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Guess Who

Guess Who is binary search with faces. Experts ask questions that eliminate ~50% of remaining characters and track feature correlations.

Quick winning principles

  • Ask about features shared by roughly half the remaining characters.
  • Prioritize hair color and accessories — they split the board most evenly.
  • Track opponent eliminations to infer their remaining pool.
  • Never ask about a feature you've already eliminated on your board.

Ideal strategy

  1. 1

    Binary search: each question should eliminate 10-12 of 24 characters. Features with ~50% yes rate are optimal.

  2. 2

    Feature frequency: glasses (~8/24), brown hair (~10/24), hats (~6/24). Calculate remaining pool before each question.

  3. 3

    Expected value: if 12 characters remain, a 50/50 question is worth 6 eliminations. A 75/25 question is worth only 3 expected eliminations.

  4. 4

    Correlation tracking: if opponent asks about glasses early, they likely don't have glasses — narrow their pool accordingly.

  5. 5

    Endgame: with 4 or fewer characters, ask compound-feature questions if your edition allows, or guess directly when odds favor you.

  6. 6

    First question: 'Does your person have brown hair?' or 'Is your person wearing glasses?' splits most editions near 50/50.