Test my logic...
 

I'm preparing to answer a few logic questions. I don't know what they will be, for certain, but I do know the mentality that I need to fit. So, in that sense, the answers are all up to me. What I need to do now is train my head to think in that fashion, so I want to hear a lot of logic-related questions. Hopefully, if I can answer them the way I want to, I will be training myself properly.

Here are some examples:

How would you design a remote control?

How would you estimate the amount of traffic lights in Manhattan?

What methods would you use to train your brain to think a certain way?


So.. hit me!

Not sure if this what you mean, but....

Say there's a recipe with 6 ingredients and you don't have a pen and paper to copy it down. What would be the best way to remember the amounts of each ingredient?

How would you plan a family reunion for an extended family with several members who don't get along?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Serious question.

You are at an airport with a Boeing 747 loaded with an unknown amount of cargo. What materials would you need, and how would you weigh it?

what came first..the chicken or the egg?

Twisted = best question so far, hands down.

Others had good questions two though ^^

Two people who have never seen each other meet at a bar for drinks. One of them is the father of the other one's son. How is this possible?

Are we allowed to answer questions here?

Here is a good old fashioned logic problem,

Each of six teen friends are sharing the music by lending a CD of his or her favorite group to one of the other five. From the clues below, you should be able to determine which CD each of the six owns and who is borrowing and currently enjoying it.

1. The six music sharers are Ben, the girl who owns the Cake CD, the boy who is borrowing the 3 Doors Down CD, Wendy, the teenager who owns the CD by No Doubt, and the one who is currently listening to another's Train CD.
2. Two of the boys are borrowing music owned by two of the girls; the boy who is listening to another boy's favorite has his Matchbox Twenty CD.
3. Wendy, who isn't the teen who owns the 3 Doors Down CD, isn't the person who is borrowing the Cake music.
4. Trisha is borrowing neither the Barenaked Ladies nor the No Doubt CD.
5. James is borrowing neither the Cake nor the Matchbox Twenty CD.
6. Ben isn't the friend who is listening to Cindy's favorite group, and Cindy isn't the one listening to Kevin's loaned CD.
7. The teen who is borrowing the No Doubt CD doesn't own the Barenaked Ladies music.

Oh...that's different. I think he's going for an interview, and they usually don't use 'working out' problems like that.

Ok, in that case -

These words follow a logical progression:
CODIFY
LAMINA
STOVE
RESET
JOKUL
QUIRES

Which one of these comes next?
REST, GRAIL, STOIC, ORDEAL

You are stuck in an underground concrete room, with six minutes of air. There is a ceiling light, a computer, a cell phone, a radio, and a Television. Which one would you turn on first?

how would you estimate the number of TV viewers in NYC if you were given the number of TV sold in the last 12 months.

Geez, some of these sound like riddles rather than logic questions.

you do need all you can get if you want to ace these interviews.

how are they going btw?

Just because some are riddles doesn't mean you don't need logic to solve them. That first one I asked is a lateral thinking riddle.

The idea is that there are many ways to answer a logic question. There is no one real answer to it. The value of the answer depends on the expectations of the asker.

Given a rectangular (cuboidal for the puritans) cake with a rectangular piece removed (any size or orientation), how would you cut the remainder of the cake into two equal halves with one straight cut of a knife?

How many ping pong balls can you fit into a 747 jet?

Spoiler: all of them

...without being arrested by homeland security.

You can approximately weigh a 747, by yourself, with materials that would fit in your right front jeans pocket :thumbsup:

edit: Maybe...come to think of it, I'm not sure about how the specific airplane mechanics work. OK, you could weigh a double decker bus or semi-truck this way for sure.

You and 4 other people are in a wooded area on a recovery mission. You have a knife, 50 ft of rope, a lighter, a hammock, and you each have a backpack. You have to move a jeep that has no wheels 2 miles back to camp. You are in charge.

go.

See, its no longer a logic puzzle and more of a riddle for a non-engineer.

Perhaps I'm not quite understanding what you mean by "logic" problem. I don't see what
"How would you design a remote control?" has to do with "logic" as I understand it. Are you looking for situations where you have to think your way out? Are you looking for deductive reasoning type problems? Are you looking for problems that require creativity to solve?

Really it's puzzle that don't have ONE RIGHT ANSWER. It's something that you go on a journey to solve, hopefully taking the interviewer with you.

Well, let's go back to the examples.

How would you estimate the amount of traffic lights in Manhattan?

There are 4 phases I'd take in answering this.

The first phase is the simple answer, which is to look it up. There's gotta be a recent statistic somewhere.

The second phase, if the first one fails, is to use good ol' sampling. Map out a sector of the city (3%, maybe) and count the traffic lights by hand. Then multiply that number by the total number of sectors in the city.

The third phase is needed if you need something a little more accurate. I'd look to see if there are any rules or standards in place for traffic light placement, then apply an algorithm to those rules and the mappings of the streets (which can be found easily).

The fourth phase, to be applied when all else fails... hire a team of interns to count them all.

#5: Place a call to the city's transportation department ;)

I said that was "A way" not "the only way"

By the way, this is an actual question commonly used in interviews, same as the 'why are manholes round' one.

This is a good one.

Don't use google!

There are three light bulbs in a room, and three light switches outside the room. You are outside, and want to match up which switch goes with which light bulb. You can only travel into the room once, and cannot come back in again. You can do anything you want upon entering the room. How can you set the situation so that you will know which switch goes with which light bulb?

I have an answer to this one that will settle it for you forever.

Spoiler: The egg came first. Whatever laid the first chicken egg was the evolutionary ancestor of the chicken, but was not a chicken. But it laid the first mutant whatever-it-was that we'd now recognize as a chicken, which existed first as an egg, then hatched and was recognizably a chicken. So the egg came first. Something laid that egg, but it wasn't a chicken.

Spoiler: 1. Are any of them burnt out?
2. Are they close enough you can touch them once you enter the room?

No.
Yes.

You find yourself in a locked room. What would you need to get out?
-----Added 4/10/2008 at 02 : 05 : 21-----
Turn 2 on. Go into the room, I now know the first one (the one that's off). Break one of the bulbs that are on. Walk out. Turn off one of the 2 that were on. If the light goes off under the door then it belongs to the one I didn't break. If nothing happens, then it belongs to the one I did break.

You're overthinking it. Spoiler: Turn one on for five minutes, turn it off, turn another one on, and go into the room. Whichever one is hot when touched is the one that was on for five minutes and whichever one is on is the one your turned on second.

I'm curious about this one. Could someone who knows the answers send me a private message with the answers and how they did it. Thanks a million!

sent you the answer

Thanks! :)