Questions tagged [optimization]
A puzzle where you have to optimize a certain objective function (maximize profit, minimize cost). There should ideally be a provable best answer, to avoid making the puzzle into an [open-ended] game.
1,106 questions
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The Emperor’s Magic Trick: The Omnipotent Compass
This is a follow up question to my previous question: The Emperor’s Command: All Roads Lead to Rome, because our emperor wants more!
The Emperor was pleased that all roads led to Rome, but his thirst ...
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The Emperor’s Command: All Roads Lead to Rome
This is follow-up question to All (red and blue) roads lead to Rome
Eight cities lie in a kingdom, with Rome at the center of power.
Every morning, the Emperor shouts a sequence of colors from his ...
- 36.6k
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Two hunters and 1 rabbit in bushes in a circle
We have two hunters and 10 bushes (In a circle). There is also a single bunny, which moves to an adjacent location each turn.
In how many tries will the hunters successfully kill the bunny?
...
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The Calabash Calculator
You are introduced to the Calabash Calculator, which supports the following operations:
The four basic arithmetic operations, + - × ÷
The six comparison operators, ...
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Twilly Twonka loves powers of Two
Twilly Twonka, just like his famous cousin, has a chocolate factory, where he produces n types of chocolates. Every year, he invites kids from around the world to share his chocolates with them. In ...
- 28.6k
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Minimum matchsticks to form all rectangles up to 7x7
Follow up question to Fewest matches to make 7 squares
You have an unlimited supply of identical matchsticks. You can place them on a flat surface along the lines of a square lattice (forming ...
- 36.6k
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Fewest matches to make 7 squares
What is the fewest number of matches needed to make 7 squares: 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 and 7x7? The matches are identical and the squares are allowed to overlap.
Puzzle inspired by this sequence. ...
5
votes
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All African Countries Triangled
This puzzle is the new series after
All United States Circled
All Europe Countries Segmented
You are given the following map of Africa:
And the following list of 54 African ...
- 8,859
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3
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Race through the city of circular roads
Bose had fun touring the city of circular roads with Anita. Remember the rules? Every road is a circle and no sharp turns are allowed: at any transversal intersection, you continue going along the ...
- 28.6k
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Revisiting "Switch The Knights"
This is a follow-up question to the good old puzzle Switch The Knights:
Envoys from two rival kingdoms meet face-to-face in a very narrow
corridor of a neutral castle. The corridor is a grid exactly ...
- 36.6k
5
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Maximum Board Coverage: One of Every Chess Piece
I am trying to find the maximum number of squares that can be threatened on a standard chessboard using exactly one of each chess piece.
You have exactly 6 pieces of the same color:
1 King
1 Queen
1 ...
- 36.6k
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All United States Circled
You are given the following map of US:
And the 48 US states without Alaska and Hawaii:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
...
- 8,859
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Control every square on the board with as few duplicate pieces as possible
I like the puzzle How many Chess Pieces are needed to control every square on the board? No Piece Restriction asked 11 years ago.
Here is a variant
Control every square on the board and use as few ...
- 8,859
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Shortest Tour from a Rainbow Chess Piece
The Rainbow Chess Piece is defined as a Chess Piece that initially is a Queen and transforms to the next piece every time it moves in this order:
Queen, King (ladies first!), Rook, Bishop, Knight, ...
- 8,859
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An ant crawling on a square donut
This puzzle takes place on the following square donut:
This object consists of eight unit cubes fused into a single ring. (Or, if you prefer, you can also think of it as a 3×3×1 box with a 1×1 hole ...
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