Sunday Times Teaser 3344 – Wining and Dying

by BRG on 25 October 2026

by Henry C Warburton

Published Sunday October 25 2026 (link)

You are a king with 15 wine barrels in your cellar. You know that exactly one of the barrels contains a lethal poison, but you do not know which. On day one you give some wine (or none) to each of your four wine tasters. Any who took poison will be dead by the next day. The trouble is that you cannot tell the tasters apart, so if any of them do die you cannot be certain what wine it was you gave them. On day two you observe how many are still alive and can repeat the process with them, carrying on until you have identified the poisoned barrel.

On which day can you be absolutely certain which is the poisoned wine?

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BRG permalink

I credit Jim Randell for this solution as I would have struggled to solve this without his analysis.


ef max_barrels(days, tasters, d={}):
  # If no days or tasters remain
  if days == 0 or tasters == 0:
    return 1
  if (days, tasters) in d:
    return d[days, tasters]

  # There are mutiple tastings on each day involving different
  # groups of barrels.  Arrange the groups such that when <d> 
  # tasters drink from a group exactly <d> will die. Then look 
  # at how many barrels we can safely narrow down with the
  # remaining tasters and days.
  total_barrels = 0
  for t in range(tasters + 1):
    total_barrels += max_barrels(days - 1, tasters - t, d)

  d[days, tasters] = total_barrels
  return total_barrels

# Evaluate the capacity day by day for 4 tasters
for day in range(1, 5):
  if max_barrels(day, 4) >= 15:
    # wait for any possible deaths
    print(f"The poisined barrel is found on or before day {day + 1}.")
    break

ef max_barrels(days, tasters, d={}):

# If no days or tasters remain

if days == 0 or tasters == 0:

return 1

if (days, tasters) in d:

return d[days, tasters]

# There are mutiple tastings on each day involving different

# groups of barrels. Arrange the groups such that when <d>

# tasters drink from a group exactly <d> will die. Then look

# at how many barrels we can safely narrow down with the

# remaining tasters and days.

total_barrels = 0

for t in range(tasters + 1):

total_barrels += max_barrels(days - 1, tasters - t, d)

d[days, tasters] = total_barrels

return total_barrels

# Evaluate the capacity day by day for 4 tasters

for day in range(1, 5):

if max_barrels(day, 4) >= 15:

# wait for any possible deaths

print(f"The poisined barrel is found on or before day {day + 1}.")

break

Sunday Times Teaser 3344 – Wining and Dying

by Henry C Warburton

Published Sunday October 25 2026 (link)

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