Hard Riddles and Answers

 

Question: You have been given the task of transporting 3,000 apples 1,000 miles from Appleland to Bananaville. Your truck can carry 1,000 apples at a time. Every time you travel a mile towards Bananaville you must pay a tax of 1 apple but you pay nothing when going in the other direction (towards Appleland).

What is highest number of apples you can get to Bananaville?


Question: There are 3 men, two Chimps, and one Gorilla on one side of a river:

  • They have a boat but only the men and the Gorilla can row the boat across, so there must always be a human and/or Gorilla on the boat.
  • The boat can only carry two people/monkeys.
  • If monkeys and humans are together on one side of the river there must be as many or more people than monkeys for the men's safety.
How can all men and monkeys make it to the other side?

Question: There is a brick of gold and a brick of iron in a boat (both 10 inch blocks), if they are both dropped into the water which will make the water level higher?

Question: Tom wants to send Sally an expensive ring through the mail because they live thousands of miles apart. The only problem is that everything sent through the mail is stolen unless there is a lock put on it. Both Tom and Sally have plenty of locks and keys but they don't have any of the same locks or keys.

How can Tom send Sally the ring without it getting stolen?

Question: You are playing a game of dodge ball with two other people, John and Tom. You're standing in a triangle and you all take turns throwing at one of the others of your choosing until there is only one person remaining. You have a 30 percent chance of hitting someone you aim at, John has a 50 percent chance, and Tom a 100 percent change (he never misses). If you hit somebody they are out and no longer get a turn.

If the order of throwing is you, John, then Tom; what should you do to have the best chance of winning?

Question: An ant gets onto one end of a tight rope that is 1 meter long. The ant is traveling at 1 centimeter per second, but the entire rope is being stretched an extra 1 meter (1,000 centimeters) a second (it can be stretched forever).

Will the ant ever reach the other end of the rope?

Question: There are 100 prisoners lining up to go to jail. Each prisoner is wearing a hat that is either black or white. The prisoners don't know their own hat color, just the hat color of those in front of them in line (the first prisoner in line can't see anyone's hat and the last prisoner can see everyone's hat except their own). Starting from the back, one of the guards asks each prisoner what color their hat is. If they are correct they get to go free but if they are wrong they go to jail.If the prisoners get to discuss a plan, how can at least 99 of them be saved?

Question: 500 is at my end and my start, yet 5 is at my heart.
The first letter and the first number make me complete.
My name is that of a king.

What am I?

Question: Jack is taking a tour through a museum's American Presidents exhibit. The person leading the tour tells him "We have a picture of each presidency. Currently Barack Obama is the 43rd person to hold the office." But Jack quickly realizes that there are 44 pictures on the wall. But while walking through the exhibit he realizes why this is.

Why is there one too many photos?

Question: Five pirates are parting ways after finding a treasure of 100 pieces of gold. The pirates decide to split it based on a vote. Each pirate, from oldest to youngest, gets to propose a plan on how to split the gold.

If at least 50 percent of the other remaining pirates agree on the plan, that is how they will split the gold. If less than 50 percent of the pirates agree, the pirate who came up with the plan will be thrown overboard. Each pirate is smart, greedy, and wants to throw as many others overboard as possible without reducing the amount of gold they get.

What plan can the first (oldest) pirate propose to live and get as much gold as possible?