Alden, Brent, Craig and David applied for a job that required the applicant:

- to be a high school graduate.
- to have at least two years of previous work.
- to be a veteran.
- to have satisfactory references.

One of them, who met more of the requirements than any of the others, was hired.

1) Each of the six possible pairs of requirements was met by exactly one man.
2) Alden and Brent are high school graduate.
3) Craig and David have at least two years of previous work.
4) Brent and Craig were both veterans.
5) David had satisfactory references.

Who was hired?

Brent got hired because he had three requirements, all but two previous years of experience. Label the requirements 1 2 3 4,
and look at the PAIRS of requirements 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 2-4, and 3-4.
From what we are told we know that David has 2-4 and Craig has 2-3 and Brent has 1-3. Since no pair is satisfied twice, we eliminate
3 from A, 2 from B, 4 from C, and 3 from D to get

A B C D
1 Y Y X
2 X Y Y
3 X Y Y X
4 X Y

so who could have 3-4? Only B, which also gives him 1-4,
which eliminates 1 from D, and 4 from A

A B C D
1 Y Y X X
2 X Y Y
3 X Y Y X
4 X Y X Y

The only one who can have 2 is A, so the complete puzzle is

A B C D
1 Y Y X X
2 Y X Y Y
3 X Y Y X
4 X Y X Y

Brent gets the job with three requirements.

Posted by none on 2005-12-20 22:21:55