There are four prisoners in a line with a brick wall separating them to three and one. They are wearing alternative coloured black and white hats, but they do not know this. They only see ahead of them - which prisoner can solve the colour of their hat?

Let the prisoners be named: A(black); WALL; B(white), C(black), D(white)

The middle prisoner in the row of three must know the colour of their hat.

D can see A and B but cannot work out the colour of their hat.

Neither A nor B can see the colour of anyone else's hat.

As D does not say anything, they will all know that B and C are wearing different colour hats. C can see the colour of B's hat and will know they have the other coloured hat.

SG

Related Oxbridge Preparation Mentoring answers

All answers ▸

What's the most important thing to prepare before my interviews?


If full employment real interest rates are determined by investment (the demand for loanable funds) and savings (supply of loanable funds), is there any reason to suppose that there is a lower bound on real interest rates?


Cambridge Law Test: Who benefits from freedom of speech? Who loses?


How can I prepare for a Modern Languages interview at Oxford?