Analyzing password clues
Okay, so the problem gives us four guesses, and Sroan says each guess has exactly two digits correctly placed, and they are not adjacent to each other. Each guess offers critical clues, and the task is to figure out the 7-digit password with distinct digits.
The digits of the password (a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7) are drawn from the four guesses and don't repeat.
I'll break down the positioning clues from each guess one by one to figure out which digits match while respecting the adjacency rule.
Breaking down the guesses
Alright, we have four guesses, each providing exactly two digits in the correct positions, with the additional rule that these correct positions are not adjacent.
I’m carefully analyzing each guess, comparing it to the possible password positions, and making sure the non-adjacency rule holds.
So for each guess (Guess #1 to Guess #4), we check the positions where two digits are correct and not next to each other. I'll now carefully cross-check these insights against all the other guesses to find the password that fits all conditions.
Looking into column matches
Alright, I’m analyzing each column to find possible matches that satisfy the condition of having two correct digits in non-adjacent positions.
For column 5, both guesses 3 and 4 have the digit 9, making it a candidate for being correct if they share this position.
I’ll continue to check each column to see if there are any others that might allow consistent matching within the non-adjacency and exact position rules. For now, column 5 looks like it could be a consistent position across guesses.
Finalizing position matches
Alright, I’m carefully considering the non-adjacency and correctness of positions for each guess, with the constraint that digits must be unique. For each guess, I’ve narrowed down valid positions based on the remaining possibilities.
- For guess 1 and 2, I’m testing positions from {2, 3, 4, 6, 7} for exact matches.
- For guess 3 and 4, the non-adjacent rule limits possible additional correct positions to {1, 2, 3, 7}.
Now, I’ll check which configurations of positions from these sets yield valid and consistent answers when combined across all guesses.
Final position analysis
After looking at all the positions and applying the constraints, each position from {1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7} is assigned exactly once in the correct guesses, with no overlap, except for p5 which we've already set as 9.
To satisfy the non-adjacency constraint, I've narrowed down the options for each guess and assigned positions to avoid conflicts. G3 and G4 extra both draw from {1,2,3,7}, ensuring that all positions align with the correct digits and the non-adjacency condition is maintained. Now, we can finalize whether the remaining guesses accept all these assignments.
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Reasoned about password puzzle logic for 54 seconds