing by each door, who knows about the doors. However, one of them always tells the truth and the other always tells a lie. There is no way to identify which door is the life door and which is the death door. There is no way to distinguish which security person is telling the truth. The prisoner can only ask only one question from any of the security person. After this he needs to choose a door. If he walks in the death door, then he will be executed. If he walks in the life door, he will get a life. He did choose the life door and lived. What was the question he asked? How did he choose the door after he got the answer from one of the security person?
Assume the security person X is by door X and the other person is by door Y. Let the prisoner go to person X and asks this question "If I ask person Y what door is door Y, then what will be answer given by him: life door or death door?"
If the answer is life door (door X), he can walk in the door Y. If the answer is death door (door Y), he can choose the door Y and walk in. This is because the question goes through 2 levels of questions from 2 people. The overall answer will be always a lie because there is always one person lying and the other telling the truth.
Q.5. Letters D to Z is categorized into 4 groups. Assume the font we used here is Arial. Which group does the letter G belong to? Which group does the letter I belong to?
1 K j    
2 D E    
3 u   V M
4   N S O
All the letters on the first row are not symmetrical. All the letters on the second row are symmetrical for the top and bottom. All the letters on the third row are symmetrical for the left and right. All the letters on the last row are completely symmetrical. Therefore, G should go to the first row. I should go to the last row.
Q.6. While travelling to Tungnath Vicky reached a fork on the way. He could have gone to any of the two ways. But only one of them leads to the town. But fortunately two men were standing nearby, however one of them always lies and other always speak the truth and its not known who is who. Since the men do not really like to help, one is allowed to ask one of them only one question. Which question should he ask?
Ask one of the men, "if I would ask the man standing next to you: which is the way to the town? ,
what would he answer?"
If he asks this to the liar, he will point him in the wrong way.
If he asks this to the one who speaks the truth, he will also point him in the wrong way. So after asking the question, take the other way. This will bring you in the town.
Q.7. On a train, S, R, and J are the fireman, brakeman, and the engineer, but may NOT be in order. Also aboard the train are three businessmen who have the same names: a Mr. S, a Mr. R, and a Mr. J. Using the clues below, can you determine the identity of the Engineer?
  1. Mr. R lives in Dehradun.
  2. The brakeman lives exactly halfway between Noida and Dehradun.
  3. Mr. J earns exactly Rs. 4,00,000 per year.
  4. The brakeman's nearest neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman.
  5. S beats the fireman in badminton.
  6. The passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman's lives in Noida.
a) Mr. R lives in Dehradun and the brakeman's nearest neighbor earns exactly 3 times as much as the brakeman.
Therefore, neither Mr. R nor Mr. J is the brakeman's nearest neighbor, so it must be Mr. S.
b) S beats the fireman at badminton and the passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman's lives in Noida. Mr. R lives in Dehradun and Mr. S lives between Noida and Dehradun. Therefore, it must be Mr. J who lives in Noida and J is the brakeman.
c) S is not the brakeman and he is not the fireman. He must be the engineer.
Name City       Occupation  Earning
S Noida Engineer  
R Dehradun Fireman  
J B/w Noida & Dehradun Brakeman  
Mr. S B/w Noida & Dehradun    
Mr. J Noida   4,00,000
Mr. R Dehradun    
Q.8. Four cups are placed upturned on the counter. Each cup has the same number of sweets and a declaration about the number of sweets in it. The declaration are: Five or Six, Seven or Eight, Six or Seven, Seven or Five. Only one of the declaration is correct. How many sweets are there under each cup?
As it is given that only one of the four declaration is correct, the correct number can not appear in more than one declaration. If it appears in more than one declaration, then more than one declaration will be correct. Hence, there are 8 sweets under each cup.
Q.9. You have 14 apples. Your Friend Monika takes away 3 and gives you 2. You drop 7 but pick up 4. Bhim takes 4 and gives 5. You take one from Monika and give it to Bhim in exchange for 3 more. You give those 3 to Monika and she gives you an apple and an orange. Fiza comes and takes the apple Monika gave you and gives you a pear. You give the pear to Bhim in exchange for an apple. Fiza then takes an apple from Monika, gives it to Bhim for an orange, and gives you the orange for an apple. How many pears do you have?
None. Fiza gave you a pear in exchange of the apple which Monika gave you. And you gave that pear to Bhim in exchange for an apple. All the others exchanges involved apples and/or oranges.
FREE e-books
Get access to carefully curated e-books by Academic Experts to crack competitive exams.Download Now
Q.10. Five friends with surname Panwala, Letterwala, Talawala, Chunawala and Radhiwala have their first name and middle name as follow.
Four of them have a first and middle name of Verma.
Three of them have a first and middle name of Kanta.
Two of them have a first and middle name of Rajesh.
One of them has a first and middle name of Kiash.
Letterwala and Talawala, either both are named Kanta or neither is named Kanta. Either Panwala and Letterwala both are named Rajesh or Talawala and Chunawala both are named Rajesh. Chunawala and Radhiwala are not both named Verma. Who is named Kiash?
From (1) and (7), it is clear that Panwala, Letterwala and Talawala are named Verma.
From (6) and (5), if Letterwala or Talawala both are named Kanta, then either of them will have three names i.e. Verma, Kanta and Rajesh. Hence, Letterwala and Talawala both are not named Kanta. It means that Panwala, Chunawala and Radhiwala are named Kanta. Now it is clear that Talawala and Chunawala are named Rajesh. Also, Letterwala is named Kiash.
Views:206799