Here is a list of words:
(i) Each of the three logicians was told one letter of a certain word, so that each logician knew only one of the letters and so that no two logicians knew the same letter.
(ii) The logicians were then told their three letters could be arranged to spell one of the words in the list above.
(iii) When each logician was asked in turn, “Do you know which word the letters spell?,” the first logician answered, “Yes,” then the second logician answered, “Yes,” and then the third logician answered, “Yes”.
Which word did the letters spell?
The first logician had to have one of :H,R,P,D,V
to identify one of : HOE, OAR, PAD, VAT
The second had to have one of : E, P, D or T,
so he could identify one of : VAT, PAD or HOE.
The third one had to have the letter O in HOE.
Then the first one had the letter H, the second
the letter E.
Note : For the first logician letters O,E,A,T were excluded because their repeat counts were > 1. For the second logician he identified the possible words based on the YES answer of the first. Since he answered YES, this eliminated the letters A and O for him, and the words VAT, PAD and OAR, leaving the letter O and word HOE. The third logician based on two YES responses should have been able to identify the word without looking at the letter in his possession (the letter O)
Solution to problem
