Tricky Riddles With Answers
Updated · Best Riddles With Answers editorial team
Quick answer: Tricky riddles invite you to give the obvious answer and then show why it is wrong. This page has 42 of them with answers, from number traps that catch almost everyone to wordplay with a twist. Read each question twice, resist the first answer that comes to mind, and check your reasoning against the explanation.
Warm-Up Tricky Riddles
What do you get if you divide 30 by one half and then add 10?
70. Dividing by a half doubles it, so 30 becomes 60, and 60 + 10 = 70.
What do you get if you multiply together every digit on a phone keypad, from 0 to 9?
Zero, because the digit 0 is one of the numbers being multiplied.
Five children share five apples so that each child gets one apple, but one apple stays in the basket. How?
The last child takes the apple together with the basket.
A red house is built of red bricks, and a blue house of blue bricks. What is a greenhouse built of?
Glass.
How many two-cent stamps are in a dozen?
Twelve. A dozen is always twelve, whatever the stamps cost.
A man buys a sheep for 60 dollars and sells it for 70. He buys it back for 80 and sells it for 90. How much profit has he made?
20 dollars. Each deal makes 10 dollars, so 10 + 10 = 20.
What is 1000 + 40 + 1000 + 30 + 1000 + 20 + 1000 + 10?
4100, not 5000. The four thousands make 4000, and 40 + 30 + 20 + 10 adds 100.
A father is 40 years older than his son. In five years he will be three times as old as the son. How old is the son now?
15. The father is 55, and in five years they will be 60 and 20.
If I add 5 to a number, I get three times what I would get by subtracting 5 from it. What is the number?
10. Adding 5 gives 15, and subtracting 5 gives 5, and 15 is three times 5.
You cut one corner off a rectangular sheet of paper with a single straight cut. How many sides does the shape now have?
Five. You lose a corner but gain a new edge, going from four sides to five.
You slice one corner off a cube. How many faces does the cube have now?
Seven. The six original faces remain and the cut adds a new triangular one.
Which three different whole numbers give the same result whether you add them or multiply them?
1, 2 and 3, because 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 and 1 x 2 x 3 = 6.
Main Set Tricky Riddles
What five-letter word is the same when written in capital letters and turned upside down?
SWIMS. Turned through 180 degrees, the S and I letters look the same, and the W and M turn into each other.
Which common word starts with 'und' and also ends with 'und'?
Underground.
Which word changes its pronunciation when you capitalise it?
Polish, which is a nationality, and polish, which means to shine.
How many triangles can you find in a six-pointed star made of two overlapping triangles?
8. There are 6 small points and 2 large triangles.
Can a man legally marry his widow's sister?
No. If he has a widow, he is dead.
What letter comes next in this line: S, M, T, W, T, F?
S, for the days of the week, Sunday to Saturday.
What do you lose when you stand up?
Your lap.
How do you spell 'mousetrap' with only three letters?
C-A-T.
What is bigger than the Eiffel Tower, yet weighs nothing?
Its shadow.
What gets harder to catch the faster you run?
Your breath.
What can go up a chimney down, but cannot go down a chimney up?
An umbrella.
What is half of a dozen halves?
Three. A dozen halves is six whole ones, and half of six is three.
Toughest Tricky Riddles
A girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each of her brothers has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many boys and girls are there in the family?
3 boys and 4 girls. The girl has 3 brothers and 3 sisters, and each boy has 2 brothers and 4 sisters.
A stick is broken at two random points into three pieces. What is the chance the pieces can form a triangle?
One in four. A triangle is possible only if no piece is longer than half the stick, which happens a quarter of the time.
In twelve hours, how many times do the hands of a clock form a right angle?
22 times, twice in each of the 11 cycles that make up 12 hours.
How many diagonals does a hexagon have?
9, because 6 x 3 / 2 = 9.
How many squares can you draw using the dots of a 4 by 4 grid as corners, counting tilted ones?
20. There are 14 upright squares (9 small, 4 medium, 1 large) and 6 tilted ones.
What is the largest three digit number that can be divided exactly by 7?
994, because 7 x 142 = 994 and 7 x 143 = 1001.
A disease affects 1 person in 1,000. A test is right 99 percent of the time for both sick and healthy people. You test positive. What is the chance you have the disease?
About 9 percent. Of 100,000 people, 99 sick test positive, but so do about 1,000 healthy ones.
What is the chance that a random four digit number has four different digits?
50.4 percent. There are 9 x 9 x 8 x 7 = 4,536 such numbers out of 9,000.
A farmer has 100 metres of fence for a rectangular pen. What is the largest area it can enclose?
625 square metres, from a square pen of 25 metres by 25 metres.
Two numbers add up to 10, and the sum of their squares is 58. What are they?
3 and 7, because 9 + 49 = 58.
Quick-Fire Tricky Riddles
Which letter is a drink?
T (tea).
Which letter is a body of water?
C (sea).
Which letter is an insect?
B (bee).
Which letter is a question?
Y (why).
Which letter is a green vegetable?
P (pea).
What do you serve but never eat?
A tennis ball.
What goes through towns and over hills but never moves?
A road.
What has plenty of words but never speaks?
A book.
How to Beat Tricky Riddles
A tricky riddle is built to make the first answer wrong. Slow down, read each word, and ask what the obvious answer is and why it might not work. Many tricks hide in a number you skimmed, a word with two meanings, or a rule the story quietly breaks, such as a dozen, a half or a zero.
When maths is involved, write each step down. People who answer 5000 to the line of thousands usually did the sum in their head and skipped the small numbers. Say the answer out loud and ask whether it still fits the question. Then read the explanation to learn the pattern for next time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a tricky riddle?
A tricky riddle has a trap that makes the obvious answer wrong. The trap may be a word with two meanings, a sum that is easy to rush, or a detail that changes everything.
How do I avoid falling for tricky riddles?
Slow down and read every word. Notice numbers, small words such as 'half' or 'all', and anything unusual. If an answer comes too quickly, check it against each part of the question.
What is the difference between tricky riddles and trick questions?
Tricky riddles have fair, checkable answers that need careful thought. Trick questions usually rely on a joke or a play on wording, and the answer is often a pun or a technicality.
Are tricky riddles good for kids?
Older children enjoy them, especially the easy set and the letter riddles. Younger kids may need help with the number traps, but they are a fun way to practise careful reading.
