2, 3, 5, 9, 17, _ What is the next number in the sequence?

What number comes next in this sequence:
7 8 5 5 3 4 4 _

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

Once upon a time, there was a castle on a square island. The entire island was surrounded by a 14m wide trench. The Romans had wanted to invade the castle and had brought a few wooden planks along with them to facilitate themselves in crossing the moat. The planks were however found to be only 13m long.

The Romans still managed to cross the trench. How did they do it?

John went to a parrot shop in Mexico, and the parrot owner told him that his parrot is so unique that he repeats everything he hears. John got excited and immediately bought the parrot. John went home and spoke many words, but the parrot does not repeat anything.
He went again to the parrot shop and complaint to the shopkeeper, but the shopkeeper never lied. Explain?

Today, I celebrated my 32nd birthday but I was born in 1972.
How is this possible?

Below, you can see some coding:
January = 1017
February = 628
March = 1335
April = 145
May = 1353
June = 1064
July = 1074
August = 186

Now deciphering the way it has been coded, can you find out how September will be coded?

John went to a parrot shop in Mexico, and the parrot owner told him that his parrot is so unique that he repeats everything he hears. John got excited and immediately bought the parrot. John went home and spoke many words, but the parrot does not repeat anything.
He went again to the parrot shop and complaint to the shopkeeper, but the shopkeeper never lied. Explain?

Which is Odd One Out and why?

4377

3954

9862

8454

9831

You have two strings whose only known property is that when you light one end of either string it takes exactly one hour to burn. The rate at which the strings will burn is completely random and each string is different. How do you measure 45 minutes?