Questions tagged [computer-puzzle]
A tag for puzzles dependent upon some degree of computer literacy - for instance, requiring basic familiarity with operating system usage, encryption or programming.
330
questions
1
vote
0answers
63 views
The France Public Holiday's Distance Grid
French Public Holidays
We consider the following rules that apply to the 11 French public holidays :
New Year's Day : 1st of January
Easter Monday : Monday following Easter Sunday which is the next ...
0
votes
0answers
181 views
Reverse Engineering Computer Formula
A computer uses an unknown formula to create a 4 digit Output using specific Input. Here are 3 examples:
Input = 20066 : 020470 : 47 : 1 : 322267 Output = 0927
Input = 20066 : 020470 : 46 : ...
7
votes
1answer
143 views
Find the secret word hidden in this message
(TL;DR at the bottom)
The following message was received from a friend:
I need you right away to help me use 0x1DD1A to find out how to set up my ...
38
votes
3answers
2k views
What comes next in the sequence?
My roommate has insomnia so he was counting sheep to help him sleep.
He started with $2986$, then continued with $47786,\ 764586,$ and $12233386$.
What sequence is he following, and what was the ...
3
votes
1answer
558 views
Challenge on ASCII Codes
My friend shared a challenge puzzle with me but I don't have any idea on this? I believe that it's related to ascii characters.
8
votes
2answers
318 views
Can you open a safe with a lengthy complicated combination?
Two cousins were talking about their parents' safes. "They said I can keep my comic books in their safe, if I figure out the right combination, and enter it on the keypad correctly on my first ...
2
votes
1answer
149 views
What is a Perfect Inquirey Word™?
This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Perfect Inquirey Word™.
...
19
votes
2answers
437 views
Reverse (Big) Boggle
This is a puzzle that I've worked on-and-off for quite a few years, but not being a competent coder, I haven't worked out a definitive solution. I suspect the 1st part is impossible but haven't proved ...
5
votes
0answers
336 views
What is a 255b Word™?
This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a 255b Word™.
Use the ...
6
votes
1answer
231 views
12 Distinct Weights' Sorting
There are 12 balls with all different weights. You want to sort these balls by weight. You have a friend who will help you with the ordering process. In each step, you give any 4 balls to your friend ...
7
votes
1answer
265 views
Heavy-duty computing challenge — maximum-density word packing
Caution: This is a challenge for computers only. Humans are advised to stand well clear of the protective safety cage. There may be CPUs on fire before it's over.
Introduction
Nothing makes a ...
3
votes
1answer
167 views
11
votes
4answers
908 views
Can multiple wall timers turn lights on or off when required?
Imagine we have some simple mechanical 24 hour wall timers like this:
There’s one restriction though, they’re badly designed so each one can only turn on once and turn off once in a 24 hour period (...
18
votes
3answers
5k views
A shy person in a queue
I'm so shy when between people.
When in a queue, I'd like to be the last.
That's the only time when I'm not shy.
When consuming food, I'd take one or two, or even four, depending on the context.
What ...
1
vote
1answer
189 views
Molly and a pseudocode
Molly was given a pseudocode by her teacher and told her you need to understand the pseudocode to answer the riddle.
Riddle:
I am _________ like universe and stars
You will find me in computer ...
5
votes
1answer
271 views
map 5 unequal ranges to id
This is actually coming from a business place, but it's all about being able to do math tricks, and that's why I'm posting here.
I want to implement the following function:
...
9
votes
1answer
376 views
“Brainf*ck, but not really.”
Yesterday, I organized a contest with various challenges the participants had to solve. I put 6 very simple puzzles that were solved almost instantly, and the deadline was supposed to be until Sunday. ...
0
votes
2answers
170 views
Hunting for treasure in 1-d grid [duplicate]
In a castle, there are N rooms in a line. Each room has a door to the
two neighbouring rooms (or the one neighbouring room, for the rooms at
either end). A treasure is hidden in one of the rooms. ...
8
votes
1answer
297 views
What is a Fade Word™?
This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Fade Word™.
Use the ...
6
votes
5answers
476 views
What is my name? It's not “traveler”
The answer to this puzzle is my first name. What is it?
If no progress is made after a week or so, I'll slowly give hints. It's not too hard of a puzzle, so long as you take everything into account.
...
2
votes
2answers
191 views
How to find number of times sequence element $1$ is approached and from where?
Consider a sequence $1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,...,-1$. Start at the first element and move down the sequence according to the following rules:
1) If you jump from a $-1$ to another $-1$, turn the latter into ...
10
votes
2answers
2k views
sorting 4 numbers using Min - Max boxes
Min-Max is a box that is capable of determining which of the two numbers is the higher (Max) and which is lower (Min).
I need to use minimum amount of boxes in order to sort 4 different numbers (any ...
0
votes
1answer
168 views
Find the 33rd two characters, and where they belong
I'm working on a puzzle. I'm about 75% of the way through solving the puzzle.
The only thing left is you hash 33 two character pairs. I have 32 two character pairs.
Possible characters are [a-z, ...
8
votes
6answers
840 views
Restoring order in a deck of playing cards (II)
Michelle has a deck of 52 playing cards in a pile with their backs facing up. She takes the first 2 cards in the pile, turns them over, and places them at the bottom of the pile. She now takes the ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views
Restoring order in a deck of playing cards (I)
Michelle has a deck of 52 playing cards, stacked in a pile with their backs facing up. She takes the first 2 cards in the pile, turns them over, and places them at the bottom of the pile. She now ...
2
votes
1answer
181 views
The “Jumbled” Cipher
The elusive "Jumbled" cipher has stumped scientists and cryptographers alike...
Not really, but it will stump you soon...
The Jumbled Cipher is a mysterious text cipher that puts text into an ...
19
votes
2answers
514 views
The Sequencer - da-da-daaa!
This is what the diagram on the machine looked like:
And this is the output that was in the box.
...
3
votes
2answers
154 views
The fantastic matrix
Here's another question that I have been asked in an interview lately.
Let $M$ be an $n × n$ matrix whose values are $”+”$ and $”-”$. M is called fantastic if it is possible to make all it's values $”...
17
votes
2answers
531 views
Maximum Height of a Hotel with Strange Elevators
I encountered this puzzle many years ago, and I think back on it often as it is unique and thought provoking. As far as I know nobody has proved the given solution as optimum, so it may still be ...
21
votes
4answers
889 views
Consecutive integers around a circle
Find a block of positive consecutive integers that can be placed around a circle in some order so that any two adjacent numbers always have a common divisor greater than 1.
2
votes
1answer
109 views
Pairwise coprime numbers in a 3 x 3 board
Find all the ways of placing all the digits 1 to 9 in the cells of a 3 x 3 board in such a manner that the seven three-digit numbers that can be read horizontally (from left to right), vertically (top ...
2
votes
0answers
150 views
A partition of 79633 into thirteen parts [duplicate]
The sum of thirteen positive integers is 79633. If placed appropriately on the vertices of this graph, two of them will be joined by an edge if and only if they have a common divisor greater than 1 (...
9
votes
1answer
259 views
Scoring Oracle: Bob easily wins, but how much?
Bob meets a magician with two bags and a chest on a bridge. The magician challenges him with the following enigma:
Here is a bag A, holding 5080 pebbles.
Here is another bag B.
Most of the pebbles ...
7
votes
3answers
231 views
A 4 x 4 Magic Square with Pairwise Relatively Prime Entries
Find a 4 x 4 magic square of positive integers such that any two of its entries are pairwise different and relatively prime, i.e., have no common divisor greater than 1.
What is the least that the ...
8
votes
2answers
238 views
From one color to another
white turns to blue
blue turns to red
red turns to aquamarine
but green stays the same
People from StackOverflow might appreciate this one.
13
votes
5answers
642 views
Labelling a Snow Flake Graph to Attain Minimum Sum
Label the vertices (or nodes) of this graph with positive integers so that any two nodes are joined by a edge (or line) if and only if the corresponding integers have a common divisor greater than 1 (...
16
votes
6answers
562 views
A regular riddle
I'm kept inside a boxy cage.A prefix for the modern age, I make the
messages you create fly at a supersonic rate.
Now that box has me and my friends inside a box with rounded ends. You
can ...
1
vote
2answers
139 views
A Fun, Fantastic, Phonic Cipher!
An old friend of mine recently sent me an email. Being a linguist, he always finds creative (read: annoying) ways to use his words to baffle me. After about five minutes, I usually just give up. ...
0
votes
1answer
178 views
One-word riddle (possibly python)
The question/riddle is: "Never has a snake given such words of wisdom."
The hint is: "Thou shall never pass errors silently!"
It is possible to be related to Python, errors or something like that. ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
What date encoding could this be?
40 years ago I read a book, but couldn't remember the title. I've been looking for it for a while, and I finally (finally!) found it!
And then I worked out why it took so long. It hasn't been ...
7
votes
1answer
218 views
Can you give us a statement?
Picture an 11x11 grid. Each cell must contain one character. This can be any ASCII character. The contents of the entire row must validate against both corresponding H regex clues. And the contents of ...
10
votes
3answers
591 views
Where is the money?
When I was just a little kid my parents died in a terrible accident, and I was left alone in the world. When I reached the age of 18, I received an envelope with a letter that read the following:
...
7
votes
1answer
133 views
Statements in Java
Each code block translates to a specific statement in English. There is a theme behind the statements. As code puzzles tend to be "easier" (relative to other PSE puzzles) than expected, it will not be ...
4
votes
1answer
103 views
question of royal proportions
I dont know if this is going to be any good but this is my first attempt at on of these puzzles.
The following piece of code relates to a famous saying/phrase/article/piece.
...
3
votes
1answer
256 views
Applied logic challenge problem #2
This is similar to my previous Applied Logic Challenge Problem but with a significant difference at the end which could make this problem somewhat more difficult. Again it is a problem of my own ...
4
votes
2answers
220 views
Applied logic challenge problem
You must determine what can be concluded from the 60 true statements below. The numbers in each statement represent binary values (true / ...
18
votes
2answers
459 views
An Artwork Made from Several Countries
Last year I went to 12 different countries around the world. I made an AI to convert every country that I've visited into a beautiful artwork as a reminder. I input the 12 countries name, then somehow ...
-1
votes
2answers
371 views
What's the Difference?
*not sure if this counts as a real puzzle, but I will ask it anyways.
Can you catch the difference between the 2 following letters?
х
...
9
votes
1answer
384 views
Puzzles like Sokoban?
I am looking for some puzzles like Sokoban or 15-puzzle but more difficult to solve and satisfy the following requirements:
The number of possible moves at each step should be limited, let's say < ...
-3
votes
1answer
83 views
You see me right now… but you can't
Look over here! Oh... that's right. I'm too small to be seen. But you are still looking at me. Crazy! I know right? Here, how about this? You guess what I am! Okay.
Well if I get too much ...
