A and B are playing the game of bulls and cows. The rules of the game are as follows.

A selects a word with distinct letters and B has to find it. B is allowed a maximum of ten guesses. After every guess A tells B the number of Bulls and Cows in the word.

Bulls are letters which appear in the correct location, and cows are letters which appear, but not in their correct location

For example, if A selects a word BOLD while B guesses LOUD. Then A's reply would be 2 Bulls and 1 Cow.(O and D are in the correct place while L is not). Note that A only tells the number of Bulls and Cows. He does not tells which ones are cows and bulls.

A selected a six letter word. The game proceeded as follows:

1. FRIEND - 0 Bulls, 2 Cows
2. SQUARE - 0 Bulls, 2 Cows
3. GROUND - 0 Bulls, 3 Cows
4. FORMAT - 1 Bull, 0 Cows
5. TRAVEL - 1 Bull, 1 Cow
6. FORMAL - 0 Bulls, 0 Cows
7. FLIGHT - 2 Bulls, 0 Cows
8. SYMBOL - 0 Bulls, 1 Cow
9. FIGURE - 0 Bulls, 3 Cows


What is A's word?

(Assume that A's word is a valid English word and has 6 distinct letters.)

I like this puzzle. I got BUDGET for a solution but I'm not positive that's the only answer. It does fit all the clues though.

Posted by lauren on 2005-03-01 14:47:12