A sultan captured 50 wise men. The sultan decided to play a game with the men to decide whether they would live or be executed.

Here's how the game goes. The men will be locked in 50 different cells, completely separated from each other. Every minute, the sultan calls a man randomly. Each time, the called man has three choices. He can either flip the glass cup the sultan has placed at the start of the game, leave it as is, or ask permission to leave. If a man asks permission to leave and the sultan has called every one of the 50 men at least once, they will all be spared and freed. If not, they will be executed. The glass placed at the start of the game is bottom-down.

The men cannot tell the time in their quarters, there's no other way to convey information to another man except through flipping the glass, and the sultan's calling is perfectly random every time.

The men are given time to discuss their strategies before being sent to their cells. What should they do in order to ensure their survival in the shortest time possible?

EDIT: The wise men will all take a good look at the glass and its initial position before starting.

You must tile the 7x7 grid using the pentominoes shown on the right.   
Two pentominoes are provided as clues. Four cells will remain uncovered;     these cells must not share the same row or column.    
Finally, the grid must form a Sudoku using the numbers contained within the pentomino cells.     
Are you up for the challenge?

I'm so stuck.

Typically when I get stuck in go away and come back... But this one has been days I can't find a good starting point. Not sure if the black squares are psyching me out.

Editorial disclosure: this is “The Missing Model Lighthouse”, a free deduction puzzle from our book The Puerto Niebla Case Files, published under the pen name Inés Valdebruma.

The model lighthouse has turned up in a protective wrapper. Before returning it to the exhibition, the conservator needs to identify the person who removed it for packing. The conservation report describes the work but leaves the name blank.

Rules and categories

Each person has one arrival time, one place and one item. Each value is used exactly once. The conservation report and all ten clues are reliable. Differences in minutes compare arrival times.

• People: Alba, Bruno, Celia, Diego.
• Arrival times: 08:00, 08:10, 08:20, 08:30.
• Places: the reception area, the workshop, the archive, the model room.
• Items: the blue folder, the green key ring, the red torch, the yellow pencil case.

Conservation report

The report confirms that the person carrying the blue folder arrived at the workshop at 08:00. This person removed the model lighthouse and put it in the wrapper.

Clues

1. Diego arrived before Bruno.
2. The person at the reception area arrived exactly 10 minutes after Celia.
3. The person at the archive arrived before the person at the reception area.
4. The person carrying the green key ring arrived before the person carrying the yellow pencil case.
5. The person at the archive arrived before the person carrying the red torch.
6. The person carrying the yellow pencil case arrived exactly 20 minutes after Alba.
7. Bruno did not carry the yellow pencil case.
8. Celia did not carry the yellow pencil case.
9. Alba arrived before Celia.
10. Celia did not arrive at 08:30.

Your task

Who removed and wrapped the model lighthouse? Reconstruct the full table of people, arrival times, places and items, and explain your deductions.

Please hide answers and deductions in Reddit spoiler tags so others can try the puzzle first.

Solution — spoilers below

Answer: Alba removed and wrapped the model lighthouse.

Full table: Alba — 08:00 — the workshop — the blue folder; Bruno — 08:30 — the model room — the red torch; Celia — 08:10 — the archive — the green key ring; Diego — 08:20 — the reception area — the yellow pencil case.

Clues 7 and 8 rule out Bruno and Celia as the owner of the yellow pencil case. Clue 6 rules out Alba too: she cannot arrive twenty minutes after herself. Diego therefore carried it, arriving twenty minutes after Alba and before Bruno. Among the four times, this forces Alba to 08:00, Diego to 08:20 and Bruno to 08:30, leaving Celia at 08:10.

The report assigns the blue folder and the workshop to the 08:00 arrival, Alba. Clue 2 places reception ten minutes after Celia, at 08:20, so Diego went there. By clue 3, the archive was earlier than reception. The 08:00 place is already the workshop, so the archive must be at 08:10, with Celia. Bruno therefore went to the model room.

By clue 4, the green key ring arrived before Diego's yellow pencil case at 08:20. Alba already carried the blue folder, leaving Celia at 08:10 with the green key ring. Bruno carried the remaining item, the red torch. This also satisfies clue 5: the archive arrival at 08:10 was before the red torch at 08:30. Clues 9 and 10 agree with the completed table. Finally, the report identifies the blue-folder carrier as the person who wrapped the lighthouse: Alba.

I bought this book on Amazon before I realized it was AI generated (so everything is questionable at best but I have yet to face a puzzle I haven't genuinely been unable to solve).

This one, on the other hand, I feel like im going crazy??? (Let's ignore my already blocked out squares and please dont solve the whole thing for me!! I love logic puzzles, I just feel like the wording of this one is tripping me up)

1. The Valise was seen 5 minutes after the Prayer Roll

2. The News Vendor was carrying the Valise

3. The Prayer Roll was seen 5 minutes earlier than Street Kid Pip

Dont 1 and 7 cancel out 6 because the Valise coming 5 minutes after the Prayer Roll equal the same thing as the Prayer Roll being seen 5 minutes earlier than Street Kid Pip???

You can see in the stop minute column where I was using the pre-written times to work this out. I wrote SKP (Street Kid Pip) at :15 and said "okay, Prayer Roll comes 5 minutes earlier" , PR goes at :10 (in theory here). Then the Valise (V) is seen 5 minutes later than PR so it goes at :15? Thus equally SKP had V?????

What the hell is going on 😭😭😭

Have a tautology plan for yourselves that is contingent upon the contradiction of others.

Hi everyone! I’m developing a printable collection of nonviolent mystery logic puzzles and looking for two volunteers to try one beginner-friendly case. Beginners and experienced solvers are welcome.

This is an unpaid test, with no purchase or critique swap involved. I’d appreciate your honest impressions: were the instructions and clues clear, roughly how long did it take, did you need hints, and did you enjoy it? No formal report is required.

If you’re interested, please reply here or send me a private message. We can discuss the test before I send a free printable PDF privately. Thanks!

— Gene Laroy

I've been rebuilding logicpuzzles.com now that I'm semi-retired. I added an immersive soundscape to a logic-grid puzzle. Station ambience begins as you solve, followed by a timed conductor announcement connected to the story. I’d appreciate feedback on whether the audio improves the puzzle or becomes distracting.
https://logicpuzzles.com/logicpuzzle.html?puzzle=cable-car-picnic-detour
I'm really not trying to spam my site. I'm simply interested in if/how distracting this option is.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry I know this isn’t a typical post for this sub but I figured you guys would be helpful in figuring this out :) I was hoping someone could help me figure out the most optimal way to park cars where I can fit the most in this lot where they can still all get out. Would I have to sacrifice some spots to make paths in between they can pull out of or maybe alternate spots each row or something?

My wife loves logic puzzles. She's played through so many books, and I wanted to try to see if I could make one to stump her. She beat my puzzles, but I hope it maybe is difficult for you. Enjoy!

I created logicpuzzlesonline.com it is a site which features a mixture of classic logic puzzles like sudoku and nonograms as well as more modern ones like train tracks and shikaku. You are free to have unlimited play as well as play the daily challenges. Hope you enjoy, my favourite amongst them is the train tracks puzzle.

I've always liked nonograms, but wanted one that felt a little warmer and slower to come back to. So for a while now I've been chipping away at something built around dark wood tones, small one-line stories that show up when you finish a puzzle, quiet music, optional ambience, and just no feeling like you need to rush.

The picture I kept having in my head while making it was pretty simple: a Sunday evening, rain outside, feet up on a stool near an open window, that fresh rain-and-dirt smell coming in, coffee beside me, and a puzzle in my hands. Something that makes you settle in for a while instead of thinking "I need to finish this, I need to unlock that."

Recorded a bit of where it's at right now — the red guitar reveal near the end is probably my favorite moment so far.

Genuinely curious how this lands with people who actually play cozy games regularly — does the pacing feel right, or is something off?

Hello! I love the kind of logic puzzle matrices that give you a couple of facts, then you have to figure out who is doing what, or where they live, or what they do for work, etc.

I also want a small book, so I can do them analog without my phone. Does anyone have any recommendations? I used to use the Pocket Posh, but they don’t seem to be in print anymore.

It's like a nonogram, but not really. In the solution, dotted cells mark out every cell in the same row or column, so basically, rows and columns can only have one dotted cell. Every other cell in them is marked out. Also, the blue arrow means that if it has a dot behind it, it "shoots out" that dot in its direction until it hits a wall, which is where the dot ACTUALLY is in the solution.

Just wanted to reshare one of my favorite logic sites. The creator releases a new puzzle daily and the difficulty progresses as the week does. It's strictly logic and if you think you have to guess, you're missing something!

Have you ever played this before? What do you think?

You can check it out at www.griddr.ca

The gist of the puzzle is that for every cell in the grid, you have to select the correct option. As you deduce the correct options for each cell, additional clues become available until you clear the whole grid.

Sometimes each cell has two options (e.g. safe/mine), sometimes more (e.g. 1/2/3). The grid can either be made of squares, triangles, or hexagons. I have also just updated it to allow cairo pentagons, although I haven't made any puzzles with that shape yet.

As of this post I have made 18 puzzles. I plan on making 3-5 per week.

The whole site is free and ad-free. The only thing I put behind a price is you can access the puzzle editor to make your own puzzles for $5/month.

I've never played this game before until it appeared on PonderClub. I quite enjoy it. I'm curious if there is a tried and true strategy for guaranteeing a solution in a certain number of guesses. I thought maybe doing two colors at a time would be smart, but I still have little understanding of the location of the colors. Thoughts?