good problem solving riddles

These 20 Tough Riddles for Adults Will Have You Scratching Your Head

Put your logic and math skills to the test. No cheating!

🤯 You love hard riddles. So do we. Let’s work through the toughies together.

So go grab a pencil and a piece of scratch paper and prepare to rip your hair out (and we really do mean that in the best way possible). When you think you’ve got the right answer, click the link at the bottom of each riddle to find the solution. Got it wrong? No worries, you have 19 other riddles to test out.

Navigate Through Our Riddles:

The King’s Orders / How Many Eggs? / The Gold Chain / Pickleball / Circuit Breaker / Two Trains, Two Grandmas / Ant Math / Peppermint Patty / Great American Rail Trail / A Cruel SAT Problem / Movie Stars Cross a River / Tribute to a Math Genius / One Belt, One Earth / Elbow Tapping / Whiskey Problem / Doodle Problem / Stumping Scientists / What ’ s On Her Forehead? / Keanu for President / Who Opened the Lockers?

Riddle #1: The King’s Orders Make for One Hell of a Brain Teaser

Difficulty: easy.

King Nupe of the kingdom Catan dotes on his two daughters so much that he decides the kingdom would be better off with more girls than boys, and he makes the following decree: All child-bearing couples must continue to bear children until they have a daughter!

But to avoid overpopulation, he makes an additional decree: All child-bearing couples will stop having children once they have a daughter! His subjects immediately begin following his orders.

After many years, what’s the expected ratio of girls to boys in Catan?

The likelihood of each baby born being a girl is, of course, 50 percent.

Ready for the solution? Click here to see if you’re right .

preview for Can You Build The Farmer's Fence? | SOLVE IT

Riddle #2: How Many Eggs Does This Hen Lay?

This problem is in honor of my dad, Harold Feiveson. It’s due to him that I love math puzzles, and this is one of the first problems (of many) that he gave me when I was growing up.

A hen and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half. How many eggs does one hen lay in one day?

Riddle #3: The Gold Chain Math Problem Is Deceptively Simple

Difficulty: moderate.

You’re rummaging around your great grandmother’s attic when you find five short chains each made of four gold links. It occurs to you that if you combined them all into one big loop of 20 links, you’d have an incredible necklace. So you bring it into a jeweler, who tells you the cost of making the necklace will be $10 for each gold link that she has to break and then reseal.

How much will it cost?

Riddle #4: Try to Solve This Pickleball Puzzle

Difficulty: 🚨hard🚨.

Kenny, Abby, and Ned got together for a round-robin pickleball tournament, where, as usual, the winner stays on after each game to play the person who sat out that game. At the end of their pickleball afternoon, Abby is exhausted, having played the last seven straight games. Kenny, who is less winded, tallies up the games played:

Kenny played eight games

Abby played 12 games

Ned played 14 games

Who won the fourth game against whom?

How many total games were played?

Riddle #5: Our Circuit Breaker Riddle Is Pure Evil. Sorry.

The circuit breaker box in your new house is in an inconvenient corner of your basement. To your chagrin, you discover none of the 100 circuit breakers is labeled, and you face the daunting prospect of matching each circuit breaker to its respective light. (Suppose each circuit breaker maps to only one light.)

To start with, you switch all 100 lights in the house to “on,” and then you head down to your basement to begin the onerous mapping process. On every trip to your basement, you can switch any number of circuit breakers on or off. You can then roam the hallways of your house to discover which lights are on and which are off.

What is the minimum number of trips you need to make to the basement to map every circuit breaker to every light?

The solution does not involve either switching on or off the light switches in your house or feeling how hot the lightbulbs are. You might want to try solving for the case of 10 unlabeled circuit breakers first.

Riddle #6: Two Trains. Two Grandmas. Can You Solve This Tricky Math Riddle?

Jesse’s two grandmothers want to see him every weekend, but they live on opposite sides of town. As a compromise, he tells them that every Sunday, he’ll head to the subway station nearest to his apartment at a random time of the day and will hop on the next train that arrives.

If it happens to be the train traveling north, he’ll visit his Grandma Erica uptown, and if it happens to be the train traveling south, he’ll visit his Grandma Cara downtown. Both of his grandmothers are okay with this plan, since they know both the northbound and southbound trains run every 20 minutes.

But after a few months of doing this, Grandma Cara complains that she sees him only one out of five Sundays. Jesse promises he’s indeed heading to the station at a random time each day. How can this be?

The trains always arrive at their scheduled times.

Riddle #7: Here’s a Really [email protected]*#ing Hard Math Problem About Ants

Max and Rose are ant siblings. They love to race each other, but always tie, since they actually crawl at the exact same speed. So they decide to create a race where one of them (hopefully) will win.

For this race, each of them will start at the bottom corner of a cuboid, and then crawl as fast as they can to reach a crumb at the opposite corner. The measurements of their cuboids are as pictured:

If they both take the shortest possible route to reach their crumb, who will reach their crumb first? (Don’t forget they’re ants, so of course they can climb anywhere on the edges or surface of the cuboid.)

Remember: Think outside the box.

Riddle #8: This Peppermint Patty Riddle Is Practically Impossible

You’re facing your friend, Caryn, in a “candy-off,” which works as follows: There’s a pile of 100 caramels and one peppermint patty. You and Caryn will go back and forth taking at least one and no more than five caramels from the candy pile in each turn. The person who removes the last caramel will also get the peppermint patty. And you love peppermint patties.

Suppose Caryn lets you decide who goes first. Who should you choose in order to make sure you win the peppermint patty?

First, solve for a pile of 10 caramels.

Riddle #9: Can You Solve the Great American Rail-Trail Riddle?

This problem was suggested by the physicist P. Jeffrey Ungar.

Finally, the Great American Rail-Trail across the whole country is complete! Go ahead, pat yourself on the back—you’ve just installed the longest handrail in the history of the world, with 4,000 miles from beginning to end. But just after the opening ceremony, your assistant reminds you that the metal you used for the handrail expands slightly in summer, so that its length will increase by one inch in total.

“Ha!” you say, “One inch in a 4,000 mile handrail? That’s nothing!” But … are you right?

Let’s suppose when the handrail expands, it buckles upward at its weakest point, which is in the center. How much higher will pedestrians in the middle of the country have to reach in summer to grab the handrail? That is, in the figure below, what is h ? (For the purposes of this question, ignore the curvature of the Earth and assume the trail is a straight line.)

Pythagoras is a fascinating historical figure.

Riddle #10: This Riddle Is Like an Especially Cruel SAT Problem. Can You Find the Answer?

Amanda lives with her teenage son, Matt, in the countryside—a car ride away from Matt’s school. Every afternoon, Amanda leaves the house at the same time, drives to the school at a constant speed, picks Matt up exactly when his chess club ends at 5 p.m., and then they immediately return home together at the same constant speed. But one day, Matt isn’t feeling well, so he leaves chess practice early and starts to head home on his portable scooter.

After Matt has been scooting for an hour, Amanda comes across him in her car (on her usual route to pick him up), and they return together, arriving home 40 minutes earlier than they usually do. How much chess practice did Matt miss?

Consider the case where Amanda meets Matt exactly as she’s leaving their house.

Riddle #11: Can You Get These 3 Movie Stars Across the River?

Three movie stars, Chloe, Lexa, and Jon, are filming a movie in the Amazon. They’re very famous and very high-maintenance, so their agents are always with them. One day, after filming a scene deep in the rainforest, the three actors and their agents decide to head back to home base by foot. Suddenly, they come to a large river.

On the riverbank, they find a small rowboat, but it’s only big enough to hold two of them at one time. The catch? None of the agents are comfortable leaving their movie star with any other agents if they’re not there as well. They don’t trust that the other agents won’t try to poach their star.

For example, Chloe’s agent is okay if Chloe and Lexa are alone in the boat or on one of the riverbanks, but definitely not okay if Lexa’s agent is also with them. So how can they all get across the river?

There isn’t just one way to solve this problem.

Riddle #12: This Ludicrously Hard Riddle Is Our Tribute to a Late Math Genius. Can You Figure It Out?

On April 11, John Horton Conway , a brilliant mathematician who had an intense and playful love of puzzles and games, died of complications from COVID-19. Conway is the inventor of one of my favorite legendary problems (not for the faint of heart) and, famously, the Game of Life . I created this problem in his honor.

Carol was creating a family tree, but had trouble tracking down her mother’s birthdate. The only clue she found was a letter written from her grandfather to her grandmother on the day her mother was born. Unfortunately, some of the characters were smudged out, represented here with a “___” . (The length of the line does not reflect the number of smudged characters.)

“Dear Virginia,

Little did I know when I headed to work this Monday morning, that by evening we would have a beautiful baby girl. And on our wedding anniversary, no less! It makes me think back to that incredible weekend day, J___ 27th, 19___ , when we first shared our vow to create a family together, and, well, here we are! Happy eighth anniversary, my love.

Love, Edwin”

The question: When was Carol’s mother born?

This problem is inspired by Conway’s Doomsday Rule .

Riddle #13: To Solve This Twisty Math Riddle, You Just Need One Belt and One Earth

Imagine you have a very long belt. Well, extremely long, really … in fact, it’s just long enough that it can wrap snugly around the circumference of our entire planet. (For the sake of simplicity, let’s suppose Earth is perfectly round, with no mountains, oceans, or other barriers in the way of the belt.)

Naturally, you’re very proud of your belt. But then your brother, Peter, shows up—and to your disgruntlement, he produces a belt that’s just a bit longer than yours. He brags his belt is longer by exactly his height: 6 feet.

If Peter were also to wrap his belt around the circumference of Earth, how far above the surface could he suspend the belt if he pulled it tautly and uniformly?

Earth’s circumference is about 25,000 miles, or 130 million feet … but you don’t need to know that to solve this problem.

Riddle #14: This Elbow Tapping Riddle Is Diabolical. Good Luck Solving It.

In some future time, when the shelter-in-place bans are lifted, a married couple, Florian and Julia, head over to a bar to celebrate their newfound freedom.

They find four other couples there who had the same idea.

Eager for social contact, every person in the five couples enthusiastically taps elbows (the new handshake) with each person they haven’t yet met .

It actually turns out many of the people had known each other prior, so when Julia asks everyone how many elbows they each tapped, she remarkably gets nine different answers!

The question: How many elbows did Florian tap?

What nine answers did Julia hear?

Riddle #15: You'll Need a Drink After Trying to Solve This Whisky Riddle

Alan and Claire live by the old Scottish saying, “Never have whisky without water, nor water without whisky!” So one day, when Alan has in front of him a glass of whisky, and Claire has in front of her a same-sized glass of water, Alan takes a spoonful of his whisky and puts it in Claire’s water. Claire stirs her whisky-tinted water, and then puts a spoonful of this mixture back into Alan’s whisky to make sure they have exactly the same amount to drink.

So: Is there more water in Alan’s whisky, or more whisky in Claire’s water? And does it matter how well Claire stirred?

The size of the spoon does not matter.

Riddle #16: The Doodle Problem Is a Lot Harder Than It Looks. Can You Solve It?

This week’s riddle is relatively simple—but sinister all the same.

The question: Can you make 100 by interspersing any number of pluses and minuses within the string of digits 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1? You can’t change the order of the digits! So what’s the least number of pluses and minuses needed to make 100?

For instance, 98 - 7 - 6 + 54 - 32 shows one way of interspersing pluses and minuses, but since it equals 107, it’s not a solution.

I call this a “doodle problem”: one that’s best worked on during meetings where you might be doodling otherwise.

You might want to start looking for solutions that use a total of seven pluses and minuses (although there are ways to use fewer).

Ready for the solution? Click here to see if you’re right.

Riddle #17: This Math Puzzle Stumped Every Scientist but One. Think You Can Crack It?

Difficulty: hard.

In honor of Freeman Dyson, the renowned physicist who died last month , here’s a legendary tale demonstrating his quick wit and incredible brain power.

One day, in a gathering of top scientists, one of them wondered out loud whether there exists an integer that you could exactly double by moving its last digit to its front. For instance, 265 would satisfy this if 526 were its exact double—which it isn’t.

After apparently just five seconds , Dyson responded, “Of course there is, but the smallest such number has 18 digits.”

This left some of the smartest scientists in the world puzzling over how he could have figured this out so quickly.

So given Dyson’s hint, what is the smallest such number?

My second grader has recently learned how to add a 3-digit number to itself using the classic vertical method:

Font, Text, Calligraphy, Line, Art, Writing,

18-digit numbers, of course, can be added in the same way.

Riddle #18: Figure Out What’s on Her Forehead

Cecilia loves testing the logic of her very logical friends Jaya, Julian, and Levi, so she announces:

“I’ll write a positive number on each of your foreheads. None of the numbers are the same, and two of the numbers add up to the third.”

She scribbles the numbers on their heads, then turns to Jaya and asks her what her number is. Jaya sees Julian has 20 on his forehead, and Levi has 30 on his. She thinks for a moment and then says, “I don’t know what my number is.” Julian pipes in, “I also don’t know my number,” and then Levi exclaims, “Me neither!” Cecilia gleefully says, “I’ve finally stumped you guys!”

“Not so fast!” Jaya says. “Now I know my number!”

What is Jaya’s number?

Jaya could be one of two numbers, but only one of those numbers would lead to Julian and Levi both not knowing their numbers. Why?

Riddle #19: Can You Get Keanu Reeves Elected As President?

It’s 2024, and there are five candidates running in the democratic primary: Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Keanu Reeves, and Dwayne Johnson. (Hey, it could happen.) As usual, the first primary is in Iowa.

In an effort to overcome its embarrassment after the 2020 caucus debacle , the Iowa Democratic Party has just announced a new, foolproof way of finding the best candidate: there will be four consecutive elections.

First, candidate 1 will run against candidate 2. Next, the winner of that will run against candidate 3, then that winner will run against candidate 4, and finally the winner of that election will run against the final candidate. By the transitive property, the winner of this last election must be the best candidate ... so says the Iowa Democratic Party.

Candidate Keanu has been feeling pretty low, as he knows he is ranked near the bottom by most voters, and at the top by none. In fact, he knows the Iowa population is divided into five equal groups, and that their preferences are as follows:

Text, Font, Line, Organism, Document, Number, Handwriting, Calligraphy, Smile, Art,

Keanu is childhood friends with Bill S. Preston, Esq., the new head of the Iowa Democratic Party. Preston, confident that the order of the candidates doesn’t matter for the outcome, tells Keanu he can choose the voting order of the candidates.

So what order should Keanu choose?

How would Keanu fare in one-to-one races against each candidate?

Riddle #20: Who Opened All These Damn Lockers?

There are 100 lockers that line the main hallway of Chelm High School. Every night, the school principal makes sure all the lockers are closed so that there will be an orderly start to the next day. One day, 100 mischievous students decide that they will play a prank.

The students all meet before school starts and line up. The first student then walks down the hallway, and opens every locker. The next student follows by closing every other locker (starting at the second locker). Student 3 then goes to every third locker (starting with the third) and opens it if it’s closed, and closes it if it’s open. Student 4 follows by opening every fourth locker if it’s closed and closing it if it’s open. This goes on and on until Student 100 finally goes to the hundredth locker. When the principal arrives later in the morning, which lockers does she find open?

Make sure you pay attention to all of the factors.

Laura Feiveson is an economist for the government, a storyteller, and a lifelong enthusiast of math puzzles. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters.

.css-8psjmo:before{content:'//';display:inline;padding-right:0.3125rem;} Math .css-v6ym3h:before{content:'//';display:inline;padding-left:0.3125rem;}

Why Euler’s Number Is Cool as Hell

The Game of Trees Is a Mad Math Problem

How the ‘Fourier Transform’ Gave Us Color TV

Solution to Riddle of the Week: Long Belt Problem

Can You Solve the Puzzle of Four Knights?

Solution to the Four Knights Puzzle

Can You Find the Most Absurd But Logical Answer?

Solution to the Interpretation Problem

smoke, vehicle, mode of transport, car, delorean dmc 12, automotive lighting, automotive tire, automotive exterior, asphalt,

We Already Know How to Build a Time Machine

isolated vector icon of the sea captain behind the steering wheel

Can You Calculate the Captain's Age?

Solution to the Captain’s Age Riddle

9 Tricky Puzzles to Test Your Problem Solving Skills

Would you like to exercise your brain today? Then, here are 9 tricky puzzles to give your grey-matter a good workout .

We have provided the solutions as links at the end of each puzzle below, in case you want to have a go before checking your answers. Enjoy, and good luck!

What are some difficult logical puzzles that will sharpen your mind?

So, without further ado, here are some examples of difficult puzzles that will certainly hone your mental acuity. Trust us when we say this list is far from exhaustive and is in no particular order.

1. The riddle of the farmer

This first puzzle is a bit of a classic. Just suppose you had a farmer who needs to transport a fox, a chicken and some corn across a river.

He only has a small boat that can only carry him and one of them with him per crossing. The farmer needs to get all three items across the river in one piece.

But there is a problem. He can't leave the fox and chicken alone as the fox will eat the chicken. Likewise, he can't leave the chicken with the corn as the chicken will munch down on the corn.

So, can you figure out how the farmer could solve this problem?

Here is the solution if you want to test your workings.

2. The rope bridge at night problem

This next puzzle is another head-scratcher. Suppose there are four people trying to cross a rather dodgy rope bridge in the middle of the night.

Only two of them can cross it any one time and they only have a single flashlight between them. For this reason, one person of each pair must return to help the others get across.

But time is limited; they are being chased and need to get across within 17 minutes total. Sounds simple enough, except each person can only cross the bridge at a certain rate.

One person takes 1 minute to cross the bridge. The second takes 2 minutes , the third 5 and the last person 10 minutes .

Each pair can only cross as fast as the slowest member of the pair. How can they all cross the bridge in time?

Here is the solution if you want to see if you were right.

3. The burning rope timer problem

Let's suppose you needed to measure a time of exactly 45 minutes but only had a couple of old ropes coated in oil and a lighter. You know that each rope takes exactly 1 hour to burn all the way through.

But, the ropes do not burn at a uniform rate with spots that will burn a little faster than others. Whatever the case, and location of these slow and fast burn spots, the entire rope still burns up in exactly an hour.

You can burn the ropes at either end or at multiple points at the same time. How would you measure exactly three-quarters of an hour?

Here is the solution .

4. The heads or tails coin problem

Just suppose you are sat at a table strewn with hundreds or thousands of coins . You are blindfolded, so you cannot see the coins, and you don't know how many there are.

You are told that 20 of the coins are tails-side up while the rest are heads up. You can move the coins and flip them over as much as you want but you will never be able to see what you doing.

While you can feel the coins, you are unable to determine which side is which.

How then, would you separate the coins into two piles that have the same number of tails-side-up coins? Remember the number of coins per pile does not need to be the same.

Here is the solution , if you are curious.

5. The classic water jug problem

Here is another classic puzzle that will sharpen your mind. Let's suppose you need to measure out exactly 4 liters of water.

But, of course, you have a problem. You have two containers each 3 and 5 liters in volume respectively.

Each container has no other marking except for the fact that it only provides its known volume. Using a running tap to fill them how would you measure out exactly 4 liters ?

Here is the solution , if you want to check your answer.

6. The riddle of the Gods

Touted as one of the hardest puzzles to solve ever , this one is certainly a fun challenge. Let's suppose we have three gods called, in no particular order, "True", "False" and "Random".

We don't know which is which, so, for now, we will label them A, B, and C respectively.

"True" always tells the truth. "False" always lies, and "Random" lies or tells the truth at random.

You are tasked with identifying which one is which by asking three yes-no questions. Also, you can only ask one god one question at any one time.

But it's a little more complex than that. Each god understands English but will only answer in their own language as "da" or "ja" -- but you can't understand if the answers are in the affirmative or not.

How would you solve this? Here is the solution .

7. Escape from the field

Let's suppose you have been placed in a circular field of unknown radius R. The field has a low fence around it.

Attached to the wire fence is a large, angry, sharp-fanged and hungry dog who loves nothing more than eating human flesh. You can run at a speed v, while the dog can run exactly 4-times as fast as you.

The dog, as it is attached to the fence can only travel around the perimeter. How would you escape from the field in one piece?

8. The apples and oranges puzzle

Here is another annoying problem that needs solving . Let's suppose you work in a fruit factory that boxes apples and oranges.

One day, the labeling machine goes haywire and incorrectly labels the crates of fruit. Your coworker decides to have a bit of fun and pulls out three crates of fruit and tells you that one has just oranges in it, the second just apples, and the third a mixture of the two.

One of the crates is labeled "O" for oranges, another "A" for apples and the third "A+O" for apples and oranges. But the labels lie.

You can pick one crate and your coworker will pull a single fruit from it to show you. You are only able to do this once.

How can you figure out which crate actually has only oranges, only apples and a mixture of the two? Here is the solution .

9. The mystery hat puzzle

And finally, let suppose you have a dark closet with five hats in it. There are three blue, and two red ones.

Three men go into the closet and each selects a hat at random in the dark and places it on their head. Once outside the closet, each man is unable to tell what color their own hat is.

The first man looks at the others and says "I cannot tell what color my hat is!". The second hears this, looks at the other two and declares "I cannot tell what color my hat is either!".

The third man, who is blind, confidently declares "I know exactly what color mine is!".

What color is his hat? Here is the solution .

Cyborgs may have only been shown in Hollywood films up until this point, but a group of scientists from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan has made them a reality.

Exploring emotions, the brain, and free will with Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett

Main content

14 tricky brainteasers and riddles only smart people can solve

1. If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you don't have me. What am I?

Answer : A secret.

Source: RhinoBarbarian, Reddit

2. You're escaping a labyrinth, and there are three doors in front of you. The door on the left leads to a raging inferno. The door in the center leads to a deadly assassin. The door on the right leads to a lion that hasn't eaten in three months. Which door do you choose?

Answer: The door on the right.

Explanation: The lion would be dead after not eating for three months.

Source: AntmanIV, Reddit

3. If I am holding a bee, what do I have in my eye?

Answer: Beauty.

Explanation: This riddle is a play on the proverb, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." In this case, you are the "bee-holder." Thus, beauty is in your eye.

Source: lipwiggler, Reddit

4. An old man dies, leaving behind two sons. In his will, he orders his sons to race with their horses, and the one with the slower horse will receive his inheritance. The two sons race, but since they're both holding their horses back, they go to a wise man and ask him what they should do. After that, the brothers race again — this time at full speed. What did the wise man tell them?

Answer: To switch horses.

Explanation: After they switch horses, whoever wins the race will get the inheritance because they still technically own the losing (i.e., slower) horse.

Source: qweiopasd, Reddit

5. Turn me on my side and I am everything. Cut me in half and I am nothing. What am I?

Answer: The number 8.

Explanation: On its side, the number 8 looks like an infinity symbol. Cut in half, the number 8 becomes two zeros.

Source: romz7, Reddit

6. A farmer needs to take a fox, a chicken, and a sack of grain across a river. The only way across the river is by a small boat, which can only hold the farmer and one of the three items. Left unsupervised, the chicken will eat the grain, and the fox will eat the chicken. However, the fox won't try to eat the grain, and neither the fox nor the chicken will wander off. How does the farmer get everything across the river?

Answer: The farmer must follow these steps.

1. Take the chicken across the river. 2. Come back with an empty boat. 3. Take the grain across the river. 4. Bring the chicken back. 5. Take the fox across the river. 6. Come back with an empty boat. 7. Take the chicken across the river.

Source: someguyinworld, Reddit

7. If you have a 7-minute hourglass and an 11-minute hourglass, how can you boil an egg in exactly 15 minutes?

Answer: To boil the egg in exactly 15 minutes, follow these steps.

1. Start both hourglasses as you start boiling the egg. 2. After the 7-minute hourglass runs out, turn it to start it again. 3. Four minutes later, when the 11-minute hourglass runs out, turn the 7-minute hourglass again. 4. Wait for the 7-minute hourglass to run out, which will take another four minutes and get you to exactly 15 minutes of boiling time.

Source: DarylHannahMontana, Reddit

8. You are walking down a road and come to a fork. One path leads to certain death; the other leads to eternal happiness. You don't know which is which. In the middle of the fork, you come across two brothers who know which road is which. One brother always tells the truth and the other always lies. You can only ask them one question. How would you determine which road to take?

Answer: Ask each brother, "If you were your brother, which road would you say leads to eternal happiness?"

Explanation: Let's say the path on the right leads to eternal happiness. After you ask your question, both brothers will tell you the exact same thing: "He would say the left path leads to eternal happiness."

As Reddit user OnscreenForecaster explained, "In either case ... you would pick the opposite of what they both say because one is telling the truth about it being a lie, and one is lying about it being the truth."

Source: SneeKeeFahk, Reddit

9. What is next in this sequence of numbers: 1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, ______?

Answer: 13112221.

Explanation: Each sequence of numbers is a verbal representation of the sequence before it. Thus, starting with 1, the next sequence would be "one one," or "11." That sequence is followed by "two one," or "21," and so on and so forth.

Still confused? Here's a good explanation by Reddit user hankthetank921 :

The first number is just ONE (amount) "1" (0-9 numeral). So if you say there's ONE "1" (seriously just say it aloud) the next number would be an 11. Then there are TWO "1's", creating 21. Then ONE "2" and ONE "1" which creates 1,211. Then ONE "1", ONE "2", and TWO "1's" creating 111,221 ... and so on.

Source: arsenal7777, Reddit

10. Four people arrive at a river with a narrow bridge that can only hold two people at a time. It's nighttime and they have one torch that has to be used when crossing the bridge. Person A can cross the bridge in one minute, B in two minutes, C in five minutes, and D in eight minutes. When two people cross the bridge together, they must move at the slower person's pace. Can they all get across the bridge in 15 minutes or less?

Answer: Yes, they can cross in exactly 15 minutes.

Explanation: The group of four must follow these steps.

1. First, A and B cross the bridge and A brings the light back. This takes 3 minutes. 2. Next, C and D cross and B brings the light back. This takes another 10 minutes. 3. Finally, A and B cross again. This takes another 2 minutes.

Source: bananaslayer100, Reddit

11. A rebus is a pictogram that represents a word, phrase, or saying. For example, "Ci ii" represents "See eye to eye." What word or phrase does the following rebus represent: O_ER_T_O_?

Answer: Painless operation.

Explanation : The letters missing in O_ER _T _O_ (OPERATION) spell out PAIN. Thus, "pain-less" operation.

Source: kjivxx, Reddit

12. During a recent census, a man told the census taker that he had three children. When asked their ages, he replied, "The product of their ages is 72. The sum of their ages is the same as my house number." The census taker ran to the man's front door and looked at the house number. "I still can't tell," she complained. The man replied, "Oh that's right, I forgot to tell you that the oldest one likes chocolate pudding." The census taker then promptly wrote down the ages of the three children. How old are they?

Answer: 3, 3, and 8.

Explanation: As Reddit users TT1103 and RedditRage explained, the key to this brain teaser is that the census taker looks at the house number. In other words, she knows the sum of the children's ages.

However, at that point of the riddle, she still can't tell how old the man's children are. Therefore, she has to be stuck between multiple possibilities. To narrow it down further, only two sets of numbers that multiply to 72 share the same sum: (2,6,6) and (3,3,8).

After the man reveals that his oldest child likes chocolate pudding, however, the census taker can differentiate between the two options. That is, only the latter of those two sets has a distinct "oldest" child.

Source: mikebrown_pelican, Reddit

13. You're in a dark room with a candle, a wood stove, and a gas lamp. You only have one match, so what do you light first?

Answer: The match.

Source: notarobot45, Reddit

14. There are five bags of gold that all look identical, and each has 10 gold pieces in it. One of the five bags has fake gold in it. The real gold, fake gold, and all five bags are identical in every way, except the pieces of fake gold each weigh 1.1 grams, and the real gold pieces each weigh 1 gram. You have a perfectly accurate digital gram scale and can use it only once. How do you determine which bag has the fake gold?

Answer: Take one gold piece from the first bag, two from the second bag, three from the third bag, four from the fourth bag, and five from the fifth bag. If the weight on the scale ends in .1, then you know the first bag has the fake gold. If the weight on the scale ends in .2, then the second bag has the fake gold, and so on and so forth.

Source: dankability, Reddit

A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World

RD.COM Knowledge Brain Games

58 Brain Teasers That Will Leave You Stumped

Solving brain teasers boosts brain power, keeps your memory strong, and entertains everyone to no end. See how many of these tricky puzzles for adults and teens you can figure out—without cheating!

Tricky brain teasers

Brain teasers are more than just simple puzzles and riddles. Technically, a brain teaser is a type of puzzle or brain game , often involving lateral thinking . That means to solve it, you’ll have to use a creative, less straightforward thought process and the solution won’t be right in front of you. Below, you’ll find a collection of pictures and word brain teasers for all difficulty levels. Plenty of them aren’t easy, so make sure you have some time to really think about the correct answer. As a heads up, the answers to these brain teasers are right below the question, so make sure you don’t scroll too far and cheat! How many can you get right? If you want brain teasers for kids , we’ve got plenty of those, too!

Get Reader’s Digest ‘s Read Up newsletter for humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.

A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he’s bankrupt. Why?

Answer: He’s playing Monopoly. Try out some of these visual brain teasers too.

You are in a room that has three switches and a closed door. The switches control three light bulbs on the other side of the door. Once you open the door, you may never touch the switches again. How can you definitively tell which switch is connected to each of the light bulbs?

Answer: Turn on the first two switches. Leave them on for five minutes. Once five minutes has passed, turn off the second switch, leaving one switch on. Now go through the door. The light that is still on is connected to the first switch. Whichever of the other two is warm to the touch is connected to the second switch. The bulb that is cold is connected to the switch that was never turned on.

I left my campsite and hiked south for 3 miles. Then I turned east and hiked for 3 miles. I then turned north and hiked for 3 miles, at which time I came upon a bear inside my tent eating my food! What color was the bear?

Answer: White. The only place you can hike 3 miles south, then east for 3 miles, then north for 3 miles and end up back at your starting point is the North Pole. Polar bears are the only bears that live at the North Pole, and they are white.

A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks who it is. The man replies, “Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who was in the photograph?

Answer: His son. These are the hardest riddles ever —see if you can solve them.

What is special about these words: job, polish, herb?

Answer: They are pronounced differently when the first letter is capitalized. For a more hands-on experience, check out these printable brain teasers .

Forrest left home running. He ran a ways and then turned left, ran the same distance and turned left again, ran the same distance and turned left again. When he got home, there were two masked men. Who were they?

Answer: The catcher and the umpire. These tricky logic puzzles will keep you guessing.

A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?

Answer: The river was frozen. Only 2 percent of people can solve Einstein’s riddle . Can you do it?

In 1990, a person is 15 years old. In 1995, that same person is 10 years old. How can this be?

Answer: The person was born in 2005 BC. See if you can spot the difference in these almost identical pictures .

A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece. Which has the most?

Answer: An hourglass—It has thousands of grains of sand. This is what happens to your brain when you do a puzzle .

What makes this number unique: 8,549,176,320?

Answer: It has each number, zero through nine, listed in alphabetical order. These brain games will help sharpen your mind—how many can you complete?

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a long one. Michael J. Fox has a short one. Madonna does not use hers. Bill Clinton always uses his. The Pope never uses his. What is it?

Answer: Their surname. Can you identify these animals based on close up pictures of their fur ?

What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

Answer: Short.

Your parents have six sons including you and each son has one sister. How many people are in the family?

Answer: Nine—two parents, six sons, and one daughter. See if you can find the missing number in this puzzle .

I am the beginning of sorrow and the end of sickness. You cannot express happiness without me yet I am in the midst of crosses. I am always in risk yet never in danger. You may find me in the sun, but I am never out of darkness.

Answer: The letter S. These tricky word puzzles will leave you stumped.

An Arab sheik is old and must leave his fortune to one of his two sons. He makes a proposition: Both sons will ride their camels in a race, and whichever camel crosses the finish line LAST will win the fortune for its owner. During the race, the two brothers wander aimlessly for days, neither willing to cross the finish line. In desperation, they ask a wise man for advice. He tells them something; then the brothers leap onto the camels and charge toward the finish line. What did the wise man say?

Answer: The rules of the race were that the owner of the camel that crosses the finish line last wins the fortune. The wise man simply told them to switch camels. Try these math riddles only the smartest can get right.

A man was walking in the rain. He was in the middle of nowhere. He had nothing and nowhere to hide. He came home all wet, but not a single hair on his head was wet. Why is that?

Answer: The man was bald. Here are some word search puzzles you can print for free.

Fourteen of the kids in the class are girls. Eight of the kids wear blue shirts. Two of the kids are neither girls or wear a blue shirt. If five of the kids are girls who wear blue shirts, how many kids are in the class?

Answer: 19. Test your brain with these short riddles .

Paul’s height is six feet, he’s an assistant at a butcher’s shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh?

Answer: Meat.

The person who makes it has no need for it. The person who purchases it does not use it. The person who does use it does not know he or she is. What is it?

Answer: A coffin. Don’t let the fun stop here! See if you can figure out these 12 detective riddles only the smartest can solve.

You’re escaping a maze, and there are three doors in front of you. The door on the left leads to a pit of lava. The door in the center leads to a room filled with deadly gas. The door on the right leads to a lion that hasn’t eaten in three months. Which door do you choose?

Answer: The door on the right. A lion that hasn’t eaten in three months would be dead. Can you master these math puzzles ?

What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and water, but no fish?

Answer: A map.

If I am holding a bee, what do I have in my eye?

Answer: Beauty. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder (bee holder). These are the most challenging jigsaw puzzles you can buy.

How can 8 + 8 = 4?

Answer: When you think in terms of time. 8 AM + 8 hours= 4 o’clock.

The water level in a reservoir is low, but doubles every day. It takes 60 days to fill the reservoir. How long does it take for the reservoir to become half full?

Answer: 59 days. If the water level doubles every day, the reservoir on any given day was half the size the day prior. If the reservoir is full on day 60, that means it was half full on day 59, not on day 30. If you’re loving these challenges, you’ll get a kick out of these tongue twisters .

A farmer needs to take a fox, a chicken, and a sack of grain across a river. The only way across the river is by a small boat, which can only hold the farmer and one of the three items. Left unsupervised, the chicken will eat the grain, and the fox will eat the chicken. However, the fox won’t try to eat the grain, and neither the fox nor the chicken will wander off. How does the farmer get everything across the river?

Answer: The farmer must follow these steps.

What is 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat, and 2/4 goat?

Answer: Chicago. These are the best riddles for kids . Can you solve them?

A red house is made from red bricks. A blue house is made from blue bricks. A yellow house is made from yellow bricks. What is a green house made from?

Answer: Glass.

Why is the letter F like death?

Answer: Because without it life is a lie, or it makes life a lie.

A man describes his daughters, saying, “They are all blonde, but two; all brunette but two; and all redheaded but two.” How many daughters does he have?

Answer: Three. A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead.

If you love brain games, make sure you see what Wordle is all about. And if you already play Wordle, make sure you check out your very own Wordle assistant, WordleBot .

If you have a 7-minute hourglass and an 11-minute hourglass, how can you boil an egg in exactly 15 minutes?

Answer: To boil the egg in exactly 15 minutes, follow these four steps.

How far can a squirrel run into the woods?

Answer: Halfway. After that, he’s running back out of the woods. Does your brain hurt? Here are some easy riddles almost anyone can solve.

There is a word in the English language in which the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four signify a great man, and the whole word, a great woman. What is the word?

Answer: Heroine.

Guess the next three letters in the series GTNTL.

Answer: I, T, S. The complete sequence is the first letter of every word in the sentence.

What is next in this sequence of numbers: 1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, ______?

Answer: 13112221. Each sequence of numbers is a verbal representation of the sequence before it. Thus, starting with 1, the next sequence would be “one one,” or “11.” That sequence is followed by “two one,” or “21,” and so on and so forth.

You are in a place called Wally’s World and there is only one law. There is a mirror, but no reflection. There is pizza with cheese, but not sausage. There is pepper, but no salt. There is a door, yet no entrance or exit. What is the law?

Answer: Each word in Wally’s World must contain double letters. See how you do with these viral riddles and puzzles .

Four people arrive at a river with a narrow bridge that can only hold two people at a time. It’s nighttime and they have one torch that has to be used when crossing the bridge. Person A can cross the bridge in one minute, B in two minutes, C in five minutes, and D in eight minutes. When two people cross the bridge together, they must move at the slower person’s pace. Can they all get across the bridge in 15 minutes or less?

Answer: Yes, they can cross in exactly 15 minutes. The group of four must follow these three steps.

During which month do people sleep the least?

Answer: February (there are usually fewer nights in February).

In my hand, I have two coins that are newly minted. Together, they total 30 cents. One isn’t a nickel. What are the coins?

Answer: A quarter and a nickel.

Find a number less than 100 that is increased by one-fifth of its value when its digits are reversed.

Answer: 45 (1/5 of 45 = 9, 9 + 45 = 54).

Which three letters can frighten a thief away?

Answer: ICU. Getting all of these brain teasers right? Try out these printable crossword puzzles to test your smarts.

Four cars come to a four-way stop, all coming from a different direction. They can’t decide who got there first, so they all go forward at the same time. They do not crash into each other, but all four cars go. How is this possible?

Answer: They all made right-hand turns.

Is the capital of Kentucky pronounced Louisville or Luee-ville?

Answer: Neither. The capital is Frankfurt.

You’re in a dark room with a candle, a wood stove, and a gas lamp. You only have one match, so what do you light first?

Answer: The match.

Put a coin into an empty bottle and insert a cork into the neck. How can you remove the coin without removing the cork or breaking the bottle?

Answer: Push the cork down into the bottle. Then shake the coin out.

What letter comes next in the following sequence? D R M F S L T_

Answer: D—each letter represents one note in the diatonic musical scale: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.

I have a large money box, 10 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. Roughly how many coins can I place until my money box is no longer empty?

Answer: Just one, after which it will no longer be empty. These are the hardest puzzles you can get on Amazon .

What do an island and the letter “t” have in common?

Answer: They are both in the middle of water. Here’s how to solve a jigsaw puzzle fast .

What is unusual about the following words: revive, banana, grammar, voodoo, assess, potato, dresser, uneven?

Answer: Take the first letter of each word and place it at the end. It will spell the same word backward.

How can a man who shaves several times a day still sport a long beard?

Answer: He’s a barber.

What fastens two people yet touches only one?

Answer: A wedding ring.

Which creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?

Answer: Man. He crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then walks with a cane as an old man. These are the most famous riddles in history .

What rocks but does not roll?

Answer: A rocking chair.

An elevator is on the ground floor. There are five people in the elevator including me. When the lift reaches the first floor, one person gets out and two people get in. The lift goes up to the second floor, three people get out, five people get in. It then goes up to the next floor up, no-one gets out but 12 people get in. Halfway up to the next floor up the elevator cable snaps, it crashes to the floor. Everyone else dies in the elevator except me. How did I survive?

Answer: I got off on the first floor. How many of these trick questions can you answer correctly?

Which word logically comes next in this sequence? Spots, tops, pots, opts…

Answer: Stop. All the words are anagrams of each other. Check out these cool optical illusions that will make you question everything.

Which tire doesn’t move when a car turns right?

Answer: A spare tire. These are the classic board games everyone should own .

What 4-letter word can be written forward, backward or upside down, and can still be read from left to right?

Answer: Noon. Try these Christmas brain teasers that are almost impossible to solve.

Mr. Jenkins is trying to find a butler he can really trust. Out of the four candidates, James, Hudson, Paul, and Steven, he knows that two are honest and the other two are compulsive liars. From what each one of them says, can you work out which two are the liars?

JAMES: “Neither Paul nor Hudson tells the truth.” HUDSON: “If Steven is a liar, then James is trustworthy.” PAUL: “If, and only if, James is not an honest person, then Steven, too, has a rather loose attitude to the truth.” STEVEN: “What Paul said is untrue.”

Answer : James and Paul are the two liars. You have to see these optical illusion photos —they aren’t what they seem!

It’s not easy to figure out who’s who when the Brewer family gets together. The brother of Nick’s uncle Manny is named Mark. Lisa’s grandparents are Nick’s parents. Mark is married to Lisa’s grandma. The children of Angela’s daughter Sandra are named Lisa and Sasha. So who is Angela’s brother-in-law?

Answer : Manny is Angela’s brother-in-law. Next, try out these riddles for adults that will test your smarts.

We are no longer supporting IE (Internet Explorer) as we strive to provide site experiences for browsers that support new web standards and security practices.

We recommend our users to update the browser.

Logic Riddles

Play Riddles

Do you like logical thinking? So these logic riddles are perfect for you. You can solve logic riddles ranging from easy to hard, and the answer is available as well.

A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?

Four golfers named Mr. Black, Mr. White, Mr. Brown and Mr. Blue were competing in a tournament. The caddy didn't know their names, so he asked them. One of them, Mr. Brown, told a lie. The 1st golfer said "The 2nd Golfer is Mr. Black." The 2nd golfer said "I am not Mr. Blue!" The 3rd golfer said "Mr. White? That's the 4th golfer." And the 4th golfer remained silent. Which one of the golfers is Mr. Blue?

A prisoner is told: "If you tell a lie, we will hang you and if you tell the truth, we will shoot you". What did the prisoner say to save himself?

The day before two days after the day before tomorrow is Saturday. What day is it today?

I am your mother's brother's only brother in law. Who am I?

When the day after tomorrow is yesterday, today will be as far from Wednesday as today was from Wednesday when the day before yesterday was tomorrow. What is the day after this day?

Tomorrow's yesterday. Yesterday's tomorrow. What is it?

There are two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck and a duck in the middle. How many ducks are there?

If I say "everything I tell you is a lie", am I telling you the truth or a lie?

An apple is 40 cents, a banana is 60 cents and a grapefruit is 80 cents. How much is a pear?

There are two fathers and two sons. They walk into a candy store and each buys a candy bar for 50 cents. The total for all of the candy bars was $1.50. How is that possible?

How many bricks does it take to complete a building made of brick?

If the day before yesterday is the 23rd, then what is the day after tomorrow.

What is taken before you can get it?

Susan and Lisa decided to play tennis against each other. They bet $1 on each game they played. Susan won three bets and Lisa won $5. How many games did they play?

Can you guess the next letter in the series? "CYGTNLIT"

Lynn likes grapes but not potatoes. She likes squash but not lettuce, and she likes peas but not onions. Following the same rule, will she like pumpkins or apples?

Five men were eating apples, A finished before B, but behind C. D finished before E, but behind B. What was the finishing order?

Bobby likes Jimmy but not Joe, apples but not pears, jeeps but not vans, shinny but not hockey, tennis but not squash. Who will he like, Sara or Sally?

Matt is the fiftieth fastest and the fiftieth slowest runner in his school. Assuming no two runners are the same speed, how many runners are in Matt's school?

There are 2 ducks in front of 2 other ducks. There are 2 ducks behind 2 other ducks. There are 2 ducks beside 2 other ducks. How many ducks are there?

Once upon a time there were seven dwarfs who were all brothers. They were all born two years apart. The youngest dwarf is seven years old. How old is his oldest brother?

In the Tour de France, what is the position of a rider, after he passes the second placed rider?

There is a clothing store in Bartlesville. The owner has devised his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $20, socks cost $25, a tie costs $15 and a blouse costs $30. Using the method, how much would a pair of underwear cost?

In the land of the green glass door there are riddles but no answers, sheets but no blankets, and books but no words. Name something found in the land of the green glass door.

Two people are born at the same moment, but they don't have the same birthdays. How could this be?

A pet shop owner had a parrot with a sign on its cage that said "Parrot repeats everything it hears." A young man bought the parrot and for two weeks he spoke to it and it didn't say a word. He returned the parrot but the shopkeeper said he never lied about the parrot. How can this be?

A man is trapped in a room. The room has only two possible exits: two doors. Through the first door there is a room constructed from magnifying glass. The blazing hot sun instantly fries anything or anyone that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?

We travelled the sea far and wide. At one time, two of my sailors were standing on opposite sides of the ship. One was looking west and the other one east. And at the same time, they could see each other clearly. How can that be possible?

Which bird does not belong in this group? Finch, gull, eagle, ostrich, or sparrow?

What is neither inside the house nor outside the house but a necessity for any home?

There is a man in a 4 story building. He jumps out of the window and is unharmed. He used no padding, and had no harm done. How?

I'm simple for a few people. But hard for them to hear. I live inside of secrets. I bring people's worst fears. What am I?

A girl was ten on her last birthday, and will be twelve on her next birthday. How is this possible?

If 5 cats catch 5 mice in 5 minutes, how long will it take one cat to catch a mouse?

What would you father's only sister's sister-in-law be to you?

There was a plane crash and every single person died. Who survived?

Timmy's mother has three children. The first was named April. The next was named May. What is the final one's name?

George, Helen, and Steve are drinking coffee. Bert, Karen, and Dave are drinking soda. Is Elizabeth drinking coffee or soda?

MT_TF_S What are the missing letters? Why?

A mother had five boys Marco, Tucker, Webster and Thomas. Was the fifth boys name Frank, Evan or Alex?

If I have it, I don't share it. If I share it, I don't have it. What is it?

What gets broken without being hold?

The more you take from me, the bigger I get. What am I?

What's always coming, but never arrives?

Everyone has me but nobody can lose me. What am I?

I'm where yesterday follows today and tomorrow is in the middle. What am I?

PDF version

Download a printable version of these riddles.

Playable Riddles

Select a pack of riddles and try to solve it in an interesting way.

More Riddles

What is It?

Before you go

Einstein's Riddle

Einstein said that only 2% of the world could solve this problem. Can you do it?

Logic Grid Puzzles

Complete the grid by using logic and the given clues of each problem.

Zebra Puzzles

Use logic deductions to solve problems that are similar to the Einstein's Riddle.

Brainzilla+

All courses

Logic riddles and questions with answers

LogicLike has 4,500 more logic riddles, logical trivia questions, mind thinking riddles, and tricky mind puzzles. Simple and challenging enigmas for children and their parents to improve their thinking skills!

Select the difficulty level to start

Why solve logic riddles.

Answering logical reasoning questions, guessing tricky riddles activates many thinking processes. And it is an excellent way to entertain children or yourself and improves mental health. "What am I" riddles and "Who am I" questions for kids also expand their vocabulary.

Just good riddles and mind puzzle questions stimulate brain activity and lateral thinking. Such mental training improves the capacity to solve any problem creatively and more efficiently. Thirty-three awesome Christmas riddles await you!

Solve easy and hard logic riddles

Choose riddles list to start with!

Easy | Math | Hard

Simple logic questions and short riddles for kids

A brother and a sister were born in summer and in winter. The sister was not born in winter. Who was born in summer?

The sister.

Alex is Charlie's father. Who of them was born later?

I make two people out of one. What am I?

What loses its head in the morning and gets it back at night?

The giraffe is taller than the kangaroo but shorter than the palm. Which animal is the tallest?

The giraffe.

It flies, but it is not a bird. Choose all the answers that fit.

Bee, Plane.

A father's child, a mother's child, yet no one's son. Who am I?

The daughter.

I am white and I am black. I am fast and I am not fat. I confuse many people with my style. Who am I?

Math riddles for kids

Today Tim has turned 1, and Martha has turned 1 month. How much older than Martha is Tim?

12 times OR 11 months older.

All fruit of the same type have the same price. What is the price of an orange?

Add the right symbols.

A few sheets were torn out of a magazine: from page 3 to page 8. How many sheets were torn out?

In the picture there are Charlie, Kate and Phoebe. The girls are not standing next to each other. What mask is Charlie wearing?

Hard Logic Questions & Riddles for Adults and Brilliant Children

Keira, Clarissa, and Olive are not relatives. Keira and Clarissa have brothers, and Olive has a sister. Clarissa and Olive are the youngest in their families, and Keira is the oldest in hers. Who of them has an elder brother?

Today is neither Sunday nor Wednesday. Tomorrow is not Sunday or Wednesday. Yesterday was not Friday. Monday was not the day before yesterday, neither was Sunday.

Which day of the week is today (Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday or Sunday) if one of the statements is false?

The professor was driving to his out-of-town laboratory at a consistent speed (not faster than 90 km/h). At one moment the meter showed 16961 km of mileage. In exactly 2 hours the number on the meter once again showed a number that reads the same in both directions. At what speed (km/h) was the Professor driving?

There are four floors in the building. The higher the floor, the more people live there. Which floor does the elevator go to most often?

To the 1st (zero) floor.

Find the smallest even four-digit number written with four different digits.

The elevator can carry no more than 6 adults or no more than 9 children. What is the maximum number of children that can get into the elevator with 2 adults?

Write down the difference between the smallest four-digit number and the largest one-digit number.

1000−9=991.

More than 550,000 parents from all over the world are already improving thinking skills with their children.

More riddles and puzzles for you

If You Can Solve These Puzzles, You'll Have a Head Start at Work!

Book Insight

Puzzles for Professionals

I love puzzles, and I've included lots of them in this blog. They're fun challenges, perfect for sharing, and a great way to test a range of thinking skills. But they also reveal the serious professional benefits that come from learning how to think creatively .

I was reminded of this when I read "The Creative Thinking Handbook," the new book from creativity guru Chris Griffiths. It's sprinkled with puzzles that illustrate the dos and don'ts of problem solving. Griffiths shows what a difference it can make when we develop a robust creative process – as individuals, teams and entire organizations.

Before writing, I spent 10 years as a teacher, and I often used puzzles to stretch my students' thinking. As the kids grappled with intriguing problems, they gained the confidence to take risks, to keep going, and to be creative as part of a team.

Now, after moving back into a business environment, I realize that these skills are more important in the workplace than ever. So try to match wits with me – and, in the process, see how you can start to think better, and achieve more, wherever you work.

Puzzles and Riddles

Let's start with one of my favorites.

Puzzle 1: If these nine dots were printed on paper, how could you link all nine by drawing just four straight lines – and without taking your pen off the page?

Have a go – it's not as easy as it looks! If you're stuck, see if someone nearby has any ideas. And try to recognize how you tackle this puzzle – because your strategies here should reveal a lot about your approach to problem solving as a whole.

In case you don't crack it, the answer to this and all my other puzzles are at the end of the blog. But try to resist the temptation to look too soon! You've got a lot to gain from stretching your thinking skills, and persisting even if your first attempt fails. It's like resistance training for your brain, building strength to tackle the real-life problems that crop up every day.

Puzzles for Learning

Puzzles get you thinking and learning in new ways. They force you to challenge the idea that there's only one way of doing things, and they train you to explore a range of options . By doing that, you develop a much richer understanding of any situation, and get your "creative juices" flowing.

You also get a taste of metacognition – "thinking about thinking." If you let them, puzzles will give you valuable insights into the way you approach problems. And the more alert you are to what's going on in your brain when you're in puzzle-solving mode, the more you'll gain, and the faster you'll grow.

Your experiences should also help others to unlock their creativity. And by leading creative-thinking teams, you can make your whole organization more exciting, more innovative, and more successful.

Avoid the Thinking Traps

In puzzles, as in life, you often learn more from your mistakes. It's particularly important to notice which styles of thinking help you to find answers, and which get in the way. In fact, many of the best puzzles are designed to tempt you into these thinking "traps."

For example:

Puzzle 2: A horse is tied to a 10-foot rope, so how does it reach the bale of hay 15 feet away? (This question tempts you to make assumptions – which are so often the enemies of creative problem-solving.)

Puzzle 3: If a plane crashes exactly on the border between France and Germany, in which country should the survivors be buried? (Many people get this one wrong by overlooking the obvious.)

Puzzle 4: Bob and Ben were born on the same day, to the same parents, but they aren't twins. How come? (You'll only solve this puzzle if you can take a seemingly impossible situation, and find a new way of looking at it.)

When the time comes to check the answers, notice any thinking traps you fell into. Think about whether you ever make the same mistakes with real-life problems!

Positive Problem-Solving Strategies

As well as avoiding the traps laid by puzzles writers, you also need to have a range of effective thinking strategies if you're going to find the answers.

Puzzles are a great way to build confidence , and strengthen persistence, open-mindedness, and flexibility. As you work out exactly what a question is asking, discard any "red herrings," and try various positive tactics until one works. In that way, you train yourself to take a strategic, energetic, and resilient approach to solving problems.

Use some more of mine to put yourself to the test.

For each of the following questions, choose a strategy to start with. But, if that doesn't work, find a different plan of attack. See what happens when you ask friends and family for their ideas. And don't give up. Sometimes, like Sherlock Holmes playing his violin, you'll need to go away and do something else to cut loose your creativity and make the breakthrough.

Puzzle 5 : Where in the world does Friday come before Thursday?

Just as tricky is this:

Puzzle 6: Which substance is represented by the letters HIJKLMNO?

This is fiendish:

Puzzle 7: 3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, ? What's next in this numeric code – and why?

Puzzles With Words

Our brains work through connections, and puzzles strengthen our ability to make links, see patterns, and piece things together. They also provide a rich opportunity to collaborate with other people.

Word problems are particularly good for this. When you work on a cryptic crossword with a friend, for example, you have the opportunity to explore someone else's understanding of the possibilities of language.

You find yourself looking at words and phrases in a new light, making new connections, and exploring seemingly meaningless clues from different angles. Until, suddenly, something clicks.

Here are three to try now, on your own – or, even better, in collaboration with someone sitting nearby!

Puzzle 8: Mode of transport crashed in Nepal (5) (Clue: "crashed" means that there's an anagram here.)

Puzzle 9: Singer in tunnel visit. (5) (Clue: the singer's name is in "tunnel visit.")

Puzzle 10: Moscow funding? (7) (Clue: it's a word that could define "Moscow" AND "funding.")

Puzzles Boost Profits!

In education, training, and in the world of work generally, I've seen the way that puzzles can inspire a curious, playful attitude. And it spreads. It can change the way any kind of organization works for the better.

As Griffiths shows in his book, creative companies are some of the most enjoyable to work in – and among the most successful in the long term.

One reason for this is that playing around with puzzles gets you used to making mistakes. Good puzzle-solving involves free thinking and gathering a range of ideas from the whole team.

But it also requires staying focused on the question, and making sure that your solution answers it well.

Train Your Creative Brain

These days, there's no shortage of puzzles to challenge yourself with, in books, magazines and online. So take every chance you get to put your brain to work, and to share the fun with others.

Most importantly, see what happens when you put your problem-solving skills to use. You'll likely have a different outlook on real-world problems, because you'll have a range of powerful ways to solve them.

And here's one more puzzle from me to keep you practicing this creative – but concerted – approach. Why not share it with your colleagues? One person might solve it, or maybe you'll get there together.

Puzzle 11: You've put a coin inside an empty wine bottle and sealed it with a cork. How can you remove the coin without pulling the cork out of the bottle, and without damaging the bottle or the cork?

Get the Answers – by Opening Your Mind!

As "Creative Thinking Handbook" author Chris Griffiths puts it, creative thinking is about much more than "thinking outside of the box." It's about getting rid of the box altogether! And that's why I chose the puzzle at the start of this blog – because you won't solve it by staying within the confines of the grid itself.

You need to stretch some of your lines beyond its boundaries, and move into the white space outside.

When you're ready, there's a diagram below to explain the full, surprisingly simple (though sneaky!) solution.

Puzzles in a New Light

It's a great feeling when you solve a puzzle like this. But the best puzzles should keep you entertained and intrigued while you're still wrestling with them, allowing you to enjoy the process of training your creative brain.

So, see how well you get on with the ones I've set here – maybe with "The Creative Thinking Handbook" by your side! Share them to challenge your friends. And see if you notice a difference when you put your new, confident problem-solving strategies into action at work.

" The Creative Thinking Handbook, Your Step-by-Step Guide to Problem Solving in Business ," by Chris Griffiths with Melina Costi, is published by Kogan Page. If you're a Mind Tools Club member, you can listen to our review of the book here .

Answers to the Puzzles

2. The other end of the rope isn't tied to anything.

3. Survivors don't need to be buried anywhere.

4. They're two of a set of triplets.

5. In a dictionary.

6. Water: "H to O"! (H 2 O)

7. 4 (As the question says, it's a "numeric" code, but it's based on the number of letters in each number word: one (3 letters), two (3), three (5), and so on. So the next number is nine, which has four letters in it.)

10. capital

11. Push the cork into the bottle.

24 comments on “If You Can Solve These Puzzles, You'll Have a Head Start at Work!”

I love it❤very helpful indeed? Thank you so much? God bless!

Thank you Sr Helen for that feedback. Hope you enjoy more of our resources here to help with your learning and development.

This is so interesting and thrilling. Although I could not get any correctly but am happy I tried it. Thank you

Great that you tried these puzzles Somina! I also struggled with getting the correct answers when I tried it too! 😉

In the first puzzle, why do you need to draw four lines?!! Try connecting the dots with THREE lines without lifting the pencil. It has a perfectly logical answer?

You are indeed correct and you have done brilliantly to spot another solution! I think it takes a particular kind of brain to solve these puzzles! I know I am challenged with many of them!

We are very impressed with your problem-solving skills and are grateful that you have highlighted another option to us. As a result, we're going to change the design of the puzzle, so that our solution is the only one that works.

Problem 2 is also solvable if you assume the horse is staked to a post 10 feet away, as long as the bale is on the other side of the stake. In such a setup, the horse could reach a bale *20* feet from it.

It has given complete different way of thinking, other side of coin. I could say Indirect Way of Thinking. Thank you, I will try similar way in my personal and professional life ahead.

We're glad you found this helpful, Rajesh! Different ways of thinking and looking at challenges help us to see different (and new) solutions too. Good luck!

learnt from these puzzles that need to see the problems with alternate thinking.

Great to hear Prakash that you learned something from doing these puzzles. I definitely believe that they can stretch our thinking which in turn helps us when we face situations at work.

sound exercises with solutions

Thanks, Harry, for that feedback. Puzzles certainly do stretch my thinking which in turn helps me as I approach work tasks!

Really thoughtful & motivate to think alternatively ….

Helpful in a way that one stretches his or her thinking beyond the normal view.

Help to overcome daily routine challenges.

Nice, good tips

Great post! It was very informative and helpful! You always offer fresh ideas to all readers like me.

I LOVE these puzzles! It makes us think ourside the box (no pun inended). Speaking of the box; what is the solution to the 9-dot puzzle using only 3 lines?

Hi Craig - they're great, aren't they! I have to admit I get a bit frustrated by some of them - which probably means I should practice them a bit more.

Craig, you ask what is the solution to the 9-dot puzzle using only 3 lines? The puzzle is to solve it in 4 lines, are you suggesting there's a way to do it in 3? If so I can't see it - do tell!

Sarah Mind Tools Coach

Join Mind Tools

Unilever has rediscovered what its founders learned back in the day: treating people decently is good for business.

Book Insight , Leadership

Nature Was the Mother of My Invention

"“The Alchemy of Us” highlights the value of innovating, but also of thinking critically about what we do and what its consequences might be." - Melanie Bell

Book Insight , Technology

Why Did a Book About Sadness Make Me So Happy?

"It’s part of being human, stemming from our awareness that life is finite. If we squash down those feelings, we’re missing out on their benefits." - Melanie Bell

Book Insight , Empowerment

50 Riddles to challenge your students

Kids love riddles. They often see them as a very intellectual challenge that can be solved with some thinking outside of the square. Below are 50 riddles that your kids will love to try and solve and you can use them as icebreakers if need be too.

Fun Word Problems

101 Cryptic word puzzles and vocuabulary riddles that are excellent as a whole class, fun, critical and creative thinking activity.

50 GREAT RIDDLES STUDENTS WILL LOVE - (ANSWERS BELOW)

What goes up and down stairs without moving?

Give it food and it will live; give it water and it will die.

What can you catch but not throw?

I run, yet I have no legs. What am I?

Take one out and scratch my head, I am now black but once was red.

Remove the outside, cook the inside, eat the outside, throw away the inside.

What goes around the world and stays in a corner?

What gets wetter the more it dries?

The more there is, the less you see.

They come at night without being called and are lost in the day without being stolen.

What kind of room has no windows or doors?

I have holes on the top and bottom. I have holes on my left and on my right. And I have holes in the middle, yet I still hold water. What am I?

I look at you, you look at me, I raise my right, you raise your left. What is this object?

It has no top or bottom but it can hold flesh, bones, and blood all at the same time. What is this object?

The more you take the more you leave behind.

Light as a feather, there is nothing in it; the strongest man can't hold it for much more than a minute.

As I walked along the path I saw something with four fingers and one thumb, but it was not flesh, fish, bone, or fowl.

What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?

I went into the woods and got it, I sat down to seek it, I brought it home with me because I couldn't find it.

What can fill a room but takes up no space?

It is weightless, you can see it, and if you put it in a barrel it will make the barrel lighter?

No sooner spoken than broken. What is it?

Only two backbones and thousands of ribs.

Four jolly men sat down to play, And played all night till the break of day. They played for cash and not for fun, With a separate score for every one. When it came time to square accounts, They all had made quite fair amounts. Now, not one has lost and all have gained, Tell me, now, this can you explain?

Jack and Jill are lying on the floor inside the house, dead. They died from lack of water. There is shattered glass next to them. How did they die?

Why don't lobsters share?

A barrel of water weighs 20 pounds. What must you add to it to make it weigh 12 pounds?

Big as a biscuit, deep as a cup, Even a river can't fill it up. What is it?

Clara Clatter was born on December 27th, yet her birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?

He has married many women but has never married. Who is he?

If a rooster laid a brown egg and a white egg, what kind of chicks would hatch?

If you have it, you want to share it. If you share it, you don't have it. What is it?

You can't keep this until you have given it.

Take off my skin, I won't cry, but you will. What am I?

What book was once owned by only the wealthy, but now everyone can have it? You can't buy it in a bookstore or take it from the library.

What can go up and come down without moving?

What do you fill with empty hands?

What do you serve that you can't eat?

What do you throw out when you want to use it but take in when you don't want to use it?

What goes up and never comes down?

What has a foot on each side and one in the middle?

What has to be broken before it can be used?

What kind of coat can be put on only when wet?

What question can you never answer "yes" to?

What's the greatest worldwide use of cowhide?

Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white?" or "The yolk of the egg is white?"

You answer me, although I never ask you questions. What am I?

Video riddles for students

Have you tried our math riddles.

Fun and engaging math riddles and puzzles for the whole class,

$math-riddles.jpg$

Four men in a dance band

Jack and Jill are goldfish.

They're shellfish.

A kitchen strainer

She lives in the Southern Hemisphere.

None. Roosters don't lay eggs.

To hold cows together

Neither, the yolks are yellow.

A telephone

STEM eBook | Computer Science | Digital Technologies | Coding | Robotics | AI | Critical Thinking | ICT

50+ Best Hard Riddles (With Answers)

These are some of the hardest riddles for ages 18+. These hard riddles are best for those with keen math skills, science skills, and a general IQ of 90 to 110. Some of these hard riddles might be complicated for kids, though it doesn’t hurt to challenge their critical thinking skills. These will be more fitting–and maybe even fun–for adults who want to elevate their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Start off with the tricky riddles and then ease into the more challenging riddles. You’ll use logical thinking and problem-solving skills to figure out the answers. The more difficult puzzles have a clue or a hint to help solve the answer. Get started by trying to solve the first riddle and puzzle below.

Solving hard riddles and brain teasers will make you feel like a genius, so try solving riddles today!

Tricky Riddles

2 women smiling and standing near trees during daytime

Riddle: Mr. Taylor has four daughters and each has a brother. In total, how many children does Mr. Taylor have?

Answer: Five children because all of his daughters have the same brother.

Riddle: I possess a halo of water, walls of stone, and a tongue of wood. Long I have stood; what am I?

Answer: Castle.

Riddle: What can run but never walk, have a mouth but never talk, have a head that never weeps, and a bed that never sleeps?

Answer: A river.

Riddle: If an electric train is moving north at 55 mph and the winds blowing east at 70 mph, which way does the smoke blow?

Answer: An electric train doesn’t emit smoke.

Riddle: How many letters are in the alphabet?

Answer: Eleven letters are in “the alphabet”.

Riddle: How can you throw a ball as hard as you can only to have it come back to you without it bouncing off of anything?

Answer: Throw the ball straight into the air.

Riddle: I am the beginning of the end of time and space that surrounds everything and every place. What am I?

Answer: The letter “E”.

Riddle: What has only two words, but thousands of letters?

Answer: A Post Office.

Intelligent Riddles

three women sitting wooden bench by the tulip flower field

Riddle: There are 6 sisters. Each sister has 1 brother. How many brothers are in the sister’s family?

Answer: 1 brother.

Riddle: What can fill an entire room without taking up any space?

Answer: Light.

Riddle: The first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great person, while the entire word signifies a great woman.

Answer: Heroine.

Riddle: A man attending his mother’s funeral, sees a woman in another pew, and experiences love at first sight. He tries to find her but has no luck. A few weeks later, he kills his sister. Why does he kill his sister?

Answer: He kills his sister in hopes of seeing the woman at her funeral.

Riddle: What has ten letters and starts with gas?

Answer: An automobile.

Riddle: People in poverty have this. If you eat this you will die. What is it?

Answer: Nothing.

Riddle: A is the brother of B. B is the brother of C. C is the father of D. How is D related to A?

Answer: A is D’s aunt.

Riddle: There is a single-story blue house where everything is blue; the doors, windows, couch, television, kitchen, etc. are blue. What color is the carpet on the stairs in this house?

Answer: There are no stairs, it’s a one-story house.

Riddle: A woman shoots her husband and then holds him underwater for five minutes. Next, she hangs him but right after, they enjoy a nice dinner together. How is this possible?

Answer: She took a photo of her husband and then developed it in her darkroom before dinner.

Clever Riddles

smiling woman standing beside sunflowers

Riddle: What has roots that no one sees and looms much taller than trees? Up it goes but yet it never grows; what is it?

Answer: Mountain.

Riddle: I am laced twice in eternity and always within sight. What could I be?

Answer: The letter “T”.

Riddle: Two fathers and two sons come home from the mall. Yet when they arrive home, only three people get out of the car. How is this possible?

Answer: They are a grandfather, father, and son.

Riddle: What is able to go up a chimney when down but unable to go down a chimney when up?

Answer: An umbrella.

Riddle: What English word retains the same pronunciation, even after you take away four of its five letters?

Answer: Queue.

Riddle: A murderer is condemned to death and he has the option to die in one of the following three rooms: a room full of raging fire, a room full of assassins with loaded guns, and a room full of lions who haven’t eaten in years. Which room should he choose?

Answer: The room with the lions because if they haven’t eaten in years then they’re already dead.

Riddle: You’re stuck in a room with no windows, doors, or vents to use to climb out. In the room with you is a light, a mirror, and a log of wood. How do you get out?

Answer: You turn on the light and look into the mirror. In the mirror, you see what you saw so, take the saw and cut the log in half. From there, two halves make a (w)hole and you can use that hole to climb out.

Witty Riddles

photo of woman beside another woman at seashore

Riddle: What jumps when walking and sits when standing?

Answer: A kangaroo.

Riddle: If you eat me, my sender will eat you. What am I?

Answer: Fishhook.

Riddle: Steve was murdered on Saturday afternoon. His wife said she was reading. The doorman said he was in the shower. The chef said he was making breakfast. The gardener was pruning hedges. From the information given, who committed the murder?

Answer: The chef because Steve was murdered in the afternoon yet the chef’s alibi was that he was making breakfast.

Riddle: A man is trapped in a room that contains only two exits. The first exit is constructed of magnifying glasses that fry anything that walks through when the sun is out and blazing hot. The second exit includes a fire breathing dragon that is bound and determined to kill. How does the man escape?

Answer: He waits until nighttime and then runs through the first exit.

Riddle: I can shave every day but my beard never changes. What am I?

Answer: A barber.

Fun Riddles

Riddle: Two girls were born to the same mother, on the same day, at the same time, in the same month, and in the same year, however, they’re not twins. How is this possible?

Answer: The two girls are a part of a set of triplets.

Riddle: Three different doctors said that Paul is their brother yet Paul claims he has no brothers. Who is lying?

Answer: No one is lying because the three doctors are Paul’s sisters.

Riddle: If a plane came crashing down on the border between Canada and America, where are the survivors buried?

Answer: You don’t bury the survivors.

Riddle: How is it possible to drop an egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?

Answer: Concrete floors won’t crack from an egg dropping on them.

Riddle: I exemplify a rare case where today comes before yesterday. What am I?

Answer: A dictionary.

Challenging Riddles

two women smiling while standing near wall

Riddle: Which English word is the odd one out: Stun, Ton, Evil, Letter, Mood, Bad, Strap, Snap, and Straw?

Answer: Letter as it is the only one that does not spell another word when it’s written backward.

Riddle: Which word has three consecutive double letters?

Answer: Bookkeeper.

Riddle: I am born tall and grow short with age. What could I be?

Answer: A pencil.

Riddle: The person who makes it and the person who buys it have no use for it and the person who uses it never sees it or feels it. What is it?

Answer: Coffin.

Riddle: My buddies and I were inseparable mates until one by one we were split. My teacher then gave me a smack on the head so off in the corner I sit. What am I?

Answer: A staple.

Riddle: The more these are taken, the more they are left behind. What are they?

Answer: Footsteps.

Riddle: I eat to live and drink to die. What could I be?

Answer: Fire.

Tough Riddles

Riddle: A man is looking at a photo of a man on the wall and states, “Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man’s father is my father’s son.” How are the men related?

Answer: The man in the picture is his son.

Riddle: I promise, I offend, I direct, and I fight. What am I?

Answer: A hand.

Riddle: I am a five-letter word. I sound the same when you remove my first letter. I sound the same when you remove my third letter. I sound the same when my last letter is removed and I sound the same when all three are removed. What word am I?

Answer: Empty (empty, emty, emp-t, m-t).

Riddle: What is caught but never thrown?

Answer: A cold.

Riddle: When I am needed by you, you throw me away, but when I’m of no use, you take me back. What am I?

Answer: An anchor.

Riddle: Humans purchase me to eat but then never eat me. What am I?

Answer: Plates and silverware.

Difficult Riddles

woman in white tank top and blue denim jeans

Riddle: A man runs away from home, turns left three times, and ends up back at home facing a man in a mask. Who is wearing the mask?

Answer: The man in the mask is a catcher because this is a game of baseball.

Riddle: I fly without wings and cry without eyes. Wherever I lead, darkness follows. What could I be?

Answer: A cloud.

Riddle: First you throw away the outside and cook the inside and then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What am I?

Answer: Corn on the cob.

Riddle: What is it that no one wants but no one wants to lose?

Answer: Lawsuit.

Riddle: The answer is “yes” but the intent means “no”. What is the question?

Answer: “Do you mind?”

Riddle: I am a five-letter word and people eat me. If you remove the first letter I become an energy form. If you remove the first two letters, I am needed to live. Scramble the last three letters and I am a drink. What word am I?

Answer: Wheat (heat, eat, tea).

The Best Riddles

smiling woman sitting on sunflower field

Riddle: We hurt without moving and poison without touching. We bear truth and lies but are no judged by size. What are we?

Answer: Words.

Riddle: John and Kelly are long-distance lovers and John has just purchased an engagement ring for Kelly. He wants to mail the ring to her but to make sure it isn’t stolen he wants to put a lock on the package. However, John has locks and Kelly has locks but neither has a key to each other’s locks. Without sending another letter/package, how can they get the ring to Kelly and ensure it isn’t stolen in the process?

Answer: John puts a lock on the package and sends it to Kelly. Kelly puts a lock on the package as well and sends it back to John. Once John has the package again he can remove his lock from it and send it back to Kelly. When Kelly finally gets the package back, only her lock is on it so she can finally open it up.

Riddle: A woman is sitting in her hotel room when someone knocks at the door. She opened the door to find a man she’s never seen before. He says, “Oh I’m sorry, I made a mistake and thought this was my room.” He then ran away and got into an elevator so the woman shut her door and phoned security. What made the woman so suspicious?

Answer: You don’t knock on your own hotel room door.

Riddle: My first is in chocolate but no in ham. My second is in cake and also in jam. My third at tea-time is easily found. Altogether, this is a friend who is often around. What is it?

Answer: A cat; chocolate but not ham (letter “c”), in cake and jam (letter “a”), and tea-time is easily found (letter “t”).

Math Riddles

woman in white crew neck t-shirt covering her face with her hand

If you’re a math teacher hoping to get your students to enjoy the subject, try challenging them with a tough riddle or math puzzle . It’s a fun way for the kids to challenge their lateral thinking and problem-solving abilities and maybe even start to like the subject.

Riddle: A girl has an equal amount of brothers and sisters but each brother only has half as many brothers and sisters. What’s the correct amount of brothers and sisters?

Answer: Four sisters and three brothers.

Riddle: If you’re eight feet away from a door and each move advances you half the distance to the door, how many moves does it take to reach the door?

Answer: The door will never be reached because each move will always only get you half the distance.

Riddle: I have two coins that equal fifteen cents but one of them is not a nickel. What two coins are they?

Answer: A dime and a nickel because one of them is not a nickel but the other one is.

Riddle: The combined age of a father and son is 66 years and the age of the father is the age of the son with reversed digits. How old are they?

Answer: There are three possible answers: 15 and 51, 42 and 24, or 60 and 06.

Riddle: What’s unique about this number: 854, 917, 632?

Answer: It’s the numbers 1 through 9 in alphabetical order.

Riddle: A mother and father have four daughters that each have a brother. How many people are in the family?

Answer: Seven; each of the daughters has the same brother.

Riddle: Which version is correct: 18 plus 19 is 36 or, 18 plus 19 are 36?

Answer: They are both incorrect because 18 + 19 = 37.

Riddle: A man is found hanging dead from his ceiling where the room’s dimensions measure 15 x 15 x 15. However, the man is only 6 feet tall and the rope was only 2 feet long. If there are no windows, the only door was bolted shut from the inside, and there is a puddle of water beneath him, how did he kill himself?

Answer: The man stood on a block of ice and waited for it to melt to be hung.

Riddle: If 9999 = 4, 8888 = 8, 1816 = 3, and 1212 = 0, then what does 1919 = ?

Answer: 1919 = 2. The riddle is about the closed sections of a number. For example, the top of a nine is closed so 9999 has four closed parts. Similarly, the top and bottom of an eight are closed so 8888 has eight closed parts.

Albert Einstein’s Riddle

Now, if you’re really up for a challenge, here is Albert Einstein’s riddle, one that is believed to be developed when he was young. The best way to solve this brain teaser is through logic and deductive reasoning.

Think you can solve it?

Riddle: Five houses painted five different colors stand in a row. One person of a different nationality lives in each house. The five homeowners all drink some type of beverage, smoke a certain cigar brand, and have a certain kind of pet. But none of the owners drink the same beverage, smoke the same type of cigar, or have the same pet.

Here are the clues:

The Brit lives in the red house.

The swede keeps dogs as pets., the dane drinks tea., the green house is on the immediate left of the white house., the green house’s owner drinks coffee., the owner who smokes pall mall rears birds., the owner of the yellow house smokes dunhill., the owner living in the center house drinks milk., the norwegian lives in the first house., the owner who smokes blends lives next to the one who keeps cats., the owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes dunhill., the owner who smokes bluemasters drinks beer., the german smokes prince., the norwegian lives next to the blue house., the owner who smokes blends lives next to the one who drinks water.

Now, the question is, who owns the fish?

Answer: Five houses painted five different colors stand in a row. One person of a different nationality lives in each house. The five homeowners all drink some type of beverage, smoke a certain cigar brand, and have a certain kind of pet. But none of the owners drink the same beverage, smoke the same type of cigar, or have the same pet. So, in the end, the correct answer is that the German in house #4 owns the fish.

BONUS: A Fun Riddle Game

woman sitting on black soil during daytime

This riddle wordplay game is known as the Green Glass Door. It can be played at parties, in classrooms, and just as a fun icebreaker. If you’re a teacher looking to challenge your kids in the classroom, try out this entertaining logic puzzle to test their knowledge about compound words. (You know, those combined words, like sunflower [sun and flower] or moonlight [moon and light] or railroad [rail and road]). You’ll be sure to stump but also entertain your students with this tricky, yet funny riddle game.

Game Rules:

Were those easy riddles?

More Riddles

woman in white, brown, and black striped spaghetti strap top

January Nelson

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. January graduated with an English and Literature degree from Columbia University.

More From Thought Catalog

92 Juicy Details From Paris Hilton’s New Memoir

Valentine’s Day Streaming Guide: The Best Rom-Coms To Binge On Netflix, HBO Max, And More

11 Christmas Movies To Watch If You’re Dealing With Heartbreak Over The Holidays

Being Diagnosed With HIV Saved My Life. Yes, You Read That Right.

The Best Dating Sites and Apps: Complete List of the Top Online Dating Platforms

31 Days Of Halloween Movies For 2022

IMAGES

Pin on Games
No one can answer these riddles correctly: Can you find the solution to this tricky puzzle?
4 out of 5 don't know this one, do you?. Good luck finding the right answers! Rhyming riddles
A riddle is a question that creates endless possibilities to develop problem solving skills
Riddle Time in 2020
Problem-Solving Riddles That Only Smart People Can Solve

VIDEO

2016 AIME Prob 1
Only 20% solve this riddle. Can YOU!? 🏝#riddles #braingames #fyp
Can you solve? #solve #riddle #shorts #short
No one can solve this riddle! Can you solve it? Comment the answer! #shorts #riddles
⚠️ 97 % OF PEOPLE CAN'T SOLVE THIS RIDDLE. CAN YOU? 🤔
Can You Solve This Riddles Problem!!😱😡 #shorts

COMMENTS

20 Hard Riddles for Adults
Difficulty: Easy. This problem is in honor of my dad, Harold Feiveson. It's due to him that I love math puzzles, and this is one of the
9 Tricky Puzzles to Test Your Problem Solving Skills
What are some difficult logical puzzles that will sharpen your mind? · 1. The riddle of the farmer · 2. The rope bridge at night problem · 3. The
14 tricky brainteasers and riddles only smart people can solve
14 tricky brainteasers and riddles only smart people can solve · 1. If you have me, you want to share me. · 2. You're escaping a labyrinth, and
25 Logic Puzzles That Will Totally Blow Your Mind, But ...
Easy Logic Puzzles · 1. Logic Puzzle: There are two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck and a duck in the middle. · 2. Logic Puzzle:
58 Brain Teasers That Will Leave You Stumped
Solving logic problems boosts brain power, keeps your memory strong, and frustrates ... Here are some easy riddles almost anyone can solve.
Logic Riddles with Answers
Logic Riddles · A murderer is condemned to death. · Four golfers named Mr. · A prisoner is told: "If you tell a lie, we will hang you and if you tell the truth, we
20+ Logic Riddles and Good Riddle Questions with Answers
Alex is Charlie's father. Who of them was born later? ... Charlie. I make two people out of one. What am I? ... A mirror. What loses its head in the morning and
Puzzles: Solve These And You'll Have a Head Start at Work
Think about whether you ever make the same mistakes with real-life problems! Positive Problem-Solving Strategies. As well as avoiding the traps
50 Riddles to challenge your students
50 GREAT RIDDLES STUDENTS WILL LOVE - (ANSWERS BELOW) · What goes up and down stairs without moving? · Give it food and it will live; give it
50+ Best Hard Riddles (With Answers)
Riddle: What jumps when walking and sits when standing? Answer: A kangaroo. Riddle: If you eat me, my sender will eat you. What am I? Answer: Fishhook