Mip Wise Fun Puzzle

This is a collection of fun puzzles proposed to the Mip Wise community to be solved using data analytics techniques.

Most of the puzzles proposed here can be solved with logic in traditional ways, and we encourage you to do so—consider even sharing with your family and friends! However, our goal is to use data analytics as a way to exercise our ability to solve challenging real-world problems.

Solving challenging problems requires systematic approaches. When using mathematical optimization, for example, we put effort into understanding the problem (which we have to do anyway), then modeling the problem, and implementing the optimization model. We do not try to solve the problem, solving is a task for the computer.

This mindset is crucial to effectively solve real-world analytics problems, which is like solving puzzles but on a much larger scale. After all, you can certainly solve a 9X9-sudoku without a computer, but how would you solve an 81x81-sudoku?

Therefore, we love solving puzzles because:

• We love being intellectually challenged;

• Puzzles keep us sharp in solving problems;

• Most real-world problems are puzzles themselves (typically more ambiguous and complex).