What word is pronounced the same if you take away four of its five letters?

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 ?

Replace the question mark with the correct number, given the pair of numbers exhibits a similar relationship?

? : 3839 :: 11 : 1209

There is something which is always coming but never arrives?

We have shown you a regular water barrel as below. Without using any measuring device can you check if the barrel is more than half-filled or less than half-filled?

Thomas has missed an excessive number of days of school, so he must meet with Principal Davis. Mr. Davis asks him "Why on Earth have you missed so many days?" Thomas replies "There just isn't enough time for school. I need 8 hours of sleep a day, which adds up to about 122 days a year. Weekends off is 104 days a year. Summer vacation is about 60 days. If I spend about an hour on each meal, that's 3 hours a day or 45 days a year. I need at least 2 hours of exercise and relaxation time each day to stay physically and mentally fit, adding another 30 days. Add all of that up and you get about 361 days. That only leaves 4 days for school." The principal knows Thomas is full of it, but can't figure out why. Where is Thomas going wrong?

Create a number using only the digits 4,4,3,3,2,2,1 and 1. So i can only be eight digits. You have to make sure the ones are separated by one digit, the twos are separated by two digits the threes are separated with three digits and the fours are separated by four digits

I come in different shapes and sizes.
Parts of me are curved, other parts are straight.
You can put me anywhere you like,
but there is only one right place for me.
What am I?

If 5 cats catch 5 mice in 5 minutes, how long will it take one cat to catch a mouse?

Looking at the figure given, you will find a square formed with match sticks. This figure comprises five squares. Can you move the matchsticks such that the resulting figure consists of ten squares? Please note that you can drag the matchsticks can't rotate them and have just four moves. How will you do it?