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?

10 people came into a hotel with 9 rooms and each guest wanted his own room. The bellboy solved this problem.
He asked the tenth guest to wait for a little with the first guest in room number 1. So in the first room, there were two people. The bellboy took the third guest to room number 2, the fourth to number 3, ..., and the ninth guest to room number 8. Then he returned to room number 1 and took the tenth guest to room number 9, still vacant.
How can everybody have his own room?

The LCD device should be able to tell the right time in the format HH:MM: SS in a 12-hour format. You can refer to the picture to get an idea. The device is a simple "level indicator" which has to be converted into a watch. How will you program it to work?

I have 50 feet long of cloth, I need to create 50 handkerchiefs each size of 1 foot. I take one minute to cut a 1-foot handkerchief. So how long will it take to cut 50 handkerchiefs?

Thomas has missed an excessive number of days of school, so he must meet with Principal Davis. Mr. Davis asks him "Why on Earth have you missed so many days?" Thomas replies "There just isn't enough time for school. I need 8 hours of sleep a day, which adds up to about 122 days a year. Weekends off is 104 days a year. Summer vacation is about 60 days. If I spend about an hour on each meal, that's 3 hours a day or 45 days a year. I need at least 2 hours of exercise and relaxation time each day to stay physically and mentally fit, adding another 30 days. Add all of that up and you get about 361 days. That only leaves 4 days for school." The principal knows Thomas is full of it, but can't figure out why. Where is Thomas going wrong?

John speaks the truth only once a day in a week. Below are a few hints for you:

First: Days are Sunday, Monday and so on.
Second: One day he says, "I lie on Monday and Tuesday".
Third: On the next day, he says, "Today is either Thursday, Saturday or Sunday".
Fourth: On the next day, he says, "I lie on Wednesday and Friday".

Can you identify the day on which he speaks the truth?

While preparing the table for dinner, wife came up with an idea to tease his mathematician husband. She asked her husband to pick nine toothpicks and make ten without breaking any toothpick.

The husband was also smart and did it within seconds. How ?

John bought 150 chocolates but he misplaced some of them. His Father asked him how many chocolates were misplaced.
He gave the following answer to him:
If you count in pairs, one remains
If you count in threes, two remain
If you count in fours, three remain
If you count in fives, four remain
If you count in sixes, five remain
If you count in sevens, no chocolate remains.

Can you analyze the statements and tell us how many chocolates were lost?

Accidentally, two trains are running in the opposite direction and enter a tunnel that is 200 miles long. A supersonic bird that has fled the lab and taken shelter in the tunnel starts flying from one train towards the other at a speed of 1000 mph. As soon as it reaches the second train, he starts flying back to avoid collision and meets the first train again at the other end. The bird keeps flying to and fro till the trains collide with each other.

What is the total distance that the supersonic bird has traveled till the trains collided?

John and Jill are madly in love with each other. To remind Jill of his pure love, John wants to send her a ring by post but in their country where burglary is quite prominent, any package that is not locked comes under the risk of being stolen for the contents.

John and Jill possess many padlocks but neither one of them has the other key.

Can you find a way John can send the ring to Jill safely?