Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Pirates Puzzle

I thought I will use this blog to post some good puzzles or algos that I come across. Here is my first attempt.

There are 5 pirates who jointly looted 100 gold coins. The pirate-A has 1 year of experience, the pirate-B has 2 years of experience... and the fifth pirate-E has 5 years of experience.

Below is the agreement b/w the pirates in sharing the gold coins among them.

1) Pirate E would propose an approach to share the 100 gold coins. If atleast 50% (means 50% or above) of the pirates agree on his approach, then his approach would be followed in spliting the 100 gold coins. If his proposal doesn't get the majority, then he would be killed and the next most experienced guy (ie. Pirate D) would propose his approach and all the rules apply to him as well.

2) Each of the pirate would try to get maximum number of gold coins possible.

Given this, what should the pirate-E propose so that he can save his skin by winning the majority as well as get the maximum number of gold coins?

PS: The question has a very logical answer. I will post the answer tomorrow.

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