The ‘Harvard University’ brainteaser that 90% of people fail – can YOU solve it?
A brain teaser reportedly used during job interviews at Harvard University has been found to be a mystery to 90 percent of participants.
The image, which was shared on social media, shows the university’s stationery with a math problem written on it in red and black ink.
The question is: If there are seven men with seven wives, and each man and each woman has seven children, what is the total number of people?
But unlike most brain teasers, this one has two answers.
The image shows what people claim is part of Harvard University’s application process
The interview puzzle first appeared online in 2021, but has since reappeared online, puzzling a different group of players who have given different answers.
The answers ranged from 21 to as many as 448 people. One person even indicated that the number of answers could have been much higher. He mentioned 700 people, but gave no reason for this.
“This is all wordplay,” one person commented on the post. “There are multiple answers and no answer is wrong unless you get the math wrong.
According to one user, it depends on how you interpret the question. If every man has one wife, the correct answer is 63. But if you look at it from the perspective of every man having seven wives, the answer is 392.
“This is ambiguous, and I think that’s the point,” one user said, adding, “But let’s say there are only seven couples (seven men and seven women), which is 14 people.
‘Each couple had seven children, so that’s 7×7=49 children. Add them up and you have 63 people.’
If we assume that every man has seven wives, that gives us 399 people. You multiply seven by seven to get 49 wives. Then you add that number to seven men.
If each of the 49 women has seven children, that is 343, and if each man has seven children, that is 49, which amounts to 392 people.
Mathematical brain teasers are important because they encourage people to analyze information and look at the answer from different perspectives.
It shows how they break down problems into smaller, manageable steps and whether they think outside the box.
But if you were one of the many people who got it wrong, rest assured that you are not alone.