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.

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

Red and Blue Marbles

Your friend has 100 red marbles, 100 blue marbles and 2 jars.

He proposes a game. He fills the jars with the marbles, put the two jars behind his back and tell you to pick one of them at random. You’ll then close your eyes, he’ll hand you the jar you picked, and you’ll pick a random marble from that jar.

You win if the marble you pick is blue, and you lose otherwise.

To give you the best shot at winning, your friend gives you the two jars before the game starts and says you can move the marbles around however you’d like, as long as all 200 marbles are in one of the 2 jars (that is, you can’t throw any marbles away).

How should you move the marbles around to give yourself the best chance of picking a blue marble?

Riddle Answer

Flipping Lockers

There are 1 million closed school lockers in a row, labeled 1 through 1,000,000.

You first go through and flip every locker open.

Then you go through and flip every other locker (locker 2, 4, 6, etc…). When you’re done, all the even-numbered lockers are closed.

You then go through and flip every third locker (3, 6, 9, etc…). “Flipping” mean you open it if it’s closed, and close it if it’s open. For example, as you go through this time, you close locker 3 (because it was still open after the previous run through), but you open locker 6, since you had closed it in the previous run through.

Then you go through and flip every fourth locker (4, 8, 12, etc…), then every fifth locker (5, 10, 15, etc…), then every sixth locker (6, 12, 18, etc…) and so on. At the end, you’re going through and flipping every 999,998th locker (which is just locker 999,998), then every 999,999th locker (which is just locker 999,999), and finally, every 1,000,000th locker (which is just locker 1,000,000).

At the end of this, is locker 1,000,000 open or closed?

Riddle Answer

Survival of the Sheep

There is an island filled with grass and trees and plants. The only inhabitants are 100 lions and 1 sheep.

The lions are special:

  1. They are infinitely logical, smart, and completely aware of their surroundings
  2. They can survive by just eating grass (and there is an infinite amount of grass on the island)
  3. They prefer of course to eat the sheep
  4. Their only food options are grass or sheep

Now, here’s the kicker:

  • If a lion eats a sheep he TURNS into a sheep (and could then be eaten by other lions)
  • A lion would rather eat grass all his life than be eaten by another lion (after he turned into a sheep)

You can make the following assumptions:

  1. Assume that one lion is closest to the sheep and will get to it before all others. Assume that there is never an issue with who gets to the sheep first. The issue is whether the first lion will get eaten by other lions afterwards or not
  2. The sheep cannot get away from the lion if the lion decides to eat it
  3. Do not assume anything that hasn’t been stated above

Will that one sheep get eaten or not and why?

Riddle Answer