Riddle Me This...
You are a geek, if for no other reason than reading this post. That's right, I said it. You're a geek, a nerd, a brainiac, and every other name in the book that was meant to be derogatory, yet you secretly embrace. Time to renew your geek license, buddy!
Prove Yourself.
Sure, you can quote Star Trek lines, recite the Quadratic Equation, and monitor at least a hundred applications on your network, all without breaking a sweat. So what? All that proves is that you have a decent memory and SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor installed! Let's see if you've still got what it takes to be called a geek. Is your brain still running in high gear? We shall see.
The challenge, if you choose to accept, is to solve a riddle. This riddle has two variations and I will present them both to you. (Cheating is always an option, but really, you'll just be cheating yourself.)
The Scoring
- Answer the easy variation correctly, and you get your geek license renewed.
- Answer the harder variation correctly, then you will be awarded your geek license for life!
- Answer both variations correctly, then you should apply to Mensa and ask for a raise because you're really bright!
The Riddle of Riddles
My eleventh grade trigonometry teacher told the class this riddle (Difficult Variation) ages ago. We were stupified! Simply comprehending the correct answer gave us a headache back then. So, as a gift, I offer you my headache. It goes something like this:
In ye olden days, a king had captured a strange man he believed to be dangerous. To have the man prove himself, the king ordered the stranger to be placed in a dungeon. In the dungeon, there were two doors. Behind one door was freedom. Behind the other door was a dragon, which meant certain death. Guarding each door was a single guard. One guard lied, the other did not. The guards knew which one of them lied and which door was which; however, the stranger knew none of this. All the strange man knew was that one of the two doors led to freedom and that one of the two guards lied.
Easy Variation:
As the stranger, you are allowed to ask each guard one question. The guards can only answer, Yes or No. What are the two questions you need to ask in order to leave the room safely?
Difficult Variation (Headache Version):
As the stranger, you are allowed to ask one guard one question. The guard can only answer, Yes or No. What is the one question you need to ask in order to leave the room safely?
Note: Both variations are independent of one another, meaning you do not need to get the correct answer to one in order to solve the other.
Postscript
Since you're probably using NPM for monitoring your network, SAM for monitoring your applications, and WPM for monitoring web performance, you will probably have a great deal of free time to think on the answer (as opposed to troubleshooting your network issues). That said, I will not give you the answer to either riddle; however, if someone get's it correct and then posts their answer as a comment, I will comment on the answers.
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