So, the trick of the question is : none of the 12 cousins may not get equal number of candies, though , by common tendency, I divided the candies among the 12 cousins equally.

@sandy,can you please explain an approach to solve this question?

sandy, can you please explain an approach to solve this question?

Maribel + 12 cousins = 13 people.

There are 60 candies to be divided among 13 people and although the question says that the distribution doesn't have to be uniform, we are going to begin with trying to give each person equal candies at first and we'll do that by :

60 /13, which gives us 52 with a quotient of 4, with a remainder 8.

Hence, it's clear that all 13 people would get at least 4 candies. Now, we are left with 8 more candies that we can distribute among Maribel and 7 of her cousins, which makes it 5 candies with 8 people, while the rest of them still have 3.

According to the question, Maribel is supposed to have the more number of candies than everyone else, and yet, we are supposed to find the LEAST number of candies with her, that satisfies the condition.

And so, if Maribel has one more candy (4+1+1 = 6), she will have more than the rest, because then, her cousins would only have 5 and 4 candies.

Carcass, thank you for explanation. How to determine under time constraint that Maribel can have not more than 1 candy compared to other cousins? Can the remaining 8 candies be given to Maribel and not distributed to other cousins?

The worst thing to do is to think all these implications and nuances.

You must think how to solve a question efficiently. if you take a bit more time is not a huge problem.

If you think like this, then as soon as a different number or variation will be before your eyes, you will get lost.

you are trying to envision and predict every possible pattern. Thi sis impossible.

This test is a reasoning test when you are in that precise moment.

let me give you an example: in the movie Inception, Mr Cobb (Di Caprio) planned everything for the inception but as soon as they were in the 5th level, an unforeseen situation came up.

The architect replied as the follow

https://youtu.be/DHRqWoveMF0?t=32

Improvising

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