Puzzles to Puzzle You — 150 short puzzles by mental-math legend Shakuntala Devi — is often the first puzzle book candidates from India encounter, and it keeps appearing on quant prep lists. The honest assessment: it is a lovely warm-up with partial overlap to what interviews test.
What transfers
- Number sense and speed. Digit puzzles, age problems, and quick-arithmetic setups exercise the muscle behind mental-math screens like Optiver's 80-in-8.
- Constraint reasoning. The logic puzzles (truth-tellers, weighing setups) are direct ancestors of interview brain teasers — the twelve-balls weighing family lives in both worlds.
- Comfort with tricks. Devi's puzzles reward spotting the elegant reframe — the same instinct Mosteller trains for probability.
What doesn't
The book predates the quant industry: no probability depth, no expected value, no games, no statistics — the topics that dominate actual loops. Its arithmetic puzzles also skew toward cute closed forms rather than the timed, negatively-marked formats real OAs use. Treat it as recreation with benefits, not as prep.
An efficient path for puzzle-lovers
If Devi's style hooks you: her book for enjoyment → Mosteller for probability reasoning → the brain-teaser bank (17 free, fully solved) and probability bank (113 free) for interview-shaped versions → firm funnels when interviews are scheduled. Each step keeps the puzzle joy and adds the interview relevance.
Frequently asked questions
Is Puzzles to Puzzle You good for quant interview prep?
As a warm-up, yes — its logic and number puzzles train constraint reasoning and speed. But it contains no probability, expectation, or statistics, which dominate real quant loops, so it cannot be your main preparation.
Which puzzle book is best for quant interviews?
Mosteller's Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability transfers most directly — several of its problems are still asked verbatim. Devi's book is a lighter companion; interview-shaped practice with full solutions does the heavy lifting.
Do interviews still ask classic logic puzzles?
Occasionally — weighing puzzles, river crossings, and truth-teller setups appear as warm-ups, especially in trading interviews. The staple content, though, is probability and expected value.
Where can I practice puzzle-style questions with solutions?
QuantVault's brain-teaser and probability banks include the classic puzzle families with complete worked solutions — about 400 problems free.
Practice the real thing
QuantVault has 2,800+ quant interview problems with full solutions, intuition, and hints, firm-by-firm interview funnels, and an auto-graded coding judge. Start free.