A wise king devised a contest to see who would receive the Princess’ hand in marriage. The Princess was put in a 50 x 50 foot carpeted room. Each of her four suitors were put in one corner of the room with a small box to stand on. The first one to touch the Princess’ hand would be the winner and become the new King.
The rules were the contestants could not walk over the carpet, cross the plane of the carpet, or hang from anything; nor could they use anything but their body and wits (i.e. no magic, telepathy, nor any items such as ladders, block and tackles etc). One suitor figured out a way and married the Princess and became the new King. What did he do?
Three applicants for one job are locked in a room with none reflective surfaces. A disk has been fixed to the back of each candidate . They cannot see their own disk but can see the one on the other two candidates. They know beforehand that there were three white disks and two black ones available to the interview panel before they entered the room.
The job would go to the first candidate who could identity and give the reasoning for the decision.
Within less than a minute one candidate. Knocked on the door with the answer I have a white disk.
He was correct but what is the reason put forward?
7 Comments on "The Hand of the Princess"
Name says
June 17, 2015 @ 19:33
The text is misaligned — too much of it went into the answer
Dan says
June 18, 2015 @ 14:15
Thanks for letting me know. It’s fixed.
Anonymous says
July 22, 2015 @ 17:16
I loved this brainteaser, my favourite one yet!
Camden says
August 13, 2015 @ 23:03
I completely overlooked the answer
Phillip needham says
March 7, 2018 @ 14:14
Three applicants for one job are locked in a room with none reflective surfaces. A disk has been fixed to the back of each candidate . They cannot see their own disk but can see the one on the other two candidates. They know beforehand that there were three white disks and two black ones available to the interview panel before they entered the room.
The job would go to the first candidate who could identity and give the reasoning for the decision.
Within less than a minute one candidate. Knocked on the door with the answer I have a white disk.
He was correct but what is the reason put forward?
Anamisharma says
May 24, 2020 @ 01:37
The successful candidate saw
other two candidates with black discs. So he must have white disc
only.
Chloe says
June 24, 2020 @ 18:51
I agree with Anamisharma.
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