When 99 is considered higher than 100?

A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 10 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 20 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?

John was writing his first book. After saving the document, he locked his laptop with a password and mentioned some phrases for the hint box.

A friend of his tried opening his laptop but found out that it was password protected. Following is the hint that appeared.
1 mobile 3 books 2 roars 1 night 4 balls 2 lighters 1 ghost 1 hat 3 watches.

Can you help him in cracking the password?

Three people check into a hotel. They pay $60 for the rent of the room. After they check-in, the manager realize that the rent for the room is $55. So, he gives $5 to the bellboy and asks him to give it to them. The bellboy thinks that it will be difficult for the three people to share $5 among them and seeking the personal benefit, he pockets $2 and gives the remaining $3 to them.

Now, each person paid $20 and got back $1. In this manner, each of them paid just $19 which totals to the amount of $57. The bellboy has $2 with him and adding them, we get $59. So where is the remaining $1?

John bought a new car. He has a habit of eating ice cream from a particular ice cream shop while returning home from office. Whenever, he eats strawberry ice cream, he faces no problem. But whenever, he eats chocolate ice cream, the car starts giving problem. At first, he thinks, it is just a co-incidence but when this awkward incident happens for 3-4 times, he reports this problem to the company.

The mechanic of the company checks but finds no problem at all. The next day, when he stops by to eat chocolate ice cream, the car again starts giving problem.

Can you find the possible reason?

A woman lives in a Tall building thirty-six floors high and served by several elevators which stop at each floor going up and down. Each morning she leaves her apartment and goes to one of the elevators. Whichever one she takes is three times more likely to be going up than down. Why?

1. What does:
TIM JOB
represent?

2. What does:
MO_ _
represent?

In front of you, there are 9 coins. They all look absolutely identical, but one of the coins is fake. However, you know that the fake coin is lighter than the rest, and in front of you is a balance scale. What is the least number of weightings you can use to find the counterfeit coin?

A man wants to cross the pit of fire which is 25 feet in length and he has 2 planks(fire resistant) 19 feet in length. How can he cross the pit of fire alive?

Analyze and find the missing item in the sequence:
16, 06, 68, 88, __, 98