Replace the question mark with the correct number in the below-given picture?

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?

Mr. Buttons was all set to go to the village of Buttonland to meet his friend. So, he packed his bags and left for the village at 5 in the morning. Upon travelling on a road for miles, he came across a point where the road diverged into two. He was confused on which road to take. He gazed around and he saw two owls sitting on a branch. He thought he could ask for directions for the village from the two owls. So he went to the tree. There he saw a sign which read, "One owl always lies, and one is always truthful. They both fly away if you ask them more than 1 question."
Mr. Buttons was caught in the dilemma of what to ask? And from which owl to ask, since he only had one question. What should Mr. Buttons ask?

John is pretty weird. He likes toffees but hates chocolates. He loves books but never reads. He likes to build his troops in an online game but does not proceed with the war. He likes to go swimming but is afraid of water.

Seeking this behaviour, can you tell whether he likes balloons and parties?

Five teams were competing in cricket where they faced each other exactly once. After the tournament, the following is the point table.

DareDevils 6
SuperKings 5
Royals 4
Sunrisers 2
Riders ?

How many points did Riders end up with?

There are 2 sand hourglasses.

The small one can measure 5 hours and the large one can measure 7 hours.

How can we measure 16 hours with 2 sand hourglasses running together ?

Alpha is Beta's sister.

Gamma is a Beta mother.

Delta is Gamma's father.

Tango is Delta's mother.

Then,

How is Alpha related to Delta?

I purchased an awesome ice cream cone having 5 different flavour scoops.
Five flavours are pistachio, mint-chip, strawberry, marshmallow, and raspberry

I will give u some clues so that you can figure out the order of flavours from bottom to top.
1. The bottom flavour of the cone has 10 letters.
2. The marshmallow scoop is between the pistachio and the mint-chip scoop.
3. marshmallow is the raspberry scoop but below the mint-chip scoop.

So can you figure out the flavour of ice cream in order from bottom to top?

Four people need to cross a rickety bridge at night. Unfortunately, they have only one torch and the bridge is too dangerous to cross without one. The bridge is only strong enough to support two people at a time. Not all people take the same time to cross the bridge. Times for each person: 1 min, 2 mins, 7 mins and 10 mins. What is the shortest time needed for all four of them to cross the bridge?

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