A brainteaser is a type of riddle that makes one think outside the box. Some brainteasers are easy, some are a little harder, and some can really make you ponder for a while. Often, when you finally hear the answer, you feel ignorant or silly, because it should have been obvious to you. However, brainteasers are fun. Therefore, we keep testing ourselves and hoping we get better at solving them.

Our collection of brainteasers includes brainteasers for kids and for adults. Those for adults have some longer, more complicated brainteasers to challenge your mind. We close with a collection of brainteasers without answers, so that you can test your ability to solve brainteasers.

Related: 203 Fun Riddles for Kids with Answers

Brain Teasers for Kids

Brain Teasers for Kids

Kids love brainteasers, as long as they do not get too frustrated trying to figure them out. Our collection of brainteasers for kids takes that into consideration. Most of the answers are fairly obvious if kids listen carefully and think for a moment. Adults will have fun sharing these with their children, teachers with their students, and kids with their friends.

  • There are three houses. One is red, one is blue, and one is white. If the red house is to the left of the house in the middle, and the blue house is to the right to the house in the middle, where is the white house?
  • You are in a cabin and it is pitch black. You have one match on you. Which do you light first, the newspaper, the lamp, the candle, or the fire?
  • Who is bigger: Mr. Bigger, Mrs. Bigger, or their baby?
  • Mike is a butcher. He is 5’10” tall. What does he weigh?
  • A farmer has 17 sheep and all but nine die. How many are left?
  • How far can a rabbit run into the woods?
  • In a year, there are 12 months. Seven months have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
  • What are the next three letters in the following sequence?J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, __, __, __
  • Jimmy’s mother had four children. She named the first Monday. She named the second Tuesday, and she named the third Wednesday. What is the name of the fourth child?
  • Which is heavier? A pound of feathers or a pound of rocks?
  • What is full of holes but can still hold water?
  • A family lives in a large tower apartment building, 10 floors high. Every day their son takes the elevator from the family’s apartment on the 10th floor to the ground floor and goes to school. When he returns in the afternoon, he uses the elevator to get to the fifth floor, and then uses the stairs for the remaining five floors. Why?
  • A plane crashes on the border of the U.S. and Canada. Where do they bury the survivors?
  • I do not have any special powers, but I can predict the score of any football game before it begins. How can I do this?
  • You are driving a bus. At the first stop, two women get on. The second stop, three men get on and one woman gets off. At the third stop, three kids and their mom get on, and a man gets off. The bus is grey, and it is raining outside. What color is the bus driver’s hair?
  • Imagine that you are in a boat, in the middle of the sea. Suddenly, you are surrounded by hungry sharks, just waiting to feed on you. How can you put an end to this?
  • Which travels faster? Hot or Cold?
  • When you have me, you immediately feel like sharing me. But, if you do share me, you do not have me.
  • What can you hold without ever touching or using your hands?
  • First, I threw away the outside and cooked the inside. Then I ate the outside and threw away the inside. What did I eat?

Brainteasers entangle the mind of the reader and make him forget his worries, at least for a while. Many adults find brainteasers work well as stress relievers. We have two lists of brainteasers for adults. One has longer brainteasers that are more difficult. The other has normal brainteasers for adults. Try out selection to relax and have fun.

Longer Brain Teasers for Adults

Longer Brain Teasers for Adults

  • A lift is on the ground floor. There are four people in the lift including me.
    When the lift reaches first, floor, one person gets out and three 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 lift cable snaps, it crashes to the floor. Everyone else dies in the lift. How did I survive?
  • A man walks into a restaurant and the waiter says, “Good day, Admiral.”
    Why did the waiter call the man an Admiral?
  • I have no voice, yet I speak to you.
    I tell of all things in the world that people do.I have leaves, but I am not a tree.I have pages, but I am not a bride.I have a spine, but I am not a man.I have hinges, but I am not a door.I have told you all. I cannot tell you more.What am I?
  • A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells its owner that he is bankrupt. Why?
  • You are a cyclist in a cross-country race. Just before the crossing finish line, you overtake the person in second place. In what place did you finish?
  • 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?
  • 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?
  • Crime Scene: A large wooden box was built with one door. The door was locked from the inside, and then nailed shut from the inside. The police break into the room. In the middle of the room there is a dead man hanging from the ceiling, with his shoes 3 feet off the ground. The only other thing in the room is a hammer lying in a puddle of water. Can you explain what happened?
  • You are in a cookie factory, and need to make a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies. The recipe calls for exactly 4 cups of sugar. Problem is that you have two buckets. One bucket holds 5 cups, the other 3 cups. Using these buckets, how can you measure exactly 4 cups of sugar?
  • A man is the owner of a winery who recently passed away. In his will, he left 21 barrels (seven of which are filled with wine, seven of which are half full, and seven of which are empty) to his three sons. However, the wine and barrels must be split, so that each son has the same number of full barrels, the same number of half-full barrels, and the same number of empty barrels. Note that there are no measuring devices handy. How can the barrels and wine be evenly divided?
  • An Arab sheik is old and must will his fortune to one of his two sons. He makes a proposition. His two 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?
  • You have a 3-gallon jug and a 5-gallon jug. You need to measure out exactly 7 gallons of water. How can you do it?
  • A man is on a game show. He is presented with two doors, one on the left, and one on the right. Behind one is 2 million dollars, and behind the other is a donkey. Choose the correct door to win the prize. There are also two men in front of the doors, and they know which door leads to the millions. One wears a black hat, and the other wears a white hat.The host explains that one of the men is a liar, and will always lie, and the other man will always tell the truth – but you do not know which is which.You can ask only one of the men only one question. What is the question, and which man do you ask to ensure you win the money?
  • Cannibals in the jungle capture three men. The men are given one chance to escape with their lives. The men are lined up and bound to stakes such that one man can see the backs of the other two, the middle man can see the back of the front man, and the front man cannot see anybody. The men are shown five hats, three of which are black and two of which are white. Then the men are blindfolded, and one of the five hats is placed on each man’s head. The remaining two hats are hidden away. The blindfolds are removed. The men are told that if just one of the men can guess what hat he is wearing, they may all go free. Time passes. Finally, the front man, who cannot see anyone, correctly guesses the color of his hat. What color was it, and how did he guess correctly?
  • 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?
  • What words are pronounced differently by merely capitalizing the first letter?
  • A man 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?
  • Your dad tells you that he will pay you $6.00 an hour for the 6 seconds that you take to wash your hands before dinner.
    How much did you make for washing your hands?
  • There is a fishing trawler, with a ladder in it, leaning against a wall at the harbor. There are five oars and two fishing nets in the trawler. The distance between two consecutive steps on the ladder is 1 meter. If waves lashing against the wall rise half meter in every half hour, in how much time will six steps of the ladder get under the waves?
  • When young, I am sweet in the sun.When middle-aged, I make you gay.When old, I am valued more than ever.
  • As I was going to St. Ives,
    I met a man with seven wives.Each wife had seven sacks,Each sack had seven cats,Each cat had seven kits.Kits, cats, sacks and wives,How many were going to St. Ives?

Brain Teasers with Answers

Brain Teasers with Answers

Although these brainteasers are not as hard the previous ones, they still present a challenge. These brainteasers prepare you for our last group, where answers are not provided immediately!

  • Guess the next three letters in the series GTNTL.
  • A boy is walking down the road with a doctor. While the boy is the doctor’s son, the doctor is not the boy’s father. Then who is the doctor?
  • Joseph and Lena are found dead on the floor with some water around. The windows are open and a strong wind draft is blowing the curtains around. How did they die?
  • A man wanted to encrypt his password but he needed to do it in a way so that he could remember it. He had to use seven characters consisting of letters and numbers only (no symbols like ! or <). In order to remember it, he wrote down “You force heaven to be empty.” What is his password?
  • A man condemned to death has the option of picking one of the mentioned three rooms. The first room is a furnace filled with flames. The second has armed men with loaded guns, while the third has lions starving for years. Which one should the man choose?
  • 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?
  • A man wanted to work, but he could not log in to his computer terminal successfully. He tried twice, but still his password did not work. He suddenly remembered that the passwords are reset every month for security purposes. So, he called his boss and said, “Hey boss, my password is out of date.”
    His boss replied, “Yes, that’s right. The password is different. Listen carefully. I am sure, you can figure out the new one. The new one has the same amount of letters as your old password, but only four of the letters are the same.””Thanks boss.”With that, the man could correctly log into his station. What are both the new and old passwords?
  • The number 8,549,176,320 is a unique number. What is so special about it?
  • A man is headed to a mountain along with a lion, a goat, and a basket of vegetables. On the way, he needs to cross a river and the boat can only carry two things at a time. If he takes the vegetables, the lion will eat the goat. If he takes the lion, the goat will eat the vegetables. How does he cross the river?
  • Your parents have six sons including you and each son has one sister. How many people are in the family?

How to Find Answers for Brain Teasers

Brain Teasers with Answers

Now that you have read our collection, here are some good brainteasers without their answers for you to try.

  1. What 5-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
  4. What letter comes next in the following sequence? D R M F S L T_
  5. How many times can you subtract the number two from the number fifty?
  6. In British Columbia, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?
  8. What number comes next in the following sequence? 2 4 8 10 20 _
  9. Without it, I am dead. If I am not, then then I am behind. What am I?
  13. What is black when you get it, red when you use it, and white when you are all through with it?
  14. It goes in dry, it comes out wet, the longer it is in, the stronger it gets. What is it?
  15. I have no eyes, no legs, or ears, and I help move the earth. What am I?
  16. A truck is stuck under a bridge and the driver cannot get it out. A man walks by and stops to help. He easily gets the truck unstuck. How did he do it?
  17. How much dirt is there in a hole that is 3 feet deep, and 6 inches in diameter?
  18. What makes more as you take them?
  19. When can you add two to eleven and get one as the correct answer?


  1. Short
  2. 45 (1/5 of 45 = 9, 9 + 45 = 54)
  3. The ball costs 5 cents. One dollar more than 5 cents is $1.05, the sum of which is $1.10.
  4. D – each letter represents one note in the diatonic musical scale: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do
  5. After that, you would be subtracting from 48.
  6. You cannot take a picture with a wooden leg; you need a camera.
  7. Unsuccessfully.
  8. 22 (the sequence alternates +2, x2)
  9. Ahead
  11. Everything (each word) in Jack’s World must contain double letters.
  12. A jigsaw puzzle piece
  13. Charcoal
  14. A tea-bag
  15. An earthworm
  16. He let the air out of the tires.
  17. None, because a hole and contains no dirt!
  18. Footsteps
  19. When you add two hours to eleven o’clock, you get one o’clock.
  20. The poison from the punch came from the ice cubes. When the man drank the punch, the ice was fully frozen. Gradually, as the ice cubes melted, the poison was released into the punch.

Brainteasers are popular for a number of reasons:

  • Brainteasers help you improve your concentration and logical thinking.
  • Brainteasers are good for sharing at parties and with friends.
  • Brainteasers are fun!

For additional fun, try making up a few brainteasers of your own. Think of unusual relationships and situations, and then pose them to your family and friends. Brainteasers never get old! Puzzle on!

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