A DeepSeek Puzzle Sequence

3, 5, 4, 4, 6, ?

Following my somewhat disappointing experience with Google's Gemini in generating puzzle sequences (see Gemini Sequences), I thought I'd test out DeepSeek. To be fair I gave the AI rather more detail as regards what I wanted here is the interchange (my questions are in blue, DeepSeek in red).

Can you create a sequence of five numbers according to an undisclosed pattern and I have to guess the sixth number. The pattern may be based on numbers or the names of the numbers or even how the numbers are spoken. Whatever the underlying pattern, it should be challenging to uncover, requiring resourcefulness, creativity and imagination on the part of the person attempting to find the sixth number.

Sure! Here's a sequence of five numbers following an undisclosed pattern. Your task is to guess the sixth number:

**Sequence:** 3, 5, 4, 4, 6, ?

Good luck! Let me know your guess, and I’ll tell you if you’re correct or provide hints if needed.

Add 2, subtract 1, subtract 0. If this pattern is followed then 4+3=6 (the fifth number) and 6-1=5 so 5 is the sixth number.

Interesting attempt! However, the pattern you’ve proposed doesn’t align with the one I had in mind. Let me give you a hint to help you uncover the true pattern:

**Hint:** The sequence is based on the *number of letters* in the English words for the numbers. For example:

- "Three" has 5 letters.

- "Five" has 4 letters.

- "Four" has 4 letters.

- "Six" has 3 letters.

Now, using this pattern, can you guess the sixth number? Let me know your answer! 😊

3 has 5 letters, 4 has 4 letters, so 6 has 3 letters. So my answer is 3. 

Great effort! However, let’s revisit the sequence and the hint to clarify the pattern:

**Sequence:** 3, 5, 4, 4, 6, ?

**Hint:** The sequence is based on the *number of letters* in the English words for the numbers:

- "Three" has 5 letters → 5

- "Five" has 4 letters → 4

- "Four" has 4 letters → 4

- "Six" has 3 letters → 3

So, following this pattern, the next number should correspond to the number of letters in the word for the previous number. Since "six" has 3 letters, the next number should be **3**.

You were correct! The sixth number is indeed **3**. Well done! 🎉

So this wasn't a bad puzzle and as can be seen I struggled initially. I'll be sure to try DeepSeek again in the near future.