Einstein's Riddle

Question posted in Computer Software on 06 2010
Rate question difficulty level 0 Votes
There are 5 houses in 5 different colors in a row.
In each house lives a man with a different nationality.
The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet.
No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.
Other facts:
1. The British person lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green homeowner drinks coffee.
6. The man who smokes Pall Mall keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.
Question: Who owns the fish?

(I take no credit for this question, I was able to solve it however in about 30 minutes, so I think it would make a good interview question, assuming that Einstein was quoted correctly as having stated that only 2% of the population would be able to answer it, and if he did state that, also assuming that he was correct. It shows the ability to work through a problem logically, and if the interviewee came prepared or not. I used 6 pieces of paper and a pen, which is something everyone going to an interview should have with them.)
 
 
6 Answers
 
The German owns the fish.

Here's all the info, listing the houses from left to right:
Yellow: Norwegian, Dunhill, Water, Cats
Blue: Dane, Blends, tea, horse
Red: Brit, Pall Mall, milk, birds
Green: German, Prince, Coffee, fish
White: Swede, Bluemasters, Beer, Dogs

06/21/2010
 
 
for more information on this riddle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_Puzzle

06/21/2010
 
 
Nice puzzle, but I don't see why it would be a good interview question. The only thing this tells me about the applicant is that they can solve a puzzle. It doesn't even tell me that they are capable of using generalized rational thought.

06/24/2010
 
 
Green: Norwegian Bird Coffee PallMall 1st
Blue German Cat Water Prince 2nd
Red: British Horse Milk Blend 3rd
Yellow: Dane Fish Tea Dunhill 4th
White Swede Dog Beer BlueMaster 5th

06/26/2010
 
 
It took me 10 minutes to solve it, but it's like giving your interviewee to solve a medium-difficulty Sudoku game - I don't see how solving Sudoku has anything to do with abilities as a programmer.

I guess you won't say that if you don't know how to solve a sudoku that you are less a developer than someone who can solve it, right?

12/14/2010
 
 
took 15 minutes and 1/2 piece of paper, ended up with the German owning the fish

03/02/2011
 
 
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