I can sizzle like bacon,
I am made with an egg,
I have plenty of backbone, but lack a good leg,
I peel layers like onions, but still remain whole,
I can be long, like a flagpole, yet fit in a hole.

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 ?

I am the largest in my family of fifty.
The youngest of our family lives separately from the rest of the family and so do I.
I am regarded as harsh and tough.
I am so large, you cut me in two equal halves,
each half would still be larger than the second largest member of the family.
Who am I?

Find the next number in the series?
2, 12, 36, 80, 150, 252, 392, _ ?

If you were to put a coin into an empty bottle and then insert a cork into the neck, how could you remove the coin without taking out the cork or breaking the bottle?

A dead body is found outside a multi-story multinational company. The case is reported and a homicide detective is called on the crime scene.

He looks at the body and then towards the building. From the position of the body, it is evident that the victim committed suicide. He goes to the first floor of the building and then walks in the direction of the dead body, opens the window and toss a coin in the air.

He goes to second floor and again repeats the process. He keeps doing this till he is done on all the floors. Then he returns back to the floor and tells his team that it is a murder.

How in heaven did he deduce that?

One day, I thought of ways that can be used for creating a palindrome. So I decided that I will turn into a larger number by adding the reversed digits to the original number and keep doing it till I finally obtained a palindrome.

I am not sure if this process will always result in a palindrome eventually but I was able to produce a four-digit palindrome. Can you guess my starting number?

A time long back, there lived a king who ruled the great kingdom of Trojan House. As a part of the renovation of the kingdom to meet future security needs, he asked his chief architect to lay down a new play in a manner that all of his 10 castles are connected through five straight walls and each wall must connect four castles together. He also asked the architect that at least one of his castles should be protected with walls. The architect could not come up with any solution that served all of King's choices, but he suggested the best plan that you can see in the picture below. Can you find a better solution to serve the king's demand?

How can you make number one disappear by adding something to it?

I never was there, I am always to be.
You have never ever seen me, not ever you will.
Yet I am the confidence of everyone.

Who Am I?