The Zebra Puzzle - A Classic Logic Puzzle

The following classic zebra logic puzzle, which has manifested in many versions over the years, was reportedly developed by Albert Einstein. A claim often accompanies the puzzle that only 2 percent of the world’s population can solve it [Wikipedia].

Are you in the 2% group? Give it a try and find out.

THE PUZZLE

Five men with different nationalities and with different jobs live in consecutive houses on a street. The houses are different colors. The men have different pets and have different favorite drinks. Determine who owns a zebra and whose favorite drink is mineral water (which is one of the favorite drinks) given these clues:

1. The Englishman lives in the red house.
2. The Spaniard owns the dog.
3. Coffee is drunk in the green house.
4. The Ukrainian drinks tea.
5. The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house.
6. The Old Gold smoker owns snails.
7. Kools are smoked in the yellow house.
8. Milk is drunk in the middle house.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox.
11. Kools are smoked in the house next to the house where the horse is kept.
12. The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice.
13. The Japanese smokes Parliaments.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

First, try solving this logic puzzle before reading further and then compare your results to the answer below.  On a piece of paper (or in a spreadsheet) form a blank table as follows:

Hint: Use your Sudoku skills to solve this logic puzzle.  My Sudoku skills are rusty, however I was able to figure it out with a little trial and error.

SOLUTION

It is certainly possible not only to deduce the answers to the two questions in this logic puzzle, but to figure out a complete solution of who lives where, in what color house, keeping what pet, drinking what drink, and smoking what brand of cigarettes. Consequently, one can slowly reason incrementally the puzzles solution by considering the clues a few at a time.

The March 25, 1963 issue of Life International contained the following solution for this logic puzzle.

See the Zebra Pluzzle solution.

An interesting application of this puzzle was the development of software for solving the puzzle programmatically.  Check out Rosettacode.org for software solutions in 44 software languages.

If you enjoyed this logic puzzle, please check out Einstein’s Riddle: Riddles, Paradoxes, and Conundrums to Stretch Your Mind in our store.

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Have you tried this puzzle?  If so, please comment below (must be logged into your account) and let us know if you found it challenging!