Counting, Measuring, and Ordering Puzzles

Brainteasers are mathematical and logical puzzles that have indirect relation to computer programming. Performance on brainteasers says a lot about how much experience programmers have with brainteasers and very little about whether they are good coders. Knowing a few simple techniques for tackling these problems can dramatically improve their performance. This chapter discusses these strategies and illustrates their application on a representative sample of brainteasers. Unlike the programming or technical parts of the interview, where programmers are sometimes given simple problems to see whether they know something, brainteasers always require thought and effort. The best approach is to avoid making any assumptions. Some problems are intimidating because they are so complex. Other problems are tricky for the opposite reason: they are so simple or restricted that it seems that there's no way to solve the problems within the given constraints.