Hard Riddles

Hard riddles with answers are a true test of your brain power, reasoning and comprehension. You are sure to find these tough difficult riddles both challenging and puzzling. While these hard riddles and answers may drive you a little crazy sometimes, they may surprise you in the way they force you think out of the box.

100 Prisoners and a Light Bulb

There is a prison with 100 prisoners, each in separate cells with no form of contact. There is an area in the prison with a single light bulb in it. Each day, the warden picks one of the prisoners at random, even if they have been picked before, and takes them out to the lobby. The prisoner will have the choice to flip the switch if they want. The light bulb starts off.

When a prisoner is taken into the area with the light bulb, he can also say “Every prisoner has been brought to the light bulb.” If this is true all prisoners will go free. However, if a prisoner chooses to say this and it’s wrong, all the prisoners will be executed. So a prisoner should only say this if he knows it is true for sure.

Before the first day of this process begins, all the prisoners are allowed to get together to discuss a strategy to eventually save themselves.

What strategy could they use to ensure they will go free?

Riddle Answer

3000 Bananas and Camel

You have 3000 bananas and a camel. You wish to transport the bananas to a place 1000 miles away, using only the camel as the mode of transportation.

The camel can only carry a maximum of 1000 bananas at a time, and will eat one banana every mile it travels. The camel will not go anywhere if it does not have any bananas.

You can load and unload as many bananas as you want anywhere. What is the maximum number of bananas that can be transferred to the destination using only the camel?

Riddle Answer

Professor Problem

A professor thinks of two consecutive numbers between 1 and 10.

‘A’ knows the 1st number and ‘B’ knows the second number.

They both have a conversation:
A: I do not know your number.
B: Neither do I know your number.
A: Now I know.

There are four possible solutions to this. What are the numbers?

Riddle Answer

Diophantus Puzzle

Diophantus was a Greek mathematician. Little is known about the life of Diophantus except for an algebraic riddle from around the early sixth century. The riddle states:

Here lies Diophantus,’ the wonder behold.
Through art algebraic, the stone tells how old:
‘God gave him his boyhood one-sixth of his life,
One twelfth more as youth while whiskers grew rife;
And then yet one-seventh ere marriage begun;
In five years there came a bouncing new son.
Alas, the dear child of master and sage
After attaining half the measure of his father’s life chill fate took him.
After consoling his fate by the science of numbers for four years, he ended his life.’

How many years did Diophantus live based on the riddle?

Riddle Answer