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Quizzes > Personality & Relationships > Puzzles & Riddles

Think You Can Crack These Trick Questions with the Answers?

Dive into the trickiest questions with answers and prove your smarts!

Difficulty: Moderate
2-5mins
Learning OutcomesCheat Sheet
Paper cutout question marks puzzle pieces light bulb brain on dark blue background invites logic smarts quiz

Use this trick questions with answers quiz to sharpen your logic and spot word traps. Each puzzle shows the answer so you can learn from misses and think faster next time. Warm up with impossible brain teasers , then keep going with tricky trivia .

If you have one match and enter a dark room containing an oil lamp, some kindling wood, and a newspaper, what do you light first?
The newspaper
The kindling wood
The match
The oil lamp
You must light the match before you can light any of the other items. Without a lit match, you can't ignite the lamp, paper, or wood.
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
$1.00
$0.50
$0.10
$0.05
Let the ball cost x dollars. Then the bat costs x + 1. So x + (x + 1) = 1.10, which gives x = 0.05.
Mary's father has five daughters: April, May, June, July. What is the name of the fifth daughter?
Mary
August
March
June
The question states "Mary's father," implying that Mary is one of the five daughters. The others are April, May, June, and July.
A rooster lays an egg on the peak of a slanted roof. Which way does it roll?
West
East
It doesn't roll - roosters don't lay eggs
Downhill
Roosters are male chickens and do not lay eggs. The trick is recognizing that a rooster cannot produce any eggs in the first place.
What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
A heartbeat
A second
The word 'time'
The letter 'M'
The letter 'M' appears one time in the word "minute," two times in "moment," and not at all in "a thousand years."
How many months have 28 days?
None
Only February
One
All 12 months
Every month has at least 28 days. February is the only one with exactly 28 in common years, but all months reach the 28th day.
What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
A postcard
A compass
A satellite
A postage stamp
A postage stamp stays in the corner of an envelope, and that envelope can travel around the globe.
If a plane crashes on the border of the U.S. and Canada, where do they bury the survivors?
In the U.S.
On the border
Survivors aren't buried
In Canada
Survivors of a plane crash are alive, so they would not be buried. The question leads you to assume a burial.
A man pushes his car to a hotel and immediately goes bankrupt. How is this possible?
He owed rent on the car
He lost his wallet
He's playing Monopoly
The hotel was burned down
In the board game Monopoly, players push tokens (cars) around the board. Landing on a hotel with high rent can bankrupt them.
Two fathers and two sons go fishing, catch three fish, and each person gets one fish. How is this possible?
They are grandfather, father, and son
They cheated
One fish is shared
One fish is thrown back
The group consists of a grandfather (father), his son (father), and his grandson (son). That makes two fathers and two sons but only three individuals.
You have two ropes that each take one hour to burn but burn unevenly. How can you measure 45 minutes?
Light them together
Light one rope at both ends and the other at one end
Use a stopwatch
Cut one rope in half
Lighting one rope at both ends makes it burn in 30 minutes. Light the second rope at one end when you start the first; when the first is done (30 min), light the other end of the second rope - it burns in 15 more minutes.
Which word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
Dictionary
Misspelled
Incorrectly
Wrongly
The word "incorrectly" is literally spelled I-N-C-O-R-R-E-C-T-L-Y, so it's spelled "incorrectly." It's a play on wording.
What can only be used once it's broken?
A promise
A pencil
A record
An egg
An egg must be broken before you can access what's inside. This riddle uses the idea of "using" differently.
If Mr. Smith's peacock lays an egg in Mr. Jones's yard, who owns the egg?
No one, peacocks don't lay eggs
They split ownership
Mr. Smith
Mr. Jones
A peacock is male and cannot lay eggs. Only a peahen (female) can, making the premise impossible.
A farmer has to carry a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across a river with a boat that holds only one item besides himself. How does he do it without anything being eaten?
Take wolf, return with wolf, take goat, return with goat, take cabbage
Take cabbage, return, take goat, return, take wolf
Take goat over, return alone, take wolf, bring goat back, take cabbage, then goat
Take goat, leave wolf and cabbage, take them together next
He first transports the goat so the wolf doesn't eat it. He returns alone, takes the wolf, brings the goat back, takes the cabbage, and finally returns for the goat.
If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
100 minutes
5 minutes
20 minutes
10 minutes
One machine makes one widget in 5 minutes, so 100 machines make 100 widgets simultaneously in the same 5 minutes.
In the Monty Hall problem, you pick one of three doors. The host opens another door revealing a goat and offers you the chance to switch. What should you do to maximize your chance of winning the car?
Switch only if you feel lucky
It doesn't matter
Always stay
Always switch
Switching doors gives you a 2/3 chance of winning compared to 1/3 if you stay. This counterintuitive result is explained by conditional probability.
You have three switches outside a room, each controlling one of three light bulbs inside. You may flip switches as much as you like but enter the room only once. How do you identify which switch controls which bulb?
Use heat and on/off timing: turn on one, wait, turn off, turn on another, then enter
Switch all three, then enter
Turn on one and immediately enter
Flip two switches and enter
Turn on switch A for a few minutes, then turn it off, turn on switch B, and enter. The hot bulb is A, lit is B, and cold unlit is C.
A man lives on the 10th floor of a building. Each day he takes the elevator to the ground floor to leave but, when returning, he rides to the 7th floor and walks up three flights. Why?
It's quicker to walk up
The elevator doesn't go above 7
He's too short to reach the 10 button
He likes exercise
The man is short and can only reach the button for the 7th floor in the elevator. When someone else is with him, he presses 10.
What letter comes next in the sequence: O, T, T, F, F, S, S, E, _ ?
F
T
N
S
The letters are the first letters of the numbers One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine. So the next is N.
Three boxes are labeled "Apples," "Oranges," and "Apples & Oranges," but all labels are wrong. You may pick one fruit from one box. How do you correctly label all boxes?
Pick from the 'Apples & Oranges' box, then deduce the rest
Guess by elimination
Pick from 'Oranges,' then swap two labels
Pick from 'Apples,' then switch labels clockwise
Since all labels are wrong, the box labeled "Apples & Oranges" must contain only one type. Picking from it tells you which one, and you can deduce the other two by elimination.
If five cats catch five mice in five minutes, how many cats are needed to catch 100 mice in 100 minutes?
100
20
5
10
Each cat catches one mouse every five minutes, so in 100 minutes a single cat catches 20 mice. Five cats catch 100 mice in 100 minutes.
A snail climbs a 20-foot well at 5 feet per day but slides down 4 feet every night. How many days before it reaches the top?
17 days
16 days
20 days
4 days
After 15 days the snail is at 15 feet. On day 16 it climbs 5 feet to reach 20 feet and escapes before sliding back at night.
Three prisoners are lined up so the back one sees the two in front, the middle one sees one, and the front sees none. A hat (black or white) is placed on each head from a total of three white and two black hats. The back prisoner says, "I don't know." The middle prisoner says, "I don't know." The front prisoner then correctly states the color of his hat. What color is it and how did he know?
White; he deduced the others' ignorance meant two whites were ahead
Black; he heard the guards
White; he saw the reflection in his glasses
Black; he guessed based on probability
If the back saw two blacks, he would know his was white. His ignorance means he saw at least one white. The middle, seeing the front, also couldn't decide, meaning the front isn't black (or the middle would deduce). Thus the front's hat is white.
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Study Outcomes

  1. Understand Trick Question Frameworks -

    Learn the common structures and misdirections used in trick questions with the answers to anticipate clever twists.

  2. Analyze Lateral Thinking Strategies -

    Break down how trick trivia questions employ unconventional logic and creative approaches to stump solvers.

  3. Apply Logical Reasoning Techniques -

    Use step-by-step deduction methods to navigate questions with trick answers and arrive at the correct solution.

  4. Decode Hidden Assumptions -

    Spot and challenge underlying premises in the trickiest questions with answers to reveal the unexpected outcome.

  5. Sharpen Problem-Solving Skills -

    Develop mental agility and sharpen your wits through repeated practice with clever puzzles and trick questions.

Cheat Sheet

  1. Mind the Wording Trap -

    Many trick questions hinge on precise phrasing that leads you to an instinctive but wrong answer. For example, "Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of steel?" is designed to exploit your mental image of heaviness rather than the literal unit of measure. Reviewing critical thinking texts from Purdue University can sharpen your eye for such linguistic pitfalls.

  2. Expose Hidden Assumptions -

    Trick questions often rely on unspoken premises, like "Have you stopped chewing gum?" which presupposes you once did. Identifying these concealed assumptions is crucial; you can train this skill using logic exercises from Stanford's philosophy department. A simple mnemonic: "Check What's Assumed" (CWA) to remind yourself to question every hidden clause.

  3. Use Literal Analysis -

    When a question seems puzzling, strip it back to its literal meaning. Academic puzzles from Cambridge's problem-solving toolkit suggest underlining every noun and verb to avoid inferential leaps. For instance, in "If an electric train heads east at 60 mph, which way's the smoke blowing?" focusing on "electric" solves it instantly.

  4. Apply Lateral Thinking -

    Edward de Bono's lateral thinking strategies teach you to break free from conventional patterns and spot the clever twist. Practice six-hat brainstorming sessions to deliberately challenge standard assumptions. University of London workshops on creativity offer sample matchstick puzzles to illustrate this approach.

  5. Spot Numeric Sleights of Hand -

    Math-based trick questions often use hidden operations or rounding tricks, like the classic "missing dollar" problem. Hone your skills with puzzles from the Mathematical Association of America, and remember the rule: "Every digit counts." Regularly practicing sequence and parity checks will help you detect these numerical illusions.

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