Long Riddles

Long riddles with answers test your problem solving skills. These lengthy puzzles test your ability to piece together information and find the answer.

1000 Wine Bottles

A king has 1000 bottles of wine and one has been poisoned. Even a sip of the poisoned wine is enough to kill a person.

The king asks the royal jailor to identify the poisoned wine bottle by testing them on the prisoners.

It takes up to 24 hours for the poison to take effect. There are unlimited number of prisoners at the jailer’s disposal. What is the minimum number of prisoners the jailer needs to identify the poisoned wine bottle in 24 hours?

Riddle Answer

Past the Bridge Guard

A guard is stationed at the entrance of a bridge. He is tasked to shoot anyone who tries to cross to the other side of the bridge, and to turn away anyone who comes in from the opposite side of the bridge. You are on his side of the bridge and want to escape to the other side.

Because the bridge is old and rickety, anyone who tries to cross it does so at a constant speed, and it always takes exactly 10 minutes to cross.

The guard comes out of his post every 6 minutes and looks down the bridge for any people trying to leave, and at all other times he sits in his post and snoozes. You know you can sneak past him when he’s sleeping, but the problem is that you won’t be able to make it all the way to the other side of the bridge before he sees you (since he comes out every 6 minutes, but it takes 10 minutes to cross).

One day a brilliant idea comes to you, and soon you’ve successfully crossed to the other side of the bridge without being shot. How did you do it?

Riddle Answer

7 Thieves

There are seven thieves. They stole diamonds from a diamond merchant and ran away. While running, night sets in and they decide to rest in the jungle.

When everybody was sleeping, two of them woke up and decided to divide the diamonds equally among themselves. But when they divided the diamonds equally, one diamond is left.

So they woke up the 3rd thief and tried to divide the diamonds equally again but still one diamond was left. Then they woke up the 4th thief to divide the diamonds equally again, and again one diamond was left. This happened with the 5th and 6th thief – one diamond was still left.

Finally, they woke up the 7th thief and this time the diamonds were divided equally.

How many diamonds did they steal in total?

Riddle Answer

School Superintendent Inspection

One day, a class teacher was told that the school superintendent will be visiting her class on the next day.

The superintendent would be asking questions from her class and the teacher will have the liberty to choose any pupil to answer the question.

Now she is determined that the impression that is cast upon the superintendent after the inspection should be great.

To offer a perfect impression over him, the teacher explained certain instructions to the students to maximise the chances of getting correct answer every time. What did she say to the students?

Riddle Answer

The President of Logitopia

Larry, Matt, and Nick live in the strange country of Logitopia. This country is inhabited by three races of people: the type A people who always tell the truth, the type B people who always lie, and the type C people who alternately tell the truth and lie. One of the three is the president of Logitopia.

Larry makes these two statements:

  1. The president is of a different race from the other two.
  2. Matt is not the president.

Matt makes these two statements:

  1. The president is a type B person.
  2. Larry is not the president.

Nick makes these two statements:

  1. Exactly two of us are of the same race.
  2. I am not the president.

Who is the president?

Riddle Answer