AHA!
Puzzle This By Michael H. Pryor
MAKE’s favorite puzzles. (When you’re ready to check your answers, visit makezine.com/21/aha.)
Cake Competition
The top chefs of the world, along with their assistants, met for a competition to see who could create the
most beautiful and innovative cake flower decorations. They used their fabbers to print 5 different types
of flowers for the top of the cake: rose, violet, lily, daisy, and tulip.
The chefs (Wylie, Rocco, Wolfgang, Jamie, and Ming) had their assistants (Jacque, Jasper, Cathal, Julian,
and Laurent) fill the fabbers with cheese, cookie dough, chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel. Each group
took a different amount of time to perfect their creation ( 30 minutes, 35, 45, 50, and 55), and only 2 of the
chefs received the coveted 3-star rating from the panel of judges. Two of the other chefs got 2 stars, and
1 chef only managed to get 1 star.
Name the chefs, their assistants, how long it took them, the ingredients they used, and the type of flower
they created, along with their final star rating!
Illustration by Roy Doty
1. Ming did not create the cookie dough tulip.
2. Laurent finished in 35 minutes but got only 2 stars.
3. The 2 flowers that received 3 stars were the daisy
and the one made of peanut butter.
4. The rose (not made of cheese) was created by
Jamie (who was not Cathal’s chef).
5. Jasper did not make the tulip, but his flower was
made of chocolate.
6. The 1-star flower took 50 minutes to make, and
was not made by Wylie.
7. The violet was made of caramel.
8. Wolfgang (who didn’t work with Julian) took 55
minutes and got 2 stars.
9. Rocco and Jacque worked together and it took
them longer than 30 minutes.
10. Julian made the lily but he did not get 2 stars.
11. When all 5 flowers were placed on the judges’
table, the following groups stood behind their
creations: Ming at one, the team that took 45
minutes at another, Cathal at another, the chefs
who used chocolate at another, and the creators
of the lily behind another.
Michael Pryor is the co-founder and president of Fog Creek Software. He runs a technical interview site at techinterview.org.
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