Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet. Idea is to use an external object as the "witness" to arrive at consensus.
Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
31–40 of 99 posts
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#32Is this supposed to be difficult? Without reading ahead...
First message (main puzzle type):
"Let's send each other 'red' or 'blue' at random. The first time we send the same color, our next move is to end the game and announce that color. Send 'yes' as your next message if you agree to this strategy."
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#33These seem like they would be pretty simple for anyone that has studied some networking …
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#34This is why Oxbridge admissions are a bit of a crap shoot. What they're really after is whether you can keep thinking and not be intimidated into silence. Just about any subject that a professor understands can be taken to where a high school graduate is stumped. You can always add twists to just about anything interesting. They key is to realise they are testing whether you'll interact well, not whether you can figu…
When it comes to programming puzzle interviews I went through a similar sort of realization, there is a baseline level of knowledge about algos/design/experience, but beyond some point it seemed to be about how well I could explain my way through a problem. For a problem which I didn’t know off the bat I had to talk with the interviewer to eventually get to a working solution. A *huge* part of that is about not losing my cool, about not getting into a mental headspace of being stuck.
Interestingly, the less I need a particular job opportunity the more comfortable I have been with these probing conversations.
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#35These puzzles would make horrible college admissions tests. They hardly qualify as interview questions. This typpe of problem is nearly impossible for folks that have never heard a similar test and nearly trivial for someone who has heard ~3 like it.
They're a little bit pretentious, I'd agree - but handy to see how somebody thinks.
(I'd never heard of "2 generals" before - so had a fun "Oh that", "Noo, then that doesn't", "Maybe if I ask on reply?".. nope..)
My guess is that 'impossible problems' either pick up on people who know "Oh that's the 2 generals problem" (gold star) or can quickly cycle through ideas and then pick up on the shortcomings as they mentally explore. Maybe A+ if they can explain why it's impossible, A if they say it is, D- if come up with something that doesn't work.
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#36Is this supposed to be difficult? Without reading ahead... First message (main puzzle type): "Let's send each other 'red' or 'blue' at random. The first time we send the same color, our next move is to end the game and announce that color. Send 'yes' as your next message if you agree to this strategy."
And what would you do if you then received the following message?
"Let's send each other 'purple' or 'green' at random. The first time we send the same color, our next move is to end the game and announce that color. Send 'yes' as your next message if you agree to this strategy."
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#37These puzzles would make horrible college admissions tests. They hardly qualify as interview questions. This typpe of problem is nearly impossible for folks that have never heard a similar test and nearly trivial for someone who has heard ~3 like it.
Especially so in a pressured time-limited scenario. Its almost like asking them to play chess. If you play chess and studied then opening moves you are at a massive advantage.
So it becomes a test of preparedness and ruthlessness. The winner is the one who finds out what the questions are and studies them. Or studies enough IQ stuff to get through.
Its leetcode basically.
Not sure what the solution is. I think additional on topic exams you study for and have past papers would be better.
I didnt apply for oxbridge because of this extra pressure. My worry was id screw up the bread and butter of the a levels with the extra study needed for this kind of test.
Being an interview scenario too means you need to act. I was shy but very passionate about maths. A London college gave me feedback I wasn’t passionate about maths and should consider another course. Based in half an hour with me.
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#38This is a fun problem. There’s a squirrel catcher to get over in recognizing the symmetry problem and then there’s all kinds of ideas to explore.
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#39Is this supposed to be difficult? Without reading ahead... First message (main puzzle type): "Let's send each other 'red' or 'blue' at random. The first time we send the same color, our next move is to end the game and announce that color. Send 'yes' as your next message if you agree to this strategy."
The problem is there is no “us” here. The other contestant does not know the strategy in advance.
This problem is a variation of the distributed consensus problem in computer science. The canonical solutions (Paxos, Raft, et al) are non-trivial and there are unsolved corner cases. In short - this is problem where they are looking at your approach to problem solving rather than the solution itself.
Re: Coming to Agreement, a logic puzzle for Oxford admissions interviews
#40Is this supposed to be difficult? Without reading ahead... First message (main puzzle type): "Let's send each other 'red' or 'blue' at random. The first time we send the same color, our next move is to end the game and announce that color. Send 'yes' as your next message if you agree to this strategy."
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