14

What would be the next digit that follows these numbers?

1, 11, 20, 30, 7, 49, 42, 23, 3, ?

Just so it's clear, you won't need any mathematics to solve this at all! In fact, everything you need is here.

Xenocacia
  • 7,179
  • 2
  • 22
  • 54
  • so no math or lateral thinking needed? hmmm... – stack reader Nov 11 '16 at 08:47
  • 2
    A little thinking outside the box is definitely required, but I left off the 'lateral thinking' tag to discourage answers like "this sequence is the number of footsteps needed to cover the width of a soccer field in New South Wales!". – Xenocacia Nov 11 '16 at 08:52
  • When you say next digit are you saying the next number is one digit or you want the first digit of the next number (which may be 10 or more)? – boboquack Nov 11 '16 at 09:01
  • 2
    I'm pretty sure I've solved it, but that there is a 42 missing between 49 and 23. – Jonathan Allan Nov 11 '16 at 09:02
  • 1
    @JonathanAllan, thank you for spotting that error, and damn that was quick! – Xenocacia Nov 11 '16 at 09:06

3 Answers3

23

I think the answer is

68

Because

If you read only the alphabetic characters of the question each number in the sequence is the first occurrence of a letter ordered by the alphabet:
A is first found at index 1 - Asimple...
B is first found at index 11 - ...numB...
C is first found at index 20 - ...ersequenCe...
D is first found at index 30 - ...whatwoulD...
E is first found at index 7 - asimplE...
F is first found at index 49 - ...nextdigitthatF...
G is first found at index 42 - ...nextdiGitthat...
H is first found at index 23 - ...sequencewHatwould...
I is first found at index 3 - asImple...
...and
J is first found at index 68 - ...thatfollowsJustsoitsclear...

Jonathan Allan
  • 21,150
  • 2
  • 58
  • 109
4

I would say it's

68: The position of the first occurrence of the letter J.

Levieux
  • 10,528
  • 1
  • 38
  • 77
1

Here is an attempt.

If it is a simple number sequence and everything we need is here and no math is needed.
Perhaps it is just that, 1 full complete sequence of number.
That would mean that the next number would be "1" since the first sequence if over and we start a new loop.
For example, if we say 4,1,3,4,1,3,? then the answer is 4

stack reader
  • 9,830
  • 1
  • 27
  • 77