75+ Brain Teaser Riddles
Here is an extensive list of over 75 Brain Teaser riddles.
1. Andrew’s doctor gives him three pills and tells him to take one every half hour. How much time will have passed by the time Andrew’s taken all three pills?
Answer: One hour. Andrew will take one right away, then take one a half-hour later, then take the final one a half-hour after that.
2. The more there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: Fog.
3. You stand in front of two doors. A guard stands next to each door. You know the following things: one path leads to paradise, the other leads to death. You cannot distinguish between the two doors. You also know that one of the two guards always tells the truth and the other always lies. You have permission to ask one guard one question to discover which door leads to paradise. What one question would you ask to guarantee you enter the door to paradise?
Answer: Ask, “Which door would the other guard say leads to paradise?”
4. A wealthy family lived in a big circular house. They had a maid, a butler, and a gardener. The parents were going to a party, so they tucked the younger kids into bed and kissed them goodnight and said goodbye, and kissed the older kids goodnight. When the parents came home, all the kids were gone—they had been kidnapped. The authorities ask the butler, maid, and gardener what they were doing at the time of the kidnapping. The butler says he was organizing the library, the maid says she was dusting the corners, and the gardener says he was watering the plants. Who’s lying and actually kidnapped the kids?
Answer: The maid—she said she was dusting the corners, but the family lives in a circular house, so there are no corners.
5. Mr. and Mrs. Mustard have six daughters and each daughter has one brother. How many people are in the Mustard family?
Answer: There are nine Mustards in the family. Since each daughter shares the same brother, there are six girls, one boy and Mr. and Mrs. Mustard.
6. A woman is sitting in her hotel room and hears a knock at the door. She opens the door to see a man whom she’s never met before. He says, “I’m sorry, I have made a mistake, I thought this was my room.” He then goes down the corridor and into the elevator. The woman goes back into her room and calls security. What made the woman so suspicious of the man?
Answer: If he really thought it was his hotel room, he would have tried to open the door—not knock on it first.
7. What has six faces, but does not wear makeup, has twenty-one eyes, but cannot see? “What is it?”
Answer: A die (dice).
8. A man is sitting in a bar when a rich man sits next to him. He turns to the rich man and says, “Did you know I know almost every song that has ever existed?” The rich man laughs. The man then says, “I bet you all the money you have in your wallet that I can sing a genuine song with a lady’s name of your choice in it. The rich man laughs again and says, “OK, how about my daughter’s name, Jamie Armstrong-Miller?” Minutes later, the man collects his cash and the rich man goes home cashless. What song did the man sing?
Answer: Happy Birthday.
9. The captain of a ship is telling you an interesting story, and then poses a question. He says, “I have traveled the oceans far and wide. 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. Can you tell me how that was possible?”
Answer: The sailors were standing at opposite ends of the ship, but facing one another.
10. Sally lives in a place where six months of the year is mild summer and the temperature drops significantly the other six months. She owns a lake where there is a small island. She wants to build a house on the island and needs to get materials there. She doesn’t have a boat, plane, or anything to transport them to the island. How does Sally solve this problem?
Answer: She waits to take the materials over during the colder months because the lake will freeze over, so she can walk over it.
11. A thief enters a store and threatens the clerk, forcing her to open the safe. The clerk says, “The code for the safe is different every day, and if you hurt me you’ll never get the code.” But the thief manages to guess the code on his own. How did he do it?
Answer: The clerk already told him the code—she said it’s “different” every day.
12. Grandpa went for a walk, and it started raining. He forgot to bring an umbrella and didn’t have a hat. When he got home, his clothes were soaking wet, but not a hair on his head was wet. How was this possible?
Answer: Grandpa is bald.
13. People make me, save me, change me, raise me. What am I?
Answer: Money.
14. In a one-story house at the corner of the road, the bedrooms were yellow, the kitchen was orange, the living room was red, the garage was blue, the entry hall was green and the sitting room was purple. What color were the stairs?
Answer: There’s no color because there are no stairs—it’s a one-story house.
15. A girl says this to her best friend: “I was born in 1955, and I celebrated my 17th birthday last weekend.” Her best friend thinks she’s lying, but she’s actually correct. How is that possible?
Answer: She was born in room 1955.
16. The person who makes it has no need for it. He who purchases it does not use it. The person who does use it does not know they are. What is it?
Answer: A coffin.
17. There is a basket full of hats. Three are white and two are black. Three men, Tom, Tim, and Jim, each take a hat out of the basket and put it on their heads without seeing the hat they selected or the hats the other men selected. The men arrange themselves so Tom can see Tim and Jim’s hats, Tim can see Jim’s hat, and Jim can’t see anyone’s hat. Tom is asked what color his hat is and he says he doesn’t know. Tim is asked the same question, and he also doesn’t know. Finally, Jim is asked the question, and he does know. What color is his hat?
Answer: The hat is white. If Tom doesn’t know his hat color then the other two men’s hats cannot be both black otherwise he would know his hat is white. When Tim doesn’t know his hat color either, that means Jim’s hat could not be black otherwise Tim would have to know his hat was white based on Tom’s answer.
18. I am full of holes, but I can still hold a lot of water. What am I?
Answer: A sponge
19. You’re driving a city bus. At the first stop, five women get on. At the second stop, one woman gets off and two men get on. At the third stop, three children get on. The bus is white and it’s raining outside in March. What color is the bus driver’s hair?
Answer: Whatever color your hair is. You’re the bus driver.
20. What five-letter word gets shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Shorter.
21. I look flat, but I am deep. Hidden realms I shelter. Lives I take, but food I offer. At times I am beautiful. I can be calm, angry, and turbulent. I have no heart, but offer pleasure as well as death. No man can own me, yet I encompass what all men must have. What am I?
Answer: The ocean.
22. What travels around the world but stays in the same corner?
Answer: A stamp
23. A woman named Maria was at the funeral of her mother. She met a nice young man that she had never seen before and after the service, they spent a bit of time together. Then she got busy and didn’t get his name or phone number before he left. She tried to find him, but no one knew who he was or how to contact him. A few weeks later, Maria’s older sister dies and the police suspect murder. Who killed the sister?
Answer: Maria—she hoped the man would show up at her sister’s funeral just as he had for her mother’s funeral.
24. The owner of a popular clothing store comes up with his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $8, socks cost $10, a tie costs $6, and a blouse costs $12. Using the owner’s method, how much would a pair of underwear cost?
Answer: $18—the method is charging $2 for each letter needed to spell out the clothing item.
25. I exist only when there is light, but direct light kills me. What am I?
Answer: A shadow.
26. What does man love more than life, and hate more than death or mortal strife; that which satisfied men want; the poor have, and the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?
Answer: Nothing.
27. If tomorrow I said “the day before yesterday was Saturday,” which day is today?
Answer: Sunday.
28. How many letters are there in the English alphabet?
Answer: 18. 3 in ‘the,’ 7 in ‘English,’ and 8 in ‘alphabet.’
29. One night, a man runs away from home. He turns left and keeps running. After some time he turns left again and keeps running. Later, he turns left one more time and runs back home—but when he gets home, he finds a man in a mask. Who was the man in the mask?
Answer: A catcher—they’re playing baseball.
30. Wednesday, Steve and Pam go to a restaurant to eat lunch. After eating lunch, they pay the bill. But Steve and Pam do not pay the bill. So…who does?
Answer: Their friend Wednesday.
31. One night, a woman receives a call from the police. They tell her that her husband was murdered, and she should come to the crime scene as soon as possible. The woman drops the phone, shocked, and drives 20 minutes to the crime scene. As soon as she reaches the crime scene, the police arrest her and she is convicted of murder. How do the police know she committed the crime?
Answer: The police didn’t tell her where the crime scene was, yet she already knew where to go.
32. What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An Egg
33. I have a little house in which I live all alone. It has no doors or windows, and if I want to go out I must break through the wall. What am I?
Answer: A chick in an egg.
34. It spends most of its day eating white, but when it’s quick enough, it gets to eat fruit and sometimes some blue things. It’s in a dark room, where the walls are blue, it runs from a ghost that roams the halls and haunts it all the time. What is it?
Answer: Pac-Man.
35. What breaks but never falls, and what falls but never breaks?
Answer: Morning and night.
36. A prisoner is called to be questioned by the guards. The guards tell the prisoner: “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?
Answer: “You will hang me.”
37. There are 20 people in an empty, square room. Each person has full sight of the entire room and everyone in it without turning his head or body, or moving in any way (other than the eyes). Where can you place an apple so that all but one person can see it?
Answer: Place the apple on one person’s head.
38. What can be seen once in a minute, twice in a moment, and never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M.”
39. A man is found unconscious in front of a store at two in the morning. His head is bleeding and there’s a brick laying next to him. When the police arrive, they carry the man to jail. Why did they arrest him?
Answer: The man was trying to rob the store. He threw a brick at the store’s bullet-proof window and it bounced back and hit him.
40. Consider this: Arnold Schwarzenegger has a big one. Michael J. Fox has a small one. Prince doesn’t have one. The Pope has one but never uses it. Bill Clinton has one and uses it all the time. What is it?
Answer: A surname.
41. A spy was in Canada trying to steal insider information on how to set up new Maple Syrup factories in their country. He was introduced to the operations manager of the biggest factory in Canada. However, the manager was suspicious and decided to test him with a question before he trusted him. So he asked, “What would you be sure to find in the middle of Toronto?” The spy thought fast and came up with an answer for the manager. What was his answer?
Answer: “0”—it’s the middle letter in “Toronto.”
42. There was a competition where the contestants had to hold something. At the end of the event, the winner was a person who had no hands or feet. What was it that the contestants had to hold?
Answer: Their breath.
43. 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: Cat—”c” is the first letter in “chocolate,” “a” is the second letter in “cake” and “jam,” and “t” is the third letter in “tea-time.”
44. What gets wetter while it dries?
Answer: A towel
45. 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
46. Jessica is telling her friends this story and asks them to guess if it’s the truth or a lie: “There was a man sitting in a house at night that had no lights on at all. There was no lamp, no candle, and no other source of light. Yet, he sat in the house and read his book happily.” Her friends say she’s lying, but Jessica corrects them and says she’s telling the truth. Jessica’s story is true—but how?
Answer: In Jessica’s story, the man is blind and is reading braille
47. There once 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?
Answer: 19 years old—if you thought the oldest was 21, you likely didn’t count the seven-year-old dwarf as one of the seven brothers.
48. A farmer went to a market and bought a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. On his way home, the farmer came to the bank of a river and rented a boat. But crossing the river by boat, the farmer could carry only himself and a single one of his purchases: the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage. If left unattended together, the wolf would eat the goat, or the goat would eat the cabbage. The farmer’s challenge was to carry himself and his purchases to the far bank of the river, leaving each purchase intact. How did he do it?
Answer: Answer: The farmer takes seven trips over—here are his steps:
Take the goat over
Return
Take the wolf or cabbage over
Return with the goat
Take the cabbage or wolf over
Return
Take goat over
49. If you paint a brown house white it will become a white house. If the stoplight changes from red to green, then the light is green. So, if you throw a white shirt into the Red Sea, what will it become?
Answer: Wet—the shirt won’t change color because the Red Sea isn’t actually red.
50. Consider this about a word: The first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great, while the entire world signifies a great woman. What is the word?
Answer: Heroine
51. You walk into a room and see a bed. On the bed, there are two dogs, five cats, a giraffe, six cows, and a goose. There are also three doves flying above the bed. How many legs are on the floor?
Answer: Six—the bed’s four legs, plus your two legs.
52. Always in you, Sometimes on you; If I surround you, I can kill you. What am I?
Answer: Water.
53. You live in a one story house made entirely of redwood. What color would the stairs be?
Answer: What stairs? You live in a one-story house.
54. I’m not alive but I have five fingers, what am I?
Answer: A glove.
55. You’re out on the water and see a boat filled with people. You look away for a second and look back again, but this time you don’t see a single person on the boat. Why? Hint: The boat did not sink.
Answer: All the people on the boat are in relationships.
56. How can you take 2 from 5 and leave 4?
Answer: F I V E Remove the 2 letters F and E from five and you have IV which is the Roman numeral for four.
57. What letters are easily found in every single day of the week?
Answer: D, A, and Y.
58. Two fathers and their two sons go on a fishing trip together. Each one catches a fish to take home with them. They don’t lose any fish, and yet when they get home they, only have three fish. How is this possible?
Answer: Only three people were on the fishing trip—a grandfather, his son, and his grandson.
59. I am beautiful, up in the sky. I am magical, yet I cannot fly. To people I bring luck, and to some people, riches. The boy at my end does whatever he wishes. What am I?
Answer: A rainbow.
60. Mrs. Jones has four daughters. Each of her daughters has one brother. How many children does Mrs. Jones have?
Answer: Five—all her daughters have the same brother.
61. People buy me to eat, but never eat me. What am I?
Answer: A plate.
62. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest.
63. How do you make the number 7 even without addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division?
Answer: Drop the “S”.
64. Jim and Sarah are in a long-distance relationship. Jim buys an engagement ring for Sarah and wants to mail it to her. Unfortunately, the only way to ensure the ring will be received is to place a lock on the package. Jim has locks and Sarah has locks, but neither has keys for each other’s locks. How can they make sure the ring isn’t stolen?
Answer: The ring is sent through the mail multiple times. First, Jim puts a lock on the package and sends it to Sarah. Then, Sarah places one of her locks on the package and sends it back to Jim. Then, Jim removes his lock and sends the package back to Sarah. Finally, Sarah unlocks the package and gets the ring.
65. There were five men at church, and it started raining while they were outside. The four that ran still got wet, but the one that was still stayed completely dry. Why did he stay dry?
Answer: He was in a coffin—the other men were at his funeral.
66. I come down, but I never go up. What am I?
Answer: Rain
67. Which word is written incorrectly in the dictionary?
Answer: The word “incorrectly.”
68. Who makes moves while sitting down?
Answer: A chess player.
69. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future.
70. A father told his three sons he would die soon and he needed to decide which one of them to give his property to. He said, “Go to the market and buy something that is large enough to fill my bedroom, but small enough to fit in your pocket. From this, I will decide which of you is the wisest and worthy enough to inherit my land.” They all went to the market, and each came back with a different item. The father told his sons to come into his bedroom one at a time and try to fill up his bedroom with their item. The first son came in and put some pieces of cloth he bought and laid them across the room, but it barely covered the floor. The second son came in and laid some hay on the floor, but there was only enough to cover half the floor. The third son came in and showed his father what he bought. He wound up getting the property. What did the third son show his father?
Answer: A box of matches. Whenever he lit a match, it filled the room with light.
71. What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A clock
72. A man is shown a portrait painting. He looks closely, then yells, “Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man’s father is my father’s son!” Who is the man in the portrait?
Answer: The man’s son.
73. There’s a girl who has a large family. She 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.
74. A California farmer owns a beautiful pear tree. He supplies the fruit to a nearby grocery store. The store owner calls the farmer to see how much fruit is available for him to buy. The farmer knows the main trunk has 24 branches. Each branch has exactly 12 boughs and each bough has exactly 6 twigs. Since each twig bears one piece of fruit, how many plums will the farmer be able to deliver?
Answer: None—a pear tree doesn’t grow plums.
75. An evil man kidnapped someone and made them take one of two pills. One was harmless, but the other was poisonous. Whichever pill the victim took, the kidnapper took the other one. The victim took their pill with water and died. The kidnapper survived. How did the kidnapper get the harmless pill?
Answer: Both pills were harmless—the poison was in the water.
76. A man was at a carnival and went to a booth where a carny said to him, “If I write your exact weight on this piece of paper, then you have to give me $100, but if I cannot, I will pay you $100.” The man saw no scale near the booth so he agrees, thinking he’ll lie to the carny either way about his weight. However, the man ends up paying the carny $100. How did the carny win the bet?
Answer: The carny handed the man a piece of paper that said, “Your exact weight.”
77. You can find it in Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, but not in Venus or Neptune. What is it?
Answer: The letter “R.”
78. A red house is made out of red bricks. A yellow house is made out of yellow bricks. And, a blue house is made out of blue bricks. So, what is a green house made of?
Answer: Glass
79. A woman wants to enter an exclusive club, but she doesn’t know the password. A man walks to the door and the doorman says 12, the man says 6, and is let in. Another man walks up and the doorman says 6, the man says 3, and is let in. Thinking she’s figured it out, she walks up to the door and the doorman says 10, she says 5, and she isn’t let in. What should she have said?
Answer: Three—the code is the number of letters that are in the number the doorman says.
80. Chef Andrea has to light the kitchen stoves to open her restaurant for the day. There are three stoves in the kitchen: A glass stove, a brick stove, and a wood stove. She only has one match. Which does she light up first?
Answer: The match.
81. You walk into an old horror house. It has no power or plumbing. Once inside, you see three doors. Each door has a number on it. Behind each door is a way for you to die. Behind door number one, you die by getting eaten by a lion. Behind door number two, you die by getting murdered. Behind door number three, you die by electric chair. You can’t turn back, so you have to go through a door. Which door do you go through?
Answer: Door number three—the house has no power, which means it doesn’t have electricity. Therefore, the electric chair won’t work.