Brain Teaser Puzzles with Answers
A good brain teaser makes you feel dumb, then smart, in about ten seconds. These range from easy to hard, and the Easy, Medium and Hard chips above the list let you read one grade on its own. Start wherever you like. Answers stay hidden until you want them.
Four shapes of brain teaser, and the first job is naming the shape
Four shapes cover 89 of the 100 cards, so name the shape before you guess. Thirty-seven of them run on a premise nobody checks. The block is an assumption you supply, not a fact the card withholds. Thirty-two turn on a word rather than a situation, like hard water spelled ICE on card 18. Twelve stack clauses that look impossible until one answer fits every clause, like card 59 with a head and no brain. Eight are scenes missing a piece of story. Eleven more hang on a decoy number, a calendar, a voice given to an object, or a plain description.
One habit serves all four. Reread, and watch the small words. On a premise card the pivot hides in one, in all but, in the pronoun it. On a contradiction card, test the clauses one by one against the plainest thing you can name. On a scene card, ask back: what was the job, what is the room missing. On a word card, try a second sense first, then the letters.
Three child pages take the specialists. Brain teasers word runs on spelling and anagrams, brain teasers math collects the number puzzles, and brain teasers for kids gathers cards written for six to twelve year olds. This shelf keeps the mix, so no single reflex carries you through it. For the classic form, a card that describes a thing and asks you to name it, go to the riddles hub.
- Riddle 17: most people say Drop it on a pillow. A pillow protects the egg, and nothing on the card asked you to. Read the pronoun again. It has two candidates in that sentence, and the nearer one is the concrete floor, which one falling egg is never going to crack.
- Riddle 67: most people say A whiteboard. A whiteboard arrives first because its colors run the right way round, and then it stumbles on clean: a whiteboard starts out white. What answers both halves begins dark and turns pale only once it has been used.
- Riddle 71: most people say There is no such word. Giving up is fair while contains has to mean spells out, because no three syllable word does that. Let contains mean holds by naming, and a word of eight letters carries the whole set without printing any of it.
- Riddle 84: most people say Two people who drowned. Romeo and Juliet cast two humans, and those names are the only thing doing the casting. The card says beings rather than people, which leaves room for animals, and the glass, the puddle and the untouched bodies then fit one tipped over bowl.
Decide where the mistake would sit before you answer: a condition you added, a clause you read as impossible, a word taken the usual way, or a scene you pictured that the card never printed.
Explore brain teaser puzzles with answers
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1. I have two coins that add up to 30 cents. One of them is not a nickel. What are the two coins? Medium
Most people first say: A quarter and five pennies
Need a hint?
Read the wording very carefully.
Show answer
A quarter and a nickel. The quarter is the one that is not a nickel.
One of them is doing all the work: it excludes a nickel for a single coin, not for the pair, so the second coin may still be the nickel you had ruled out.
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2. A rooster sits on the very peak of a barn roof and lays an egg. Which side does the egg roll down? Easy
Most people first say: The steeper side
Show answer
Neither. Roosters do not lay eggs.
The whole setup is a trap, since a rooster is a male chicken and only hens lay eggs.
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3. If you stand facing east and walk ten steps backward, which direction are you facing? Easy
Show answer
East. Walking backward does not turn you around.
Walking backward changes where you go, not where you face, so you keep looking east the whole time.
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4. A night guard dreams that his boss's morning flight will crash. He warns him, the flight is cancelled, and the plane really does have engine trouble. The boss thanks him, then fires him. Why? Medium
Show answer
He was sleeping on the job. Night guards are not paid to dream.
The accurate dream is a distraction, because dreaming at all proves he was asleep during his night shift.
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5. A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 die. How many sheep are left? Easy
Most people first say: Eight sheep
Show answer
9. All but 9 died, so 9 survived.
All but 9 die means 9 are spared, so the 17 total is only there to tempt you into subtracting.
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6. An electric train is heading east at 100 kilometers per hour. The wind is blowing hard from the north. Which way does the smoke blow? Easy
Most people first say: To the south
Show answer
There is no smoke. It is an electric train.
The wind and speed are decoys, because an electric train burns no fuel and makes no smoke to blow anywhere.
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7. Two fathers and two sons go fishing. They catch exactly three fish, and each of them takes home one whole fish. How is that possible? Medium
Most people first say: Four people
Show answer
There are only three people: a grandfather, his son, and his grandson. The middle man is both a father and a son.
Nothing says four people. One man is counted twice, once as a parent and once as a child, so three men at the water split three fish evenly.
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8. What happens when you throw a white hat into the Black Sea? Easy
Show answer
It gets wet. That is all.
The color in the name invites a color change, but a place name does nothing to fabric. Nothing in the question gives the water a dye, so the hat comes out the shade it went in, only wet.
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9. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain on Earth? Medium
Show answer
Mount Everest. It was still the tallest, just not discovered yet.
A mountain's height does not depend on people finding it, so Everest was already the tallest before anyone measured it.
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10. What do people ask for every day, receive for free, and almost never take? Medium
Show answer
Advice.
Take is the verb that flips. Its everyday sense is picking something up, but advice is taken by doing what it says, so a thing you already hold can still go untaken.
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11. A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays for three days, and leaves on Friday. How is that possible? Medium
Show answer
His horse is named Friday.
Friday is the name of his horse, not the day, so he can arrive and leave on it after any three day stay.
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12. A truck driver goes the wrong way down a one way street. He passes two police officers, and neither one stops him. Why not? Medium
Most people first say: The officers were off duty
Show answer
He is walking, not driving.
The driver is on foot at the time, and a pedestrian is free to walk against traffic on a one way street.
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13. A plane crashes exactly on the border between two countries. Where do they bury the survivors? Easy
Most people first say: On the border
Show answer
Nowhere. You do not bury survivors.
Survivors are the people who lived through the crash, so there is no one to bury at all.
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14. A rope ladder hangs over the side of an anchored ship. The rungs are 30 centimeters apart and the bottom rung touches the water. The tide rises 60 centimeters every hour. After three hours, how many rungs are underwater? Medium
Most people first say: Six rungs
Need a hint?
The ladder is attached to something floating.
Show answer
None. The ship rises with the tide, so the ladder rises too.
The ship floats and rises with the tide, so the ladder lifts too and the same rung stays right at the waterline.
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15. A hardware store sells red paint for 3 dollars, blue paint for 4 dollars, and green paint for 5 dollars. Every can is exactly the same size. What is the store really charging for? Hard
Need a hint?
Forget the paint and look at the color names.
Show answer
One dollar per letter. Red has three letters, blue has four, green has five.
The price matches the number of letters in each color name, so red costs three dollars, blue four, and green five.
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16. If there are three apples on the table and you take away two, how many apples do you have? Medium
Most people first say: One apple
Show answer
Two. The ones you took.
The question asks how many you have, not how many are left, and you are holding the two you took.
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17. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it? Medium
Most people first say: Drop it on a pillow
Show answer
Just drop it. Concrete floors are very hard to crack.
The word it points to the concrete floor, which a single falling egg cannot crack.
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18. How do you spell hard water with just three letters? Medium
Show answer
ICE.
Hard water reads as a laboratory term, but the card wants the phrase taken at face value: water gone solid. Three letters then stops being impossible, because the everyday name for it is that short.
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19. A boy kicks a ball as hard as he can, and it comes straight back to him. Nobody touched it and nothing was in the way. How? Easy
Show answer
He kicked it straight up into the air.
Direction is the blank the card never fills: it says how hard, not which way, and readers picture a kick down the field. Send the same force upward and gravity brings the ball back with nobody else in the scene.
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20. The more of these you take, the more you leave behind. What are they? Medium
Most people first say: Breaths you take
Show answer
Footsteps.
Take reads as carrying something off, but here it means placing a foot down, and every foot placed presses a print into the ground you are walking away from.
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21. I am light as a feather, yet the strongest person in the world cannot hold me for more than a few minutes. What am I? Medium
Show answer
Breath.
Hold flips from gripping to keeping air inside your chest, which is why raw strength buys you only a minute or two and a feather has nothing to do with it.
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22. Which is heavier, a full moon or a half moon? Hard
Most people first say: The full moon
Need a hint?
One word here means brightness, not weight.
Show answer
The half moon. A full moon is lighter.
It is a pun, since a full moon shines with the most light and so is the lightest of all.
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23. Can you spell the word enemy using only three letters? Medium
Show answer
N M E. Say the letters out loud and you hear the word.
Said aloud, the letters N, M, E blend into the sound of the word enemy.
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24. A woman gives a beggar fifty cents. The woman is the beggar's sister, but the beggar is not the woman's brother. How? Easy
Most people first say: Her stepbrother
Show answer
The beggar is her sister.
Nothing in the wording gives the beggar a gender, and you filled that blank in with a man. Read it again with a woman on the pavement and the two sentences stop fighting.
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25. You are driving a bus. At the first stop 4 people get on. At the second stop 8 get on and 3 get off. At the third stop 2 get off and 4 get on. What color are the bus driver's eyes? Medium
Most people first say: There is no way to know
Need a hint?
Reread the very first sentence.
Show answer
Whatever color your eyes are. You are the driver.
The opening line hands you the job: you are driving. Everyone who tries to add and subtract passengers has answered a different question from the one at the end.
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26. You are outside a room with three light switches. Inside the room is a single lamp, and you cannot see it from outside. You may flip the switches however you like, but you may enter the room only once. How do you find out which switch controls the lamp? Hard
Need a hint?
A light bulb gives off more than light.
Show answer
Turn on the first switch for a few minutes, then turn it off and turn on the second. Enter the room. If the lamp is lit, it is the second switch. If it is off but the bulb is warm, it is the first. If it is off and cold, it is the third.
A bulb left on grows warm, so heat becomes a second clue that marks the switch you turned on and then off before entering.
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27. What is at the end of everything? Medium
Show answer
The letter G.
Read literally, the last letter of the written word everything is the letter G.
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28. Ten fish are in a tank. Three swim away, two drown, and one hides. How many fish are in the tank? Medium
Most people first say: Five fish
Show answer
Ten. Fish cannot drown, and none of them can leave a tank by swimming away.
Fish breathe underwater so they cannot drown, and they cannot swim out of a sealed tank, so all ten stay put.
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29. I am a five letter word. Take away my first two letters and only one remains. What am I? Medium
Show answer
Stone. Remove the s and the t, and one is left.
Only one remains sounds like a count of letters left over. It is naming the word one instead, so the puzzle wants a five letter word that ends in those three letters.
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30. What gets sharper the more you use it? Medium
Show answer
Your brain.
Your brain grows keener with practice, the opposite of a knife blade that dulls with use.
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31. How many 9s appear when you count from 1 to 100? Medium
Most people first say: Ten nines
Need a hint?
Ninety, ninety one, ninety two...
Show answer
Twenty. Do not forget the nineties.
Nine shows up ten times in the ones place and ten more times across ninety to ninety nine, making twenty in all.
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32. What starts with gas but has only three letters? Medium
Show answer
A car.
A car needs gas to get started and the word car is spelled with just three letters.
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33. A man went out for a walk in heavy rain with no umbrella, no hat, and no hood, yet not a single hair on his head got wet. How? Easy
Most people first say: He walked under the trees
Show answer
He is bald.
You picture someone with a full head of hair, but a bald man has no hair up there to get wet.
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34. What can travel all around the world while staying in the same corner? Medium
Most people first say: A passport
Show answer
A postage stamp. It stays in the corner of the envelope.
Corner sounds like a region of the map, but the one that matters belongs to an envelope. Fixed to that small square, the stamp crosses oceans without ever shifting position.
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35. A cat jumps out of a window of a twenty story building and walks away without a scratch. How? Medium
Most people first say: It landed on its feet
Show answer
It jumped from a window on the ground floor.
Twenty story building sets the height in your head, yet the card never picks a floor. Ground level is still a window, and a short hop explains the missing scratches.
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36. What has hands but cannot clap? Easy
Show answer
A clock.
A clock's hands point out the time but have no palms to clap together.
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37. What has a mouth but never talks, and runs but never walks? Easy
Show answer
A river.
A river has a mouth where it meets the sea and runs downstream, but it does neither the way a person does.
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38. Feed me and I live. Give me a drink and I die. What am I? Easy
Show answer
Fire.
Both lines hand an appetite to something that has no mouth. Feeding here is adding fuel, while the drink is plain water, the one substance that ends the thing instead of keeping it going.
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39. What can you serve but should never eat? Medium
Show answer
A volleyball.
In volleyball you serve the ball to open play, but the ball is equipment, not food.
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40. The poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it you die. What is it? Medium
Show answer
Nothing.
Each clause asks for an object, so you shop for one. The trick is that the word covering all three is not an object at all, which is why eating it starves you.
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41. During which month do people sleep the least? Medium
Most people first say: The month of December
Show answer
February. It has the fewest nights.
Least refers to the total across a month, not to restless nights. Fewer dates on the calendar leave fewer chances to go to bed, which puts February at the bottom.
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42. Walking to school you count twenty houses on your right. Walking home you count twenty houses on your left. How many different houses did you count? Medium
Most people first say: Forty houses
Show answer
Twenty. They are the same houses seen from the other side.
The same row that was on your right heading out sits on your left coming home, so you counted one set of houses twice.
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43. I am full of holes, yet I can still hold water. What am I? Easy
Show answer
A sponge.
A sponge is riddled with tiny holes that soak up and hold water rather than letting it drain straight through.
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44. You are trapped in a sinking rowboat surrounded by sharks. How do you survive? Medium
Most people first say: Swim for the shore
Show answer
Stop imagining.
There is no real danger because you are only picturing the scene, so you escape by stopping the daydream.
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45. Where can you find cities without houses, rivers without water, and forests without trees? Easy
Show answer
On a map.
A map shows the names and shapes of cities, rivers, and forests without any of the real things being there.
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46. When can you add 8 to 8 and get 4? Medium
Show answer
On a clock. Eight hours after 8 o'clock is 4 o'clock.
On a twelve hour clock, eight hours past eight o'clock wraps around to four o'clock.
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47. A doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour. How long do the pills last? Medium
Most people first say: An hour and a half
Need a hint?
The first pill goes down at minute zero.
Show answer
One hour. You take the first right away, the second after 30 minutes, and the third after 60.
You swallow the first pill right away, so only two half hour gaps follow, adding up to sixty minutes.
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48. In a race you overtake the runner in second place. What place are you in now? Medium
Most people first say: First place
Show answer
Second place. You took their spot, not first.
Passing the person in second moves you into their spot, not the leader's, so you finish that pass in second place.
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49. A bat and a ball cost 1 dollar and 10 cents together. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much is the ball? Hard
Most people first say: 10 cents
Need a hint?
The obvious answer of 10 cents does not add up.
Show answer
5 cents. Then the bat is 1 dollar and 5 cents, which is exactly a dollar more.
A dollar more is the phrase people skip. Lift that dollar out of the 1.10 first, halve the dime that is left, and the ball is a nickel while the bat is a dollar and a nickel.
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50. A patch of lily pads doubles in size every day. It takes 48 days to cover the whole pond. How long does it take to cover half the pond? Medium
Most people first say: 24 days
Need a hint?
Work backwards from day 48.
Show answer
47 days. On the last day it doubles from half to full.
Because the patch doubles each day, the day before it fills the pond it must have covered exactly half, which is day 47.
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51. Mr. Smith has 4 daughters. Each daughter has one brother. How many children does Mr. Smith have? Medium
Most people first say: Eight children
Show answer
Five. The four daughters all share the same one brother.
Each daughter has one brother does not mean each has her own. One boy can be the brother of every girl in the family, which keeps the total at four sisters plus him.
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52. David's father has three sons: Snap, Crackle, and who? Easy
Most people first say: Pop, like the cereal
Show answer
David.
Snap and Crackle are bait, and the rhythm pulls you toward Pop. The first two words already named the family, so the missing son is the boy the sentence is about.
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53. It takes 12 minutes to boil one egg. How long does it take to boil four eggs together in the same pot? Easy
Most people first say: 48 minutes
Need a hint?
The eggs do not take turns.
Show answer
12 minutes. All four eggs sit in the same water and cook at the same time.
Boiling is not a queue. The pot heats every egg at the same moment, so the clock that matters is the one for a single egg, no matter how many go in.
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54. A teacher says: the day before yesterday I was 25, yet next year I will turn 28. How can that be true? Hard
Most people first say: She said it on December 31
Need a hint?
Pick a day when two years meet.
Show answer
She said it on January 1. Her birthday is December 31.
The day before yesterday and next year can straddle two New Years. Spoken on January first by someone whose birthday is December thirty first, she was 25 two days back, is 26 now, and reaches 28 the year after this one.
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55. What time is it when the clock strikes thirteen? Easy
Most people first say: One o'clock
Show answer
Time to fix the clock.
Time swaps senses. The question sounds like it wants a reading off a dial, while the answer hears the right moment for a repair, and a chime past twelve is proof the mechanism has slipped.
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56. How many sides does an egg have? Medium
Show answer
Two. The inside and the outside.
You expect a solid oval to have many sides, but a hollow shell has just two surfaces, an inside and an outside.
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57. What word looks exactly the same upside down and backwards? Hard
Need a hint?
Which letters survive a half turn?
Show answer
SWIMS.
Rotated 180 degrees the two S letters and the I stay themselves while the W and M turn into each other, so SWIMS reads as SWIMS again.
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58. Seven friends meet, and each one shakes hands with every other friend exactly once. How many handshakes is that? Medium
Most people first say: Forty two handshakes
Show answer
Twenty one.
Each of the seven shakes with the other six, and dividing 7 times 6 by two to avoid counting each shake twice gives 21.
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59. I have a head but no brain, and I drive nails instead of cars. What am I? Easy
Show answer
A hammer.
A hammer has a flat head for pounding nails but no brain, and driving here means driving nails, not cars.
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60. A man just turned twenty, yet he has only celebrated five birthdays. How? Medium
Most people first say: He skipped the other parties
Show answer
He was born on February 29. His birthday only comes in leap years.
Born on February 29, his actual birthday lands only once every four years, so twenty years bring just five of them.
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61. How can a man go eight days without sleep? Medium
Show answer
He sleeps at night. The eight days are fine.
The riddle counts days, not nights, so he sleeps every night and still passes eight days awake.
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62. A butcher is 5 foot 10, wears size 11 shoes, and works six days a week. What does he weigh? Medium
Most people first say: About two hundred pounds
Show answer
Meat. That is his job.
The height and shoe size are decoys, since a butcher weighs cuts of meat for his customers.
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63. Can you spell candy with just two letters? Medium
Show answer
Yes. C and Y.
Said aloud, the two letters C and Y sound out can-dy.
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64. Three doctors all say that Robert is their brother. Robert says he has no brothers. Who is lying? Medium
Most people first say: Robert is lying
Need a hint?
Check your assumptions about the doctors.
Show answer
Nobody. The three doctors are his sisters.
The assumption that doctors must be men hides the answer, since the three doctors are Robert's sisters.
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65. Two ducks waddle in front of a duck, two ducks waddle behind a duck, and one duck waddles in the middle. What is the smallest number of ducks this could be? Medium
Most people first say: Five ducks
Need a hint?
The same ducks can play more than one role.
Show answer
Three. They walk in a single line of three.
With three ducks in a single line the same birds fill every role, so two are ahead of the last, two behind the first, and one sits in the middle.
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66. If a red house is made of red bricks and a yellow house is made of yellow bricks, what is a greenhouse made of? Medium
Show answer
Glass.
A greenhouse is named for the plants it shelters, not its color, so its walls are made of glass.
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67. What is black when it is clean and white when it is dirty? Medium
Most people first say: A whiteboard
Show answer
A chalkboard.
A fresh chalkboard is black, but the chalk dust from writing on it leaves the surface looking white.
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68. What do you throw out when you want to use it, and take in when you are done with it? Medium
Show answer
An anchor.
Throw out sounds like getting rid of something and take in sounds like bringing it home for good, which is the wrong pair of senses. Read both as moves over the side of a boat and the contradiction disappears.
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69. If you drop me I am sure to crack, but give me a smile and I always smile back. What am I? Medium
Show answer
A mirror.
The voice borrows a face and a mood, which makes you hunt for a person or a pet. Strip the personality out and two plain properties are left: brittle glass, and a surface that hands your expression straight back.
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70. What starts with E, ends with E, and holds only one letter? Medium
Show answer
An envelope.
The word envelope begins and ends with E, and an envelope carries a single letter of mail inside.
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71. What word contains all 26 letters but is only three syllables long? Medium
Most people first say: There is no such word
Show answer
Alphabet.
Contains is the slippery word: the reply holds those letters by naming them, not by spelling them out. Three syllables then stops being a contradiction and becomes a second check.
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72. What time of day is spelled the same forwards and backwards? Easy
Show answer
Noon.
Noon is a palindrome, reading the same whether you spell it forward or backward.
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73. What is easy to get into but very hard to get out of? Medium
Show answer
Trouble.
You picture a place or a container, but getting into and out of are really the everyday idioms for landing in trouble.
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74. How much dirt is there in a hole that is two feet wide, two feet long, and two feet deep? Easy
Most people first say: Eight cubic feet
Need a hint?
Think about what a hole actually is.
Show answer
None, a hole is empty by definition.
Three measurements invite a volume, and volume is exactly what a hole does not have. Dig one and the dirt leaves with the shovel, so what is left behind holds none of it.
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75. What has many keys but cannot open even one lock? Easy
Most people first say: A key ring
Show answer
A piano.
A piano has dozens of keys for making music, none of which fit a lock.
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76. What has a single eye but cannot see anything? Easy
Show answer
A needle.
The eye of a needle is just the hole for the thread, not an organ of sight.
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77. What word is always spelled wrong, even in the dictionary? Easy
Most people first say: The word incorrect
Show answer
The word wrong.
Spelled wrong is read as a mistake, but the sentence is pointing at the five letters themselves. Nothing is misprinted in the dictionary; the entry just happens to be that adjective.
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78. What kind of building has the most stories? Easy
Show answer
A library.
A library is full of stories in its books, more than any tower has floors.
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79. A man lives on the tenth floor. Every morning he rides the elevator down and leaves. Coming home he rides to the seventh floor and takes the stairs the rest of the way, unless it is raining, when he rides all the way to ten. Why? Hard
Most people first say: He likes the exercise
Need a hint?
Think about how tall he is and what he carries when it rains.
Show answer
He is too short to reach the tenth floor button, but on rainy days his umbrella lets him press it.
Height is the fact the story hides. His arm reaches the seventh button and no higher, and an umbrella on wet days becomes a longer finger for the top one.
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80. A woman shot her husband, then held him underwater for a full minute. A little later the two sat down and had dinner together. How? Hard
Need a hint?
Her job involves a darkroom.
Show answer
She is a photographer, so she shot a photo, developed it in water, and then they ate.
Shot and held underwater describe developing a photograph, not harming a person.
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81. A man pushes his car up to a hotel, and the moment he arrives he knows he is bankrupt. What is going on? Hard
Most people first say: His car broke down
Need a hint?
The board on the table, not the street.
Show answer
He is playing Monopoly and landed on a property with a hotel.
The car is a game token and the hotel is the one he cannot afford to pay rent on.
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82. A mother has two children who were born in the same hour of the same day of the same year, yet they are not twins. How? Hard
Most people first say: They must be twins
Need a hint?
Twins is a count, not a birth time.
Show answer
They are two babies from a set of triplets or more.
Twins means two of the set, but three or more siblings can share the same birth moment.
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83. A man lies dead in the middle of an empty field with an unopened pack strapped to his back, and there are no other clues. What happened? Hard
Most people first say: He was struck by lightning
Need a hint?
Look up, not around.
Show answer
His parachute failed to open.
An empty field with no other clues steers you to a ground level accident. Look upward instead: the pack is the only object in the scene, and it was meant to open overhead.
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84. Two beings named Romeo and Juliet lie dead on the floor surrounded by shards of glass and a puddle of water. Nobody harmed them. What are they? Hard
Most people first say: Two people who drowned
Need a hint?
Their home was made of glass.
Show answer
They are goldfish whose bowl was knocked over and broke.
Romeo and Juliet make you cast two humans, and the names are the only thing suggesting it. Swap in pets and the glass, the puddle and the untouched bodies all fit one knocked over bowl.
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85. A man walks into a diner and asks for a glass of water. The server suddenly pulls out a gun and points it at him. The man smiles, says thanks, and walks out. Why? Hard
Need a hint?
Why did he want the water in the first place?
Show answer
He had hiccups, and the scare cured them, so he no longer needed the water.
A pulled weapon reads as a threat, which sends the scene toward a crime. Ask instead what the water was for: he arrived with a small complaint that a sudden shock can end, so the server treated him rather than robbed him.
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86. A man is found hanging in a bare, locked room with a puddle of water below his feet and no furniture anywhere. How did he reach the height he needed? Hard
Need a hint?
Where did the puddle come from?
Show answer
He stood on a large block of ice that melted away.
A bare room seems to rule out anything to climb, but the puddle is evidence of furniture that erased itself. Frozen water held his weight long enough and then drained away.
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87. You have two ropes and a box of matches. Each rope takes exactly one hour to burn end to end, but neither burns evenly. How do you measure exactly 45 minutes? Hard
Need a hint?
A rope lit from both ends burns in half the time.
Show answer
Light both ends of the first rope and one end of the second at once; when the first burns out, 30 minutes have passed, so light the second rope's other end and it finishes 15 minutes later.
Burning a rope from both ends halves its one hour to 30 minutes, and doing the same to the remainder adds 15.
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88. A bridge holds at most 100 kilograms. A traveler weighs 98 kilograms and carries three apples of 1 kilogram each. He crosses safely without eating or dropping anything. How? Hard
Need a hint?
He does not have to hold all three at once.
Show answer
He juggles the apples so that at least one is always in the air.
Read it as the puzzle's own arithmetic: whatever is airborne does not count, so the deck only ever carries the man plus two apples, exactly at the limit. A real bridge would still feel the throw.
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89. You have a 5 liter jug, a 3 liter jug, and a tap, but neither jug has markings. How do you measure exactly 4 liters? Hard
Most people first say: Pour out half by eye
Need a hint?
Use the 3 liter jug to draw exactly 1 liter out of a full 5.
Show answer
Fill the 5, pour into the 3 to leave 2 in the 5, empty the 3 and pour the 2 in, refill the 5, then top off the 3 with 1 liter, leaving exactly 4 in the 5.
No markings does not mean no measuring. Emptying the full 5 into the 3 leaves a known 2, and a 3 that already holds 2 has room for exactly 1, which is what you shave off the next full 5 to land on 4.
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90. Two friends play five games of chess. Each of them wins three games, and no game ends in a draw. How is that possible? Hard
Need a hint?
Nothing says the two played one another.
Show answer
They were not playing against each other.
Since three wins each adds to six results in only five games, they must have had separate opponents.
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91. A prisoner is told to make one statement. If it is true he will be shot, and if it is false he will be hanged. What statement sets him free? Hard
Need a hint?
Aim for a statement the guards cannot classify.
Show answer
He says, I will be hanged.
If that statement is false he must be hanged, which makes it true, a contradiction that lets him escape both fates.
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92. Stand me on my side and I am everything; slice me down the middle and I become nothing twice over. What number am I? Hard
Need a hint?
Think about the shape of the digit.
Show answer
Eight.
On its side an 8 is the infinity symbol, and cut across the middle it splits into two zeros.
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93. Which common English word keeps its exact pronunciation even after you delete its last four letters? Hard
Need a hint?
It sounds like a single letter of the alphabet.
Show answer
Queue.
The word queue sounds like the letter Q, and the four trailing letters are silent.
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94. Of all the everyday devices people use to tell time, which one has by far the most moving parts? Hard
Need a hint?
Count what actually moves.
Show answer
An hourglass.
Every grain of sand in an hourglass is a moving part, adding up to thousands.
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95. A father says his children are all blonde but two, all brunette but two, and all red haired but two. How many children does he have? Hard
Most people first say: Six children
Need a hint?
Try the smallest number that fits all three clues at once.
Show answer
Three, one of each hair color.
With one blonde, one brunette, and one redhead, each color leaves exactly two others out.
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96. You step into a pitch dark cabin holding one match. Inside are an oil lamp, a candle, and a wood burning stove. Which do you light first? Hard
Most people first say: The candle
Need a hint?
What is already in your hand?
Show answer
The match.
The list of three tempts you to pick a favorite, while the tool in your hand goes unnoticed. Nothing in the cabin catches fire until the match head is already burning.
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97. A snail sits at the bottom of a 10 meter well. Each day it climbs 3 meters, and each night it slips back 2 meters. How many days does it take to escape? Hard
Most people first say: Ten days
Need a hint?
The final climb never gets undone.
Show answer
Eight days.
It nets one meter each full day, but on the eighth day it climbs the last 3 meters and is out before sliding back.
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98. What five letter word becomes shorter when you tack two more letters onto the end of it? Hard
Need a hint?
The answer describes length.
Show answer
Short, which becomes shorter.
Shorter is not a description of the word, it is the word. Tacking on two letters at the end makes the string longer on the page while what it means goes the other way.
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99. I go up and I go down, yet I never move an inch from where I stand. What am I? Easy
Need a hint?
You use your feet on me, but I stay put between two floors.
Show answer
a staircase
A staircase lets people travel up and down while the steps themselves stay perfectly still.
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100. I show up after the rain and disappear once the sun comes out. Kids love to jump in me. What am I? Easy
Most people first say: A rainbow
Need a hint?
I sit in a dip on the sidewalk after a storm.
Show answer
a puddle
Rain and sun bracket the answer from both ends, since it has to arrive with one and vanish with the other. Jumping in it rules out dew, which is far too thin to splash.
Easy brain teasers to warm up
26 of the 100 cards carry the Easy grade, and those are the ones to read out loud. Card 2 puts a rooster on a barn roof and asks which way its egg rolls, which stops being a question the moment you remember a rooster is male. Card 6 asks which way the smoke blows from an electric train, and an electric train makes none. Card 13 asks where the survivors of a crash are buried. Each of the three waits for you to say what you assumed while reading it, so read the sentence aloud, then name the assumption out loud too. Do that a few times and the Hard grade stops feeling mean.
Brain teasers with answers for adults
Reach for the Hard chip once the easy ones stop biting. It holds 26 of the 100 cards. Card 26 gives you three light switches and a single visit to the room. Card 87 hands over two ropes that burn unevenly. Card 89 sets a five liter jug beside a three liter jug with no markings on either. Each of those three states a limit and asks you to build a method inside it, and none of them hides a pun. The work happens on paper rather than in the reading, and their hints offer a principle or a first step instead of a thing to spot. Tap the Hard chip and the rest of the list steps out of the way while you read that grade.
Quick brain teasers for kids and classrooms
For a classroom the cards that work are the ones that read aloud in a sentence, and these three do: the man who walks through heavy rain without wetting a hair, the time of day spelled the same in both directions, the walker who steps backward and still faces east. A teacher can read one at the door or between lessons. Ask the room what they assumed before anyone hears the answer, because the assumption is the lesson and the answer is only proof of it. The contradiction cards give the youngest room the easiest way in, a clock with hands, a needle with one eye, and neither of those asks for any arithmetic.
Your score
FAQ about Brain Teaser Puzzles with Answers
What is the difference between a brain teaser and a riddle?
A riddle usually describes something and asks what it is. A brain teaser is broader, covering trick questions, mini logic problems, and wordplay. This page mixes all of those.
Why is the answer to the bat and ball puzzle 5 cents and not 10?
Ten cents feels right, but a bat costing a dollar more would then be 1 dollar and 10 cents, and the pair would total 1 dollar and 20 cents. At 5 cents the bat is 1 dollar and 5 cents, still exactly a dollar more, and together they come to 1 dollar and 10 cents.
At what age can children start solving brain teasers?
Most children manage one line trick questions around age six, once they can hold a whole sentence in mind at once. Wordplay such as spelling hard water with three letters, ICE, suits about seven and up. Multi step logic like the doubling lily pad pond usually lands better at ten or eleven.
Do the hints on this page give the answer away?
Not quite. A hint points at whatever gets a stuck solver moving, and that is not always the same thing: sometimes the word a card turns on, sometimes an assumption to drop, sometimes the first step of a procedure. Two of the hints do describe their object closely enough to read as a second riddle. 38 of the 100 cards carry a hint, every card graded Hard among them, and each one sits in its own Need a hint? block above the answer, so you can open one without opening the other.
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