Tricky Riddles With Answers

Ten tricky riddles with answers at a time, with the trap named in one line under each answer.

Tricky Riddles With Answers

Show all 69
  1. The sign on a hotel door reads DO NOT NOT DISTURB. Does the guest want a knock?
  2. When my father was 31, I was 8. Now he is twice as old as I am. How old am I?
  3. What is bought by the yard and worn by the foot?
  4. How many letters are in the answer to this question?
  5. Yesterday a friend told you, "See you the day after tomorrow." On which day will you see her?
  6. What is the fourth word in this question?
  7. The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
  8. A man leaves home, turns left three times and gets back home, where two people in masks are waiting for him. Who are they?
  9. There are two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck and a duck in the middle. What is the smallest number of ducks?
  10. An earring falls into the coffee and comes out perfectly dry. How?

Next step Logic riddlesBrain teaser riddles

How it works

Every one of these tricky riddles with answers is easy once you see the trap: a red herring, a word with two meanings, a detail the question never asked about.

Read the full guide

Trick riddles with answers, in four kinds

Trick questions hide an assumption. Common sense riddles have the plainest answer in the room. Confusing wording tangles days, relatives and double negatives. Easy but hard riddles are short, look simple and stump the table.

Red herring riddles and gotcha riddles

A red herring is a detail that leads you away from the real answer: the cows and pigs around a farmer, the sheep and goats on a ship. A gotcha riddle lets you answer fast and be wrong. Read either kind aloud once, at normal speed, and wait.

  • After the answer, read the trap line aloud. It is the part people repeat to the next person.

Questions and answers

What are some tricky riddles with answers?

Three to start with. How many letters are in the answer to this question? Four. What has a bottom at the top? Your legs. A stick has two ends: saw one off, and how many are left? Two.

What are some confusing riddles?

What day comes two days after the day before yesterday? Today. If you never fail to forget your keys, how often do you have them with you? Never.

What are common sense riddles?

Riddles that are missed by thinking too hard. The power goes out while you are halfway up an escalator: how do you get to the top? You walk, because a stopped escalator is a staircase.

What are some easy but hard riddles?

How many days are there between Monday and Friday? Three. If two hands have ten fingers, how many fingers do ten hands have? Fifty, not a hundred.

More tools

Browse Word Games

All 69 riddles

Trick questions 17

  • A farmer has 12 cows, 9 pigs and a dog named Tuesday. How many feet does the farmer have? Answer: Two. The animals are a red herring: the question asks only about the farmer.
  • A horse faces north, turns to face east and then turns all the way around. Which way does its tail point? Answer: Down. The turning is a red herring: a horse's tail hangs toward the ground.
  • A man leaves home, turns left three times and gets back home, where two people in masks are waiting for him. Who are they? Answer: The catcher and the umpire. Home is home plate, and the three left turns are the bases.
  • A man stands on one bank of a river, and his dog stands on the other. He whistles, and the dog crosses without getting wet. There is no bridge and no boat. How? Answer: The river is frozen. The riddle lets you picture running water and never says so.
  • A pianist does not have all ten fingers on one hand. What happened to her? Answer: Nothing. She has five on each hand. The words sound like bad news and are not.
  • A red candle and a white candle are lit at the same moment. Which one burns longer? Answer: Neither. No candle burns longer: every candle burns shorter. Longer sounds like time, and it can also mean length.
  • A ship carries 26 sheep and 10 goats. How old is the captain? Answer: Nobody can tell. No number in the riddle has anything to do with the captain, and adding them up is the trap.
  • A square room has a cat in every corner. Each cat can see three cats. How many cats are in the room? Answer: Four. Each cat sees the other three, so the three is nothing to multiply by.
  • A woman buys a parrot after the seller promises that it repeats every word it hears. The parrot never says a word, and the seller told the truth. How? Answer: The parrot is deaf. It repeats every word it hears, and it hears none.
  • An earring falls into the coffee and comes out perfectly dry. How? Answer: It fell into a can of coffee beans. Coffee is a drink only after somebody brews it.
  • If you hold three oranges in one hand and four apples in the other, what do you have? Answer: Very big hands. The riddle sounds like a sum of fruit. The catch is fitting it all into two hands.
  • Lia bets that she can stay under water for a full minute, and she wins the bet without getting wet. How? Answer: She holds a glass of water over her head. Under water sounds like in water.
  • One train leaves Elm City at nine o'clock at 60 miles an hour. Another leaves Oak City at ten at 80 miles an hour, straight toward the first. When they meet, which train is closer to Elm City? Answer: Neither. When they meet they are in the same place, so the times and the speeds do not matter.
  • Sam bets that he can put a coin where everybody in the room can see it except you. Where does he put it? Answer: On top of your head. The riddle makes you search the room and forget yourself.
  • Today is Tess's birthday, and a year ago today she turned 9. How old will she be on her next birthday? Answer: 11. She turns 10 today, so her next birthday is a year away. Most people stop at 10.
  • Two people reach a river at the same moment. The only boat holds one person, and nobody brings it back. Both of them cross. How? Answer: They started on opposite banks. One rows over, and then the other rows back. The riddle lets you put them on the same side.
  • You walk out of the kitchen on two legs and walk back in with six. How? Answer: You are carrying a chair. Anything with four legs will do. Nobody said the legs were all yours.

Common sense 17

  • A birthday cake has six candles. Jo blows out four of them. How many candles are on the cake? Answer: Six. A candle that is blown out is still standing on the cake.
  • A bucket has a hole in its side the width of your thumb, and you must carry water across the yard in one trip. What do you plug the hole with? Answer: Your thumb. The riddle hands you the plug while it describes the hole.
  • A dog has four legs. If you call its tail a leg, how many legs does it have? Answer: Four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it one.
  • A rope is exactly ten feet from end to end. You tie one knot in the middle. Is it still ten feet from end to end? Answer: No, it is a little shorter. The knot uses up some of the rope.
  • A stick has two ends. Saw one end off. How many ends does the stick have now? Answer: Two. A shorter stick still has two ends.
  • A taxi picks up three riders, drops one off at the bank and picks up two more at the station. How many people are in the taxi? Answer: Five. Four riders, and the driver nobody counts.
  • A teacher hands 5 students 3 pencils each. At the end of class she collects 2 back from each of them. How many pencils did she hand out? Answer: 15. The question stops before the collecting, and most people keep going.
  • Ben owns five pairs of shoes and loses one shoe. How many pairs does he have now? Answer: Four pairs. One shoe is left with no partner. Losing one sounds like five take away a half.
  • Dad packs three sandwiches: one cut in half, one cut in quarters and one left whole. How many sandwiches are in the bag? Answer: Three. Seven pieces, and still three sandwiches.
  • How can you say rabbit without using the letter R? Answer: Bunny. The trap is trying to spell rabbit some other way.
  • Jo is not very hungry, so she asks for her pizza to be cut into six slices and not eight. Does she get less pizza? Answer: No. It is the same pizza, however it is cut.
  • The power goes out while you are halfway up an escalator. How do you get to the top? Answer: Walk. A stopped escalator is a staircase.
  • Walking to school, you count 20 houses on your right. Walking home the same way, you count 20 houses on your left. How many different houses did you count? Answer: 20. They are the same houses: your right on the way there is your left on the way back.
  • Why do birds fly south for the winter? Answer: It is too far to walk. The riddle sounds like a science question and takes the plainest answer there is.
  • You are locked out. The front door is locked, the back door is locked, every window is shut, and your sister is inside watching TV. What do you do? Answer: Knock. The sister comes last, behind three locked things, and she is the whole answer.
  • You are paying for the movies. Is it cheaper to take one friend twice, or two friends at the same time? Answer: Two friends at the same time. That is three tickets. One friend twice is four, because you pay for yourself both times.
  • Your sock has one hole worn in the toe. How many holes does the sock have? Answer: Two. Count the one your foot goes in through.

Confusing wording 20

  • A boat full of people has not sunk, yet when you look across the deck you do not see a single person. Why? Answer: Everybody on board is married. Single means one, and it also means unmarried.
  • A woman says: "Anna's daughter is my daughter's mother." Who is the woman to Anna? Answer: Her daughter. My daughter's mother is the speaker herself.
  • All of Ana's pets are dogs except two, all are cats except two, and all are rabbits except two. How many pets does she have? Answer: Three. A dog, a cat and a rabbit. Except two sounds like a crowd.
  • Can you take a picture of your sister with a banana? Answer: No, you need a camera. With a banana can describe the sister or the tool.
  • Half of the class wears glasses, and half of the class walks to school. Does that have to be the whole class? Answer: No. It can be the same half.
  • How can you lift an elephant with one hand? Answer: You cannot. No elephant has one hand. With one hand can belong to you or to the elephant.
  • How do you spell cow with thirteen letters? Answer: SEE O DOUBLE YOU. Spell out the names of the letters C, O and W.
  • If you never fail to forget your keys, how often do you have them with you? Answer: Never. Never fail to forget means always forget.
  • Leo's sister has exactly one brother. How many brothers does Leo have? Answer: None. Leo is the one brother.
  • Mia says: "I am not unhappy that I did not fail the test." Did she pass? Answer: Yes. Did not fail is passed. Not unhappy is there to tangle the sentence.
  • Mom says: "Buy one carton of milk, and if they have eggs, get twelve." Sam comes home with twelve cartons of milk. Why? Answer: The store had eggs. Get twelve was meant for the eggs, and Sam heard it about the milk.
  • Nobody in the class failed to miss the bus. How many students caught it? Answer: None. Failed to miss sounds like caught. Nobody failed to miss it, so everybody missed it.
  • The sign on a hotel door reads DO NOT NOT DISTURB. Does the guest want a knock? Answer: Yes. Two nots cancel, so the sign asks to be disturbed.
  • There are two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck and a duck in the middle. What is the smallest number of ducks? Answer: Three. They swim in a line, and the same three ducks fit every part of the sentence.
  • What are the next three letters? W, A, T, ... Answer: N, T, L. The letters are the first letters of the question itself: What Are The Next Three Letters.
  • What day comes two days after the day before yesterday? Answer: Today. The day before yesterday is two days back, and two days after that is where you are.
  • What is the fourth word in this question? Answer: Fourth. Count them: what, is, the, fourth. The question holds its own answer.
  • Which is the odd one out: first, second, third, forth, fifth? Answer: Forth. It is spelled without the U, so it means onward and not number four.
  • Which word in this sentence is spelled incorectly? Answer: Incorectly. It is missing an R. People look for a hard word and skip the one that says so.
  • Yesterday a friend told you, "See you the day after tomorrow." On which day will you see her? Answer: Tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, counted from yesterday, is one day ahead of today.

Easy but hard 15

  • A book has 100 numbered pages. How many sheets of paper are those pages printed on? Answer: 50. Every sheet has one page on the front and one on the back.
  • A price goes up 10 percent, and then the new price comes down 10 percent. Is it back where it started? Answer: No, it is 1 percent lower. The second 10 percent is taken from a bigger number: 100 becomes 110, and then 99.
  • Add these in your head: 1,000 plus 40, plus 1,000, plus 30, plus 1,000, plus 20, plus 1,000, plus 10. What is the total? Answer: 4,100. Many people say 5,000. The last step is 4,090 plus 10, and the mind carries one place too far.
  • How many days are there between Monday and Friday? Answer: Three. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Between leaves out both ends.
  • How many letters are in the answer to this question? Answer: Four. Four is the only number whose name has as many letters as it counts.
  • If two hands have ten fingers, how many fingers do ten hands have? Answer: 50. A hundred is the fast answer. Ten hands are five pairs, and each pair has ten fingers.
  • The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they? Answer: Footsteps. Every step you take stays behind you.
  • Think of a number. Add it to itself, multiply by 4 and divide by 8. Which number brings you back to where you began? Answer: Any number. Doubling, then times 4, then divided by 8 is the same as times 1.
  • What can you hold without ever touching it? Answer: A conversation. People hold conversations, and no hands are needed.
  • What gets wetter the more it dries? Answer: A towel. It dries you and takes the water itself.
  • What has a bottom at the top? Answer: Your legs. Bottom is also the word for what you sit on.
  • What has thirteen hearts and no other organs? Answer: A deck of cards. The suit of hearts has thirteen cards.
  • What is bought by the yard and worn by the foot? Answer: Carpet. It is sold by length, and feet wear it out.
  • When do you go at red and stop at green? Answer: When you are eating a watermelon. You eat the red part and stop at the green rind.
  • When my father was 31, I was 8. Now he is twice as old as I am. How old am I? Answer: 23. He is always 23 years older, so he is twice my age when I am 23 and he is 46.