Solution:

We agree that the series is quite difficult to crack and much tricky as well.

1 can be written as one (consist of 3 letters)
2 can be written as two (consist of 3 letters)
3 can be written as five (consist of 5 letters)
4 can be written as four (consist of 4 letters)
5 can be written as five (consist of 5 letters)
6 can be written as six (consist of 3 letters)

Thus the next term in the series is 3.

Solution:

Four

As the window was closed it is obvious that the six candles that were not extinguished were lit till they melted away entirely. Thus only four candles that were extinguished remain at the end.

Solution:

Tilt the barrel until the fruit juice barely touches the lip of the barrel. If the bottom of the barrel is visible then it is less than half full.If the barrel bottom is still completely covered by the fruit juice, then it is more than half full.

Solution:

Since the knife was in her hand which implies that she was planning to kill her husband "Inspector Montalbano".

Solution:

The 100th statement for sure is incorrect because it says that at least 100 of the statements are incorrect.

Suppose if that is correct, then 100 statements cannot be true.
This suggests that the 100th statement is incorrect and that the first statement is true.

Similarly 99 statements cannot be true because if they were true, then two statements would become correct i.e. the 1st and the 99th.
But the 99th statement says that at least 99 are incorrect.
This suggests that the 99th statement is incorrect and that 2ndone is true.

If we keep analyzing is the same way till the end, we will find out that only the first fifty statements are true and all the remaining ones are incorrect.

Solution:

Playing chess

Game needs two players so Brother-8 is playing chess with Brother-2

Solution:

First fill the 8 liters jug complete - 4, 8, 0
Fill the 5 liters jug with 8 liters jug - 4, 3, 5
Pour back the beer from 5 liters jug to 12 liters jug - 9, 3, 0
Pour the 3 liters from 8 liters jug to 5 liters jug - 9, 0, 3
Fill the 8 liters jug completely from 12 liters jug - 1, 8, 3
Fill the 5 liters jug from the 8 liters jug - 1, 6, 5
Pour the entire 5 liters jug back in 12 liters jug - 6, 6, 0

You have successfully split the beer into two equal parts.

Solution:

17 mins

The initial solution most people will think of is to use the fastest person as an usher to guide everyone across. How long would that take? 10 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21 mins. Is that it? No. That would make this question too simple even as a warm up question.

Let’s brainstorm a little further. To reduce the amount of time, we should find a way for 10 and 7 to go together. If they cross together, then we need one of them to come back to get the others. That would not be ideal. How do we get around that? Maybe we can have 1 waiting on the other side to bring the torch back. Ahaa, we are getting closer. The fastest way to get 1 across and be back is to use 2 to usher 1 across. So let’s put all this together.

1 and 2 go cross
2 comes back
7 and 10 go across
1 comes back
1 and 2 go across (done)

Total time = 2 + 2 + 10 + 1 + 2 = 17 mins

Solution:

The answer is very simple. All she had to do is take the fifteen cards from the top and reverse them. This would make another pile out of that and there will be two piles - one of 15 cards and one of 37 cards. Also both of them will have the same number of inverted cards.

Just think about it and if the mathematical explanation will help you understand better, here it is.
Assume that there were p inverted cards initially in the top 15 cards. Then the remaining 37 cards will hold 15-p inverted cards.
Now when she reverses the 15 cards on the top, the number of inverted cards will become 15-p and thus the number of inverted cards in both of the piles will become same.

Solution:

Fifteen Minutes.

After frying for five minutes, you can take out one steak and put the third one inside while turning the other one inside. After five more minutes, one steak is fried from both sides and you can take it out. Now put in the steak that we removed and turn the other one inside. After five more minutes, they both will also be fried from both sides.

Solution:

Solution can be verified from the picture below.