It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.
Owen61A lot of people who get anything but 16/Jul are mis-understanding the question. Bernard doesn't tell Albert that he doesn't know; Albert works this out for himself solely from his knowledge of the month. This is crucial to the answer. Here goes:If Albert had been given May or June, he could not have been sure that Bernard didn't have 18 or 19 (and therefore have the solution). So for Albert to be sure that Bernard doesn't know, Albert must have July or August.As soon as he tells Bernard this, Bernard knows it's July or August. Bernard looks at the number he has been given and announces that he knows the exact date. He couldn't be sure if he had 14, since that appears twice. So he must have 15, 16 or 17.Once Albert knows that Bernard knows the answer, Albert comes to the same conclusion and so checks the month he has been given. If he had August, he could not be sure of the answer, since it could be 15 or 17. But he does know the answer so he must have July and therefore the day is 16.The reason the answers are long, is that the solution is complicated...
Kim, you are very bad!
Hmm, let's see: (click to show/hide)Albert knows the month, so knows that it isn't one of the dates with unique days. (This implies that the month must be July or August.)By announcing this fact, he tells Bernard that the month is either July or August.Because this gives Bernard the information he needs to know the correct date, this implies that the day can't be one which is common to July and August. This means that the day isn't the 14th (so may be 15, 16 or 17).Albert knows the month, and this gives him the correct date. This means the month can't be August, as there would still be two possible days.The correct date is therefore July 16th?
(click to show/hide)I don't see how you can eliminate May at the first stage. While one of the three May dates has a unique day, the other two are not (15, 16).
(click to show/hide)One is enough. If Bernard had '19', then he'd know the full date. Albert knows that Bernard doesn't know the full date, *because* he knows the month isn't May or June.
I saw the logic eventually but confess to reading the BTL comments for the solution.I think it helps to write the months and dates in tabular form and solve it visually, thusly:14th15th16th17th18th19thMay***June**July**August***That way, you can see at a glance that 18th & 19th are sticking out like sore thumbs.