Top 50 Brain Teasers
50 riddles — The 50 most popular brain teasers — perfect for beginners and experts alike.
Riddle #1
Two girls ate dinner together. They both ordered ice tea. One girl drank really fast and finished 5 in the time that took the other to drink just one. The girl who drank one died while the other survived. Both drinks were poisonous. How did the girl that drank the most survive?
· logic
Riddle #2
I am a five letter word and I am a fruit. Take the first letter out and I am a crime, take out the first and second letter and I am a animal, take out the first and last letter and I am a type of music. What am I.
Hard
Riddle #3
You start with 1000 then add 40
add another 1000 then add 30
add another 1000 then add 20
add one more 1000 then add 10
what is your answer?
Hard · math
Riddle #4
An interesting formula for generating a good many (but not all) primes is n2 + n + 41. If we plug in consecutive integers 1, 2, 3, etc., at least up to a certain point, we can generate prime numbers. Give an integer for which the formula fails.
Hard · math
Riddle #5
What has a mouth but can't chew?
Easy
Riddle #6
You can have me almost every night,
Sometimes I could be bad sometimes I can be nice,
Whether you were a child or an adult i'll be there.
What am I?
· what-am-i
Riddle #7
Feed me and I live, yet give me a drink and I die
Easy · logic
Riddle #8
A man shaves several times a day, yet he still has a beard.
Who is this man?
Easy · logic
Riddle #9
Lives without a body, hears without ears, speaks without a mouth, to which the air alone gives birth. What is it?
Hard · what-am-i
Riddle #10
One night, a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker go to a hotel. When they get their bill, however, it's for four people. Who's the fourth person?
Easy
Riddle #11
First I am dried, then I am wet;
The longer I swim, the more taste you get.
What am I?
Easy
Riddle #12
Looks like water, but it's heat.
Sits on sand, lays on concrete.
People have been known,
To follow it everywhere.
But it gets them no place,
And all they can do is stare.
Easy · what-am-i
Riddle #13
What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Easy · logic
Riddle #14
Although I'm far from the point, I don't make mistakes, I fix yours. What am I?
Hard
Riddle #15
Pointing to a man, a woman said, "His mother is the only daughter of my mother." How is the woman related to the man?
Easy
Riddle #16
Little trotty hetty coat in a long petticoat and a red nose the longer she stands the shorter she grows. What is it?
Hard
Riddle #17
What unusual property do the words FLOUR, TERN, and THIRSTY have in common?
Easy
Riddle #18
What time of day, when written in a capital letters, is the same forwards, backwards and upside down?
Hard
Riddle #19
You bought a cute little girl mouse at the pet store. This mouse can breed once every month, 7 babies at a time. So how many mice will you own in exactly twelve months?
Medium · funny
Riddle #20
I am invisible, yet everywhere. Yet I am everywhere, I am not active in some places. Sometimes, you can feel me. I can be so strong, I can push you, and even destroy villages and towns. Yet I come unnoticed, you can make me. What am I?
Easy · what-am-i
Riddle #21
What do you throw out when you want to use it, but take in when you don't want to use it?
Medium · what-am-i
Riddle #22
There were two men walking around on a deserted island with no food or water. One of the men got so hungry that he killed and ate the other man. No one discovered his secret and he never told anyone. Who is the murderer?
Medium · logic
Riddle #23
Tom and his younger sister were fighting. Their mother was tired of the fighting and decided to punish them by making them stand on the same piece of newspaper in such a way that they couldn't touch each other. How did she accomplish this?
Hard · logic
Riddle #24
I am at the beginning of eternity, but also I am at the beginning of equators. I am at the end of life, but also I am the end of love.
What am I?
· what-am-i
Riddle #25
Creatures of power, creatures of grace,
Creatures of beauty, creatures of strength.
As for their lives, they set everything's pace,
For all things must come to live under their emerald embrace. . .
Either in their life, or in their death.
What am I?
Hard · what-am-i
Riddle #26
Is it legal in New York for a man to marry his widow's sister ?
Easy · logic
Riddle #27
What has four wheels and flies?
Easy · funny
Riddle #28
Many have heard me but nobody has seen me and I will not speak back until spoken to. What am I?
Easy · what-am-i
Riddle #29
When it is alive we sing, when it is dead we clap our hands. What is it?
Easy
Riddle #30
I am used to bat with, yet I never get hit. I am near a ball, yet it is never thrown.
What I am?
· what-am-i
Riddle #31
A bat and a ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Hard · math
Riddle #32
What is often returned but never borrowed?
Easy
Riddle #33
Dead on the field lie ten soldiers in white,
Felled by three eyes, black as night.
What happened?
Easy · logic
Riddle #34
Thousands lay up gold within this house,
But no man made it.
Spears past counting guard this house,
But no man wards it.
Hard
Riddle #35
How many 9's are there between 1 and 100?
Medium · math
Riddle #36
Think of words ending in GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is.
Hard
Riddle #37
What flies without wings?
Hard
Riddle #38
While walking down the street I met a man. He tipped his hat and drew his cane and in this riddle I told his name.
What is the man's name?
Easy
Riddle #39
The more you take away, the larger it becomes? What is it?
Easy · what-am-i
Riddle #40
I'm flat when I'm new. I'm fat when you use me. I release my gas when something sharp touches me. What am I?
Easy
Riddle #41
You use me everyday but let me rest at night. I have an identical twin beside me all the time. For some reason you always cover me up. I am not alive but I have a soul.
What am I?
· what-am-i
Riddle #42
Which vehicle is spelled the same forwards and backwards?
Hard
Riddle #43
Why is the letter A the most like a flower?
Hard
Riddle #44
What three letters change a girl into a woman?
Easy
Riddle #45
David's father has three sons: Snap, Crackle, and ?
Easy
Riddle #46
I am the shortest complete sentence in the English language. What am I?
Hard · what-am-i
Riddle #47
What has a bottom at the top?
· funny
Riddle #48
A man was found dead in his study. He was slumped over his desk and a gun was in his hand. There was a cassette recorder on his desk. When the police entered the room and pressed the play button on the tape recorder they heard: "I can't go on. I have nothing to live for." Then there was the sound of a gunshot. How did the detective immediately know that the man had been murdered and it wasn't a suicide?
· logic
Riddle #49
Jim and Wanda both have some apples. If Jim gives Wanda an apple, they will both have the same number of apples. However, if Wanda gives Jim an apple, Jim will have twice as many as Wanda. How many apples do Jim and Wanda each have?
· math
Riddle #50
What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than trees
Up, up it goes,
And yet never grows?
Easy · what-am-i
Answers
1. The poison was in the ice, as she slowly drank her one drink, the melting ice released the poison.
2. Grape cause if you take out the first letter it's rape, ape, rap.
3. If you said 5000 your wrong!
The answer is 4100 how?
1000+40=1040
1040+1000+30=2070
2070+1000+20=3090
3090+1000=4090
4090+10=4100
4. The formula will fail for 40, resulting in 1681, which is the square of 41. This formula will also fail for 41, since 41 can be factored out. But, it will generate primes if integers from 1 to 39 are used in the formula, and many (but not all) integers greater than 41 as well.
1 Paul Hoffman, Archimedes' Revenge, 1995, Ballantine Books, p. 38-39.
5. River
6. A dream
7. Fire
8. A barber
9. Echo
10. 'One night' is the name of the fourth person
11. Tea
12. A mirage
13. A penny
14. An eraser on a pencil
15. Only daughter of my mother means herself. She is his mother
16. A candle
17. Remove a letter and they all spell a number
18. Noon
19. One, you need two mice to breed
20. The Wind.
21. An anchor
22. I am the murderer. How else would I have known about it?
23. Tom's mother slid a newspaper under a door, each sibling standing on each side.
24. The letter e
25. Tree
26. It doesn't matter, he's dead
27. Garbage truck (flies)
28. An echo
29. Birthday candles
30. Eyelashes
31. The ball costs 5c. Not 10c. One dollar more than 10c is $1.10, $1.10 + 10c is $1.20
One dollar more than 5c is $1.05. The sum of which is $1.10
32. Thanks and compliments
33. A bowling ball
34. A beehive
35. Twenty
9, 19, 29, 39, 49, 59, 69, 79, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99
36. The answer is language. It is the third word of the phrase "the English language".
37. Time
38. and drew his cane
Andrew
39. A hole
40. A balloon
41. Your Feet.
42. Racecar
43. Because the B is after it.
44. Age
45. David
46. I am
47. Legs
48. Someone had to have rewound the tape.
49. Jim has 7
Wanda has 5
50. Mountain