Sarah Martinez worked as an event manager for more than ten years, but she had never faced a scheduling test like this one. She sat in her downtown office surrounded by colorful party planning catalogs and her reliable whiteboard looking at the strange request that had just come to her desk.
Five close friends – Alex Maya, Chen, Rosa, and Tyler – had come to her with an unusual birthday celebration idea. They wanted to throw a week-long birthday bash, with each person celebrating on back-to-back weekdays from Monday through Friday. But here’s where it got tricky: they’d given her a set of puzzling clues instead of just telling her their actual birthday dates.
“Think of it as a brain teaser,” Alex had said with a playful smile. “We want to see if you can work out who celebrates when based on these clues alone.”
Sarah enjoyed a good test, and this would push her logical thinking abilities.
The Puzzling Clues
The friends had left her with these interesting hints:
Clue 1: Alex celebrates his birthday exactly the same number of days before Rosa’s birthday as Maya celebrates hers after Chen’s birthday.
Clue 2: Chen has his birthday precisely two days before Tyler’s celebration.
Clue 3: Rosa blows out her birthday candles on Thursday.
With a little brainstorming Sarah was able to accurately figure out the birthdays of each friend. Can you also tell which friend celebrates birthday on which day of the week?
View the answer
Tyler cuts his cake on Monday, Alex opens his presents on Tuesday, Chen enjoys his special day on Wednesday, Rosa marks her birthday on Thursday, and Maya rounds off the week on Friday.
