28 puzzles
Checked October 2026

Problem Solving Icebreakers

One short puzzle for a group to solve together, with steps and the answer.

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O, T, T, F, F, S, S: What Comes Next?1. Write the letters O, T, T, F, F, S, S on the board.2. Pairs work out the next three letters.3. After a minute, anyone who has it says only the next letter and not the reason, so the rest can keep working.4. Answer: E, N, T. The letters begin the words one, two, three, four, five, six and seven.Players: 2 to 60. Time: 3 min. Props: a board and a marker. Noise: medium.

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On a board or a sheet of paper 10

Crack the Three-Digit Code 1. Write five guesses on the board with what the lock said about each. 147 has one digit right and in the right place. 189 has one right, in the wrong place. 964 has two right, both in the wrong place. 523 has nothing right. 286 has one right, in the wrong place. 2. Tables work out the code and write it down, face down. 3. Turn the answers over together, and let a table that has it explain where it started. 4. Answer: 697. The first clue cannot be about the 1, and trying the 4 breaks the other clues, so the 7 is last. Then 964 gives the 9 and the 6, and the 9 fits only in the middle. Players: 3 to 60. Time: 6 min. Props: a board and a marker. Noise: medium.
Cross Out Six Letters and Read the Fruit 1. Write OSRIAXLNETGTEERS on the board. 2. Say exactly this, and say it twice: cross out six letters so that the letters left spell a fruit. 3. Pairs try. Most cross out six letters of their own choosing and get stuck. 4. Answer: cross out the letters that spell the words SIX LETTERS, in order, and ORANGE is left. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 4 min. Props: a board and a marker. Noise: medium.
Five Lamps, and Every Switch Flips Its Neighbors Too 1. Draw five circles in a row for five lamps, all off. 2. Pressing a lamp flips it and the lamp on each side of it: off becomes on, on becomes off. The end lamps have one neighbor. 3. The job is to light all five with as few presses as possible. Pairs keep track by shading circles. 4. Answer: two presses. Press the first lamp and the fourth, or the second and the fifth. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 4 min. Props: a board and a marker, paper and a pen each. Noise: medium.

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On a board or a sheet of paper, continued

How Many Triangles in a Square With Both Diagonals? 1. Draw a square on the board and both of its diagonals. 2. Everyone writes down how many triangles they see, without talking. 3. Ask for the counts by a show of hands: four, six, eight, more. Pairs with different counts show each other theirs. 4. Answer: eight. Four small ones meet in the middle, and each diagonal also cuts the whole square into two large ones, which makes four more. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 3 min. Props: a board and a marker. Noise: medium.
Move One Digit to Mend the Sum 1. Write 101 − 102 = 1 on the board. It is false. 2. The job is to make it true by moving one digit. No sign may move, and nothing is added or rubbed out. 3. Give pairs two minutes. Offer one hint after the first: digits do not have to sit on the line. 4. Answer: lift the 2 so that it reads 101 minus 10 squared, which is 101 minus 100. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 3 min. Props: a board and a marker. Noise: medium.
Nine Dots, Four Straight Lines 1. Draw nine dots in three rows of three on the board. Everyone copies them. 2. The job is to join all nine with four straight lines, without lifting the pen. Work alone for one minute, then in pairs. 3. When pairs are stuck, say only this: nobody said the lines must stay inside the square. 4. Answer: from the top left dot, draw along the top row and one space past it. Slant down through two dots to one space below the bottom left dot. Draw up the left side to where you began, and finish on the diagonal to the bottom right. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 5 min. Props: a board and a marker, paper and a pen each. Noise: medium.
O, T, T, F, F, S, S: What Comes Next? 1. Write the letters O, T, T, F, F, S, S on the board. 2. Pairs work out the next three letters. 3. After a minute, anyone who has it says only the next letter and not the reason, so the rest can keep working. 4. Answer: E, N, T. The letters begin the words one, two, three, four, five, six and seven. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 3 min. Props: a board and a marker. Noise: medium.
One Straight Line Splits the Clock 1. Sketch the face of a clock on the board, with 1 to 12 around it. 2. The job is to draw one straight line across the face so that the numbers on each side add up to the same total. 3. Pairs who finish get a harder job: two lines, three parts, the same total in each part. 4. Answer: a line from between 9 and 10 to between 3 and 4 leaves 39 on each side. Two level lines, the first under 11, 12, 1 and 2 and the second under 9, 10, 3 and 4, leave 26 in each part. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 5 min. Props: a board and a marker, paper and a pen each. Noise: medium.
Shortest Routes Across a Grid of Four Blocks 1. Draw a grid two blocks wide and two blocks tall, like four city blocks. Mark the bottom left corner A and the top right corner B. 2. A walker goes from A to B along the lines, moving only up or to the right. How many different routes are there? 3. Pairs trace the routes and count them. 4. Answer: six. Every route is two moves up and two moves to the right in some order. A grid three blocks each way has twenty. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 4 min. Props: a board and a marker, paper and a pen each. Noise: medium.
Ten Dots, Five Rows of Four 1. The job is to draw ten dots so that they make five straight rows with four dots in every row. 2. Pairs sketch. Most start with a grid and run out of dots. 3. Offer a hint after two minutes: a dot can sit in two rows at once. 4. Answer: a five-pointed star. Put a dot on each of its five points and on each of the five places where its lines cross. Each of the five lines then holds four dots. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 5 min. Props: paper and a pen each. Noise: medium.

Told aloud as a story 6

Eight Pieces of Cake in Three Cuts 1. Ask how to cut a round cake into eight equal pieces with three straight cuts. 2. Pairs talk for two minutes. Three cuts from above give six equal pieces, or seven unequal ones. 3. Offer one hint: the knife does not have to come down from above. 4. Answer: two cuts from above, crossing at the center, make four pieces. The third cut goes in from the side, halfway up, and splits all four. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 3 min. Props: none. Noise: medium.
Exactly One of Three Is Telling the Truth 1. Tell the story: the last cookie is gone, and three coworkers stand by the jar. Ana says, "Ben took it." Ben says, "I did not." Cy says, "I did not." 2. Exactly one of the three is telling the truth. Who took the cookie? 3. Tables test each suspect in turn and count the true sentences. 4. Answer: Cy. If Cy took it, only Ben is telling the truth. With Ana or Ben as the taker, two of the three sentences come out true. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 4 min. Props: none. Noise: medium.
Fast Answer, Slow Answer 1. Read three questions aloud. After each one, everyone settles on the first answer that comes to mind and keeps it quiet. 2. A pen and a notebook cost $1.20 together, and the notebook costs $1 more than the pen: what does the pen cost? Four printers print four posters in four minutes: how long do a hundred printers need for a hundred posters? A weed doubles its patch every day and covers the pond on day 30: on which day was the pond half covered? 3. Pairs get one minute to check the fast answers against each other. 4. Answers: 10 cents, four minutes and day 29. Ask how many first answers were 20 cents, a hundred minutes and day 15. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 4 min. Props: none. Noise: medium.
Four Walkers, One Flashlight, Fifteen Minutes 1. Tell the story: four people must cross a narrow footbridge at night with one flashlight. The bridge holds two at a time, and nobody crosses without the light. 2. Alone they need 1, 2, 5 and 8 minutes. Two together walk at the slower pace. Can all four be across in 15 minutes? 3. Pairs get three minutes. Most reach 17 by sending the fastest walker back with the light every time. 4. Answer: the two fastest cross, and the 1 comes back. The 5 and the 8 cross together, and the 2 comes back. The two fastest cross again. That is 2, 1, 8, 2 and 2 minutes. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 5 min. Props: none. Noise: medium.
Three Desks by the Window 1. Kim, Lee and Sam sit at three desks in a row. One drinks tea, one coffee and one water. Read three clues, twice. 2. Kim does not sit at either end. The coffee drinker sits directly to the left of Sam. Lee does not drink water. 3. Pairs work out who sits where and who drinks what. 4. Answer: Lee on the left with tea, Kim in the middle with coffee and Sam on the right with water. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 4 min. Props: none. Noise: medium.
Who Finished Where? Four Runners, Three Clues 1. Four runners finish a race: Ana, Ben, Cy and Dee. Read three clues, twice. 2. Ana finished ahead of Ben. Cy was neither first nor last. Dee finished right behind Ben. 3. Tables agree on the order and raise a hand when they are sure. 4. Answer: Ana, Cy, Ben, Dee. Ben and Dee take two places in a row, and only third and fourth leave room for Ana ahead of them and Cy in the middle. Players: 2 to 60. Time: 4 min. Props: none. Noise: medium.

With coins, cups or beans on the table 6

Eight Beans, Three Saucers 1. Mark three sheets of paper 8, 5 and 3: that is how many beans each can hold. Put eight beans on the 8. 2. A move pours one sheet onto another: beans go across until the first sheet is empty or the second is full. Nobody may count out part of a pile. 3. The job is to end with four beans on the 8 and four on the 5. 4. Answer: seven moves. The 8, the 5 and the 3 hold 3, 5, 0, then 3, 2, 3, then 6, 2, 0, then 6, 0, 2, then 1, 5, 2, then 1, 4, 3, and at last 4, 4, 0. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 6 min. Props: eight beans or paper clips and three sheets of paper for each table. Noise: medium.
Four Coins, Each Touching the Other Three 1. Give each pair four coins of the same size. 2. The job is to place them so that every coin touches the other three. 3. Flat on the table, three coins can all touch, and the fourth always ends up touching two. Let pairs find that out. 4. Answer: lay three flat in a triangle, all touching, and rest the fourth on top of them. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 3 min. Props: four coins of the same size for each pair. Noise: medium.
Six Cups in a Row: Make Them Alternate 1. Line up six clear cups: the first three full of water, the last three empty. 2. The job is to make the row alternate, full then empty, all the way along. Only one cup may be touched. 3. Tables agree on a plan before anyone lifts a cup. 4. Answer: pick up the second cup, pour it into the fifth and put it back where it was. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 3 min. Props: six clear cups for each table, three of them full of water. Noise: medium.
Six Numbers on a Triangle, Every Side Makes Nine 1. Each table numbers six sticky notes 1 to 6 and draws a large triangle. 2. Put a note on each corner and one in the middle of each side, so that the three numbers along every side add up to nine. 3. Tables that finish try for ten on every side. 4. Answer: for nine, put 1, 2 and 3 on the corners, with 6 between 1 and 2, 5 between 1 and 3, and 4 between 2 and 3. For ten, the corners are 1, 3 and 5. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: six sticky notes and a sheet of paper for each table. Noise: medium.
Three Cups, Turn Two at a Time 1. Each table sets three cups in a row: the two outer cups upside down, the middle one upright. A move turns over exactly two cups. The job is to get all three upright. 2. That takes one move. Now set the middle cup upside down and the outer two upright, and give the same job. 3. Let the tables try for two minutes. 4. Answer: it cannot be done. Every move changes the number of upside-down cups by two or by nothing, so one upside-down cup can never become none. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 4 min. Props: three paper cups for each table. Noise: medium.
Tower of Three Coins 1. Each pair draws three circles on a sheet and stacks three coins of different sizes on the first circle, the largest at the bottom. 2. The job is to move the whole stack to the third circle. Move one coin at a time, and never put a coin on a smaller one. 3. Pairs count their moves aloud and try again to bring the count down. 4. Answer: seven moves is the fewest. The smallest coin moves on every other turn. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: three coins of different sizes and a sheet of paper for each pair. Noise: medium.

Solved on your feet 6

A New Line Where No Old Neighbors Stand Together 1. Four or five people stand in a line, and each one notes who is beside them. 2. The job is to line up again so that nobody stands next to someone they stood next to before. Those watching may give advice. 3. When a line looks right, the watchers check every pair of neighbors aloud. 4. Answer: with five, one way is second, fourth, first, third, fifth. With four there are only two ways: second, fourth, first, third, and the same backward. With three it cannot be done. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: none. Noise: loud.
Every Second Person Sits: Who Is Left Standing? 1. Four to ten people stand in a ring and number themselves around it, starting from 1. 2. Before anyone moves, each person guesses which number will be the last one standing. 3. Go around the circle from person 1, again and again: skip one standing person, and the next one sits. 4. Answer: a circle of four leaves number 1; five leaves 3; six leaves 5; seven leaves 7; eight leaves 1; nine leaves 3; ten leaves 5. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: none. Noise: loud.
Everyone Moves Exactly One Chair 1. Four people sit in a row of four chairs. The job is for everyone to end up in a chair right next to the one they started in. 2. They talk it over and all move on a count of three. 3. Now three people try it in a row of three chairs. 4. Answer: four is easy, because neighbors swap in pairs. Three cannot be done. The person at the end must trade with the one beside them, and in a row with an odd number that leaves someone with no partner. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 4 min. Props: none. Noise: loud.
How Many Handshakes in This Room? 1. Ask how many handshakes it would take for everyone here to greet everyone else once. Each person says a guess to a neighbor. 2. Groups of four try it and count aloud. A wave counts as a handshake for anyone who would rather not touch. 3. Groups of five try it, then six. Ask for the pattern. 4. Answer: four people make 6, five make 10 and six make 15. Each new person greets everyone already there, so thirty people make 435. Players: 4 to 60. Time: 5 min. Props: none. Noise: loud.
Pass to Every Second Person: Does It Reach Everyone? 1. Six people stand in a circle. The first hands a pen to the second person on the left, skipping one, and that person does the same. 2. Before the pen moves, everyone guesses whether all six will get to hold it. 3. Run it. Then one person steps out, and the five who are left run it again. 4. Answer: with six, the pen only ever reaches three people. With five it reaches everyone. Skipping one person works in any circle with an odd number and misses half of any circle with an even number. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 4 min. Props: a pen. Noise: loud.
Reverse the Line, Neighbors Only 1. Four people stand in a line. The job is to end in the opposite order. 2. Only one move is allowed: two people standing next to each other swap places. The rest of the group counts the swaps aloud. 3. A second line of four tries to beat that count. Then try a line of five. 4. Answer: six swaps for four people and ten for five. Every pair of people has to pass each other once. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: none. Noise: loud.

How this list was compiled: Written on 2026-10-14 for a leader who opens a meeting, a class or a training session with a short puzzle that the group solves together. The steps and the wording of every puzzle are our own. Every answer was checked by working the puzzle through; the counting puzzles, the code, the two sets of clues and the puzzles made of people were also checked by trying every case. Five classic puzzles were read on 2026-10-14 at Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_dots_puzzle (nine dots in a square are joined by four straight lines without lifting the pen, and the lines leave the square), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_and_torch_problem (walkers of 1, 2, 5 and 8 minutes can cross in 15), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_cups_problem (from one cup upside down, turning two at a time never rights all three), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi (three disks move in seven moves) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pouring_puzzle (jugs of 8, 5 and 3 reach 4 and 4 in seven pours). "Nothing to bring" means no board, paper or objects: the puzzle is told aloud or made of the people in the room. "On a video call" means it works read aloud or drawn on a shared screen. Player ranges and minutes are planning estimates. Licence: own work

How it works

These problem solving icebreakers are short puzzles a group works out together before a meeting, a class or a training session begins. Each one ends with its answer and the reason, so the leader is never the one who is stuck.

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Problem solving icebreakers for adults

At work, pick a puzzle that pairs can argue about. In Four Walkers, One Flashlight, Fifteen Minutes most rooms land on seventeen minutes and have to find the other two. Crack the Three-Digit Code needs five lines on a board, and both run on a video call.

Icebreaker problem solving activities on your feet

Six puzzles use the people as the pieces. In Every Second Person Sits the circle predicts who will be left standing, then counts it out. Everyone Moves Exactly One Chair works in a row of four and fails in a row of three, and the group finds out why.

Questions and answers

What is a quick problem solving icebreaker for adults?

Fast Answer, Slow Answer. Read three short questions whose first answer is usually wrong, let everyone settle on an answer in silence, then give pairs a minute to check. It needs nothing and is planned at four minutes.

What are good icebreakers problem solving games for teams?

Tower of Three Coins and Eight Beans, Three Saucers. Each table gets a few coins or beans, a goal and a count to beat. Seven moves is the fewest in both, so tables race the number and not each other.

Which icebreakers about problem solving need nothing at all?

Eleven of the 28: the six stories told aloud, such as Exactly One of Three Is Telling the Truth, and five puzzles made of people, such as Reverse the Line, Neighbors Only.