In this Plentifun article, we put forth a compilation of some really hard riddles with answers, which are bound to leave you with mixed reactions: happy that you could crack a few and sad that you missed some. On a serious note, you can give these riddles your best shot to prove a point, if nothing else!
What is the question you can ask all day, get different answers for the same, and they would still be correct?
Answer: What’s the time?
Nobody would deny the fact that solving a tough riddle can make you burst with an unknown sense of joy. There no doubt exist some really hard riddles which make you sweat, and perhaps that’s the reason some people like to call them brain teasers, but overall, solving them is a fruitful exercise. These riddles are not for those who don’t like to take challenges, but are for those who don’t mind to take them head-on!
Hard Riddles and Brain Teasers
1. There are three stoves: a glass stove, a brick stove, and a wood stove. You only have one match. Which do you light up first?
2. If your sock drawer has six black socks, four brown socks, eight white socks, and two tan socks, how many socks would you have to pull out in order to be sure that you have a matching pair?
3. You have a jug of milk and you want to measure out just one cup. How do you do this if you only have a three-cup measuring container and a five-cup container?
4. Six glasses are in a row. The first three are full of juice, while the subsequent ones are empty. By moving only one glass, can you arrange them in such a manner that the empty and full glasses alternate?
5. Alex bought a bag of apples on Saturday and ate a third of them. On Sunday, he ate half of the remaining apples. He ate one on Monday, one on Tuesday, and then ate half of the remaining apples on Wednesday. On Thursday he looked in the bag and saw that there was just one apple left. How many apples did the bag have to begin with?
6. You have 15 tiny gold bars and a balance scale. One of the bars is lighter than the others, but you can’t tell the difference by feel. What is least number of times you could use the scale to determine which one is the light one?
7. Two cops walked into a room with no windows and found a dead man who obviously hung himself from the ceiling, though they couldn’t figure out how. There was no chair or table beneath him to conclude that he might have used it to hang himself. They just found a puddle of water. How did the man hang himself?
8. A large truck is crossing a 1-mile long bridge. The bridge can only hold 14,000 lb, which is the exact weight of the truck at that time. The truck makes it half way across the bridge and stops. A bird lands on the truck. Does the bridge collapse?
9. Two fathers and two sons go fishing. Each of them catch one fish. So, why do they bring home only three fish?
10. An extraordinary earthworm is trying to build a house on the top of a tree which is 20-m tall. Every day, the worm climbs 5 m. However, at night, while he is sleeping, he unknowingly slips 2 m down. In this way, how many days will the earthworm take to reach to the top of the tree?
Before you attempt to solve any such riddles, you need to understand that even the most difficult riddles can be solved by applying basic mathematics and logic. Next time you come across hard riddles like these, you can apply this rule to get the better of them.