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?

You are given a cube that is made with the help of 10x10x10 smaller cubes summing up to a total of 1000 smaller cubes. You are asked to take off one layer of the cubes.
How many remain now?

I am a five-letter word and people eat me. If you remove the first letter I become an energy form. If you remove the first two letters, I am needed to live. Scramble the last three letters and I am a drink. What word am I?

There are three houses in a straight row. One is red, one is blue, and one is white. The red house is left of the middle. The blue house is right of the middle. Where's the white house?

Find the next number in the series below

21 32 54 87 131 ?

One night, a man runs away from home. He turns left and keeps running. After some time he turns left again and keeps running. Later, he turns left one more time and runs back home—but when he gets home, he finds a man in a mask. Who was the man in the mask?

If a shopkeeper can only place the weights on one side of the common balance. For example, if he has weights 1 and 3 then he can measure 1, 3 and 4 only. Now the question is how many minimum weights and names of the weights you will need to measure all weights from 1 to 1000? This is a fairly simple problem and very easy to prove also.

John gave half of the apples he had plus one more to Jacob. He gave half of the remaining ones plus one more to James. Now, John was left with just one apple.

Can you find out how many did he have in the beginning?

I am a seven-letter word but if you remove four of my letters I will have one left. What word am I?

Mr Black, Mr Gray, and Mr White are fighting in a truel. They each get a gun and take turns shooting at each other until only one person is left. Mr Black, who hits his shot 1/3 of the time, gets to shoot first. Mr Gray, who hits his shot 2/3 of the time, gets to shoot next, assuming he is still alive. Mr White, who hits his shot all the time, shoots next, assuming he is also alive. The cycle repeats. If you are Mr Black, where should you shoot first for the highest chance of survival?