King and his Elephants | Puzzles for Interview - Interview Preparation PDF Download

Introduction

This puzzle is about a king who dies and leaves an agreement to divide his elephants among his three sons.
The puzzle requires solving the proportions of elephants that each son will receive without leaving any elephant behind.

The Puzzle

The king's agreement states that the first son will receive half of the elephants. 
The second son will receive three-fourths of the remaining elephants after the first son gets his share. 
The third son will receive half of the remaining elephants after the second son gets his share. 
The total number of elephants is 15.

Solution

To solve this puzzle, we can add one more imaginary elephant to make the total number of elephants 16. This will make it easier to divide the elephants among the three sons.
First, the first son gets half of the elephants, which is 8 elephants. 
Now, there are 8 elephants remaining. The second son gets three-fourths of the remaining elephants, which is 6 elephants. 
Now, there are 2 elephants remaining. The third son gets half of the remaining elephants, which is 1 elephant. 
The imaginary elephant is the one left behind, which means that all the 15 real elephants have been divided according to the proportions mentioned in the agreement.

Conclusion

This puzzle required a simple solution of adding an imaginary elephant to make the division easier. It is a good exercise to sharpen your mathematical skills and logical thinking.