IRC Building Sciences Group Recruitment Process, Interview Questions & Answers

Q: A man has a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. He must cross a river with the two animals and the cabbage. There is a small rowing-boat, in which he can take only one thing with him at a time. If, however, the wolf and the goat are left alone, the wolf will eat the goat. If the goat and the cabbage are left alone, the goat will eat the cabbage. How can the man get across the river with the two animals and the cabbage?

Q: A hare and a tortoise have a race along a circle of 100 yards diameter. The tortoise goes in one directionand the hare in the other. The hare starts after the tortoise has covered 1/5 of its distance and that too leisurely.The hare and tortoise meet when the hare has covered only 1/8 of the distance. By what factor should the hareincrease its speed so as to tie the race?

Q: There are two balls touching each other circumferencically. The radius of the big ball is 4 times the diameter of the small all. The outer small ball rotates in anticlockwise direction circumferencically over the bigger one at the rate of 16 rev/sec. The bigger wheel also rotates anticlockwise at N rev/sec. What is 'N' for the horizontal line from the centre of small wheel always is horizontal.

Q: There are 3 clans in an island - The Arcs who never lie, the Dons who always lie and the Slons who lie alternately with the truth. Once a tourist meets 2 guides who stress that the other is a Slon. They proceed on a tour and see a sports meet. The first guide says that the prizes have been won in the order Don, Arc, Slon. The other says that, the order is Slon, Don, Arc. (the order need not be exact). To which clan did each of the guides and the players belong? ...

Q: 3 policemen and 3 thieves had to cross a river using a small boat. Only two can use the boat for a trip. All the 3 policemen and only 1 thief knew to ride the boat. If 2 thieves and 1 policeman were left behind they would kill him. But none of them escaped from the policemen. How would they be able to cross the river?

Q: 36 people {a1, a2, ..., a36} meet and shake hands in a circular fashion. In other words, there are totally 36 handshakes involving the pairs, {a1, a2}, {a2, a3}, ..., {a35, a36}, {a36, a1}. Then size of the smallest set of people such that the res...

Q: There is a room with a door (closed) and three light bulbs. Outside the room there are three switches, connected to the bulbs. You may manipulate the switches as you wish, but once you open the door you can't change them. Identify each switch with its bulb.

Q: The egg vendor calls on his first customer and sells half his eggs and half an egg. To the second customer, he sells half of what he had left and half an egg and to the third customer he sells half of what he had then left and half an egg. By the way he did not break any eggs. In the end three eggs were remaining . How many total eggs he was having ?

Q: Every day a cyclist meets a train at a particular crossing .The road is straight before the crossing and both are travelling in the same direction.Cyclist travels with a speed of 10 kmph.One day the cyclist come late by 25 minutes and meets the train 5 km before the crossing.What is the speed of the train?

Q: A long, long time ago, two Egyptian camel drivers were fighting for the hand of the daughter of the sheik of Abbudzjabbu. The sheik, who liked neither of these men to become the future husband of his daughter, came up with a clever plan: a race would dete

Q: Tom has three boxes with fruits in his barn: one box with apples, one box with pears, and one box with both apples and pears. The boxes have labels that describe the contents, but none of these labels is on the right box. How can Tom, by taking only one p

Q: A vessel is full of liquid. From the vessel, 1/3rd of the liquid evaporates on the first day. On the second day 3/4th of the remaining liquid evaporates. What fraction of the volume is present at the end of the second day

Q: Raj has a jewel chest containing Rings, Pins and Ear-rings. The chest contains 26 pieces. Raj has 2 and 1/2 times as many rings as pins, and the number of pairs of earrings is 4 less than the number of rings. How many earrings does Raj have?...

Q: Consider a series in which 8 teams are participating. each team plays twice with all other teams. 4 of them will go to the semi final. How many matches should a team win, so that it will ensure that it will go to semi finals.?

Q: Jack and his wife went to a party where four other married couples were present. Every person shook hands with everyone he or she was not acquainted with. When the handshaking was over, Jack asked everyone, including his own wife, how many hands they shook?

Q: Joe started from Bombay towards Pune and her friend julie in opposite direction. they met at a point . distance traveled by joe was 1.8 miles more than that of julie.after spending some both started there way. joe reaches in 2 hours while julie in 3.5 hours.Assuming both were traveling with constant speed. What is the distance between the two cities.

Q: There are some chickens in a poultry. They are fed with corn. One sack of corn will come for 9 days. The farmer decides to sell some chickens and wanted to hold 12 chicken with him. He cuts the feed by 10% and sack of corn comes for 30...

Q: Six persons A,B,C,D,E & F went to solider cinema. There are six consecutive seats. A sits in one of the seats followed by B, followed by C and soon. If a taken one of the six seats , then B should sit adjacent to A. C should sit adjacent A or B. D should sit adjacent to A, B,or C and soon. How many possibilities are there?

Q: A is driving on a highway when the police fines him for over speeding and exceeding the limit by 10 km/hr. At the same time B is fined for over speeding by twice the amount by which A exceeded the limit. If he was driving at 35 km/hr what is the speed limit for the road?

Q: A 31" x 31" square metal plate needs to be fixed by a carpenter on to a wooden board. The carpenter uses nails all along the edges of the square such that there are 32 nails on each side of the square. Each nail is at the same distance from the neighboring nails. How many nails does the carpenter use?