What number should come in place of the question mark below?

I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I surround every place. What am I?

There were three women in all the swimming costumes!
One was happy and the other two were sad!
The happy one was crying and the sad ones were smiling.
Why was this?

Can you find out which number multiplied by itself will give the output as 12345678987654321?

The world's largest Thanksgiving turkey was on display at a fair. Everyone was admiring it when suddenly a woman ran up and shot the turkey and left. Everyone knew her yet nobody made any attempts to stop or report her. Why?

Bopanna was working on a murder case when he received a message about the location of the murder weapon.
The message was encrypted as below.

"deb mitciv eht edisni neddih si nopaew redrum ehT"

Tell me the location of the murder weapon.

The great emperor Akbar once ruled India. He was well known for his intelligence. But along with that, he was known for the Nine Gems in his court. One of the nine gems was Birbal, a quick witted and extremely intelligent man. The stories of his wit were widely popular.

Once a king ruling in a distant land heard of Birbal. To check his wit, he sent an invitation and called him to visit his land. Akbar allowed Birbal to go and he took off on the journey.

Upon reaching that kings kingdom, he was welcomed with flowers. He was then escorted to the palace of the king. Upon entering the palace, Birbal found that there were six people sitting in front of him adorning the same robe. They were also lookalike and it was hard to judge who the real king was.

After a couple of minutes, Birbal approached one of them and bowed in front of him greeting him.

That was the real king. How did Birbal know who was the real king ?

In the attached figure, you can see a chessboard and two rooks placed on the chess board. What you have to find is the number of squares that do not contain the rooks. How many are there?

The teacher told the student that if he told a lie then he will be expelled from school and if he told the truth then he still is expelled from school.

What can a student say to prevent his being expelled from school?

Can you solve this amazing hard number series problem?
7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18 ?