[RESOLVED] Another Maths Question

[Harsh Gupta]

My friend came to my home for vacation. Every day we played a chess game.Where the looser should give the winner a choclate.Finally one day my friend gave me 8 choclates even though she won 12 games.How many days did she stay in my home?

is the answer 20 days??

sorry for such posts!! i am preparing for few exams and these questions are killing me because i make very silly mistakes in Maths.

kindly bear with me!!

[penagate]

The question makes no sense, it's too badly worded and ambiguous.

[Harsh Gupta]

The question makes no sense, it's too badly worded and ambiguous.

it does make sense, and these are qualities of questions which the so-called IT giants put for us to solve, for the recruitment process!!

[penagate]

How does it make sense? It doesn't say when the chocolates were supposed to be "paid" in the first place, so how can you make any logical deduction from the question statement? And whoever wrote it can't even spell "loser" and "chocolate". Unless that was you copying it by hand.

[Andy_P]

If she won 12, therefore you lost 12. But she gave 8 chocs to you, so you must have won 8 more than she did, ie 12+8 = 20.

So total number of games is 20 wins for you + 12 wins for her = 32.

Therefore 32 days total.

I think that is right!

[penagate]

I think a more pressing question would be whether you would really want to work for a company that uses these sorts of interview questions to assess potential employees.

[Harsh Gupta]

If she won 12, therefore you lost 12. But she gave 8 chocs to you, so you must have won 8 more than she did, ie 12+8 = 20.

So total number of games is 20 wins for you + 12 wins for her = 32.

Therefore 32 days total.

I think that is right!

yes, it should be 32, i forgot to add 12 wins of the guest.

@penagate,

just because a question is badly worded, it doesnot always imply that it is senseless.

[penagate]

It does.

You have both assumed the chocolates paid is the difference in total wins between the players. But I would have assumed from the way the question is worded, the chocolates were supposed to be given at the end of the game each day.

Since we have both had to assume, and inevitably made different assumptions and therefore arrived at different conclusions, it means the question is bad.

If I, heaven forbid, used that as an interview question, I would be more impressed with a candidate pointing out the flaws in the question, rather than making an assumption solely for the sake of arriving at an answer. Remember, assumption is the mother of all F-ups.

[Harsh Gupta]

It does.

You have both assumed the chocolates paid is the difference in total wins between the players. But I would have assumed from the way the question is worded, the chocolates were supposed to be given at the end of the game each day.

Since we have both had to assume, and inevitably made different assumptions and therefore arrived at different conclusions, it means the question is bad.

If I, heaven forbid, used that as an interview question, I would be more impressed with a candidate pointing out the flaws in the question, rather than making an assumption solely for the sake of arriving at an answer. Remember, assumption is the mother of all F-ups.

sorry mate, i am in no mood of arguing with you because i have to prepare for the test.

even i could do that, pointing out flaws/errors in questions. but this is the way they test our various skills.

and the questions i posted (or just copy pasted) is a question from a book of Shakuntala Devi, often called Human Computer, so this question is not senseless!!

[penagate]

I'm not trying to have an argument, I apologise if I came across that way. I rather tend to judge things on an individual basis, not by any sort of reputation that may be directly or indirectly attached to them.

Anyway, good luck with your test.