A teacher was having trouble getting her students to learn their facts, but she noticed that her students often played the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors". She made a game with similar rules in order to encourage the students to learn their facts.

The class would be divided into three teams: Rock, Paper and Scissors. The teacher would ask the students a question and the class would raise their hands if they knew the answer. If the first person to answer the question correctly is in the Rock team, he or she would choose one player from the Scissors team to be eliminated. Similarly, if a player from the Scissors team was first to answer the question, then he or she would eliminate a member from the Paper team. Lastly, if a player from the Paper team was first to answer correctly, he or she would eliminate a member from the Rock team.

The teacher would then continue asking questions until only one team still has members. That team would be declared the winner and all its members would win a small chocolate.

However, as soon as she explained the rules to the class, one particularly smart student immediately found a large flaw that made the game unplayable. Can you do the same?

Solution

Emperor Akbar once ruled over India. He was a wise and intelligent ruler, and he had in his court the Nine Gems, his nine advisors, who were each known for a particular skill. One of these Gems was Birbal, known for his wit and wisdom. The story below is one of the examples of his wit. Do you have it in you to find out the answer?

Emperor Akbar was very fond of Birbal as were many of the village people. However, this made quite a few of Akbar's other ministers jealous.

One day, they decided to come up with a plan to rid them of the "great" Birbal. To avoid suspicion from falling on them, they took the help of the emperor's barber in this plan.

A week later, while Akbar was receiving a haircut, the barber lightly mentioned that he knew of someone who could allow Akbar to reach and even converse with his ancestors who had passed away, but he also stated the man who would go to the heavens would have to be witty, intelligent and wise. Akbar instantly recommended Birbal for the task.

Birbal was told that a fire would be lit around him and the smoke would carry him to heaven; however, chanting would protect him from burning to his death. Birbal instantly knew that this was a plan to get rid of him, but not wishing to anger the emperor, he agreed to perform this task in a month. During this period of time, he asked some laborers to build a tunnel connecting his house to the cemetery, where the "rites" would be held.

When the day came, Birbal escaped his death by going to his house where he stayed for a month growing out his beard. A month later, he went back to Akbar's palace. When asked about the health of Akbar's ancestors, Birbal replied that they were doing very well but were missing just one thing.

What did Birbal say they were missing in heaven?

Solution

A man is trapped in a room. The room has only two possible exits: two doors. Through the first door there is a room constructed from magnifying glass. The blazing hot sun instantly fries anything or anyone that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?

Solution

In a far away land, it was known that if you drank poison, the only way to save yourself is to drink a stronger poison, which neutralizes the weaker poison. The king that ruled the land wanted to make sure that he possessed the strongest poison in the kingdom, in order to ensure his survival, in any situation. So the king called the kingdom's pharmacist and the kingdom's treasurer, he gave each a week to make the strongest poison. Then, each would drink the other one's poison, then his own, and the one that will survive, will be the one that had the stronger poison.
The pharmacist went straight to work, but the treasurer knew he had no chance, for the pharmacist was much more experienced in this field, so instead, he made up a plan to survive and make sure the pharmacist dies. On the last day the pharmacist suddenly realized that the treasurer would know he had no chance, so he must have a plan. After a little thought, the pharmacist realized what the treasurer's plan must be, and he concocted a counter plan, to make sure he survives and the treasurer dies. When the time came, the king summoned both of them. They drank the poisons as planned, and the treasurer died, the pharmacist survived, and the king didn't get what he wanted.
What exactly happened there?

Solution

Handel has been killed and Beethoven is on the case. He has interviewed the four suspects and their statements are shown below. Each suspect has said two sentences. One sentence of each suspect is a lie and one sentence is the truth. Help Beethoven figure out who the killer is.

Joplin: I did not kill Handel. Either Grieg is the killer or none of us is.
Grieg: I did not kill Handel. Gershwin is the killer.
Strauss: I did not kill Handel. Grieg is lying when he says Gershwin is the killer.
Gershwin: I did not kill Handel. If Joplin did not kill him, then Grieg did.

Solution

Analytical Reasoning Skills

The Questions on Analytical Skills examine the logical thinking abilities of a candidate.  Do remember that a particular Question is less important than the reasoning task you are asked to perform.  No specialized knowledge of any particular field is required for answering the questions, and no knowledge of the terminology and conventions of formal logic is presumed. 

In the Questions on Analytical Skills you need to analyse the situations on which each Question is based.