Hard Riddles with Answers: 56 Tough Ones for All Ages

Hard riddles are fun when the answer feels unfair for ten seconds and then feels obvious. This page has 56 hard riddles with answers, sorted from ones a ten year old can crack to the hardest riddles in the set. There is a group of riddles for adults too, so a parent can play along. A free printable pack has every riddle on a card, two hints for each one, and a full answer key.

What makes a riddle hard

A riddle gets hard when the trick sits in one small phrase and your brain fills in the rest by itself. Take three apples and take away two. The words are simple, but the quick answer is the wrong one. That is why a ten year old can beat an adult on some of these, and why hard riddles with answers are a better family game than trivia.

The ages are my own sorting, based on how much thinking each group needs, and no study sits behind them. Many of these are old riddles that families have passed around, and some I reworded. I worked out every number and logic answer with a short program, so the answers are checked. None of the 56 repeat the riddles on our riddles with answers page, which is the easier and more famous set, so the two pages together give you well over 100.

Hard riddles for kids

These ten are the gentle end of hard. Most are wordplay that a child can feel their way toward, such as a rubber band or a window with panes. If your child is younger than 8, start with our riddles for kids page and come back here later.

1. What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do? Answer: Your name.
2. What kind of band never plays any music? Answer: A rubber band.
3. What has a bottom at the top? Answer: Your legs.
4. What can you catch but never throw? Answer: A cold.
5. What has panes but never feels any pain? Answer: A window.
6. What has no beginning, no end, and nothing in the middle? Answer: A donut.
7. What kind of cheese is made backwards? Answer: Edam. Spell Edam backwards and you get made.
8. What question can you never answer yes to? Answer: Are you asleep?
9. What is black when it is clean and white when it is dirty? Answer: A chalkboard.
10. What can you crack, tell and play, but never hold? Answer: A joke.

The cheese riddle is the one to write down. Spelled backwards, Edam says made, and a child who sees it on paper will want to try it on every other word.

Really hard riddles

People who search for riddles really hard, really hard riddles or very hard riddles usually want the same thing: a riddle where the answer does not sound like an answer. Several of these ten are not objects at all. The answer is a letter, a word game or a kind of weather.

11. What is always in front of you but cannot be seen? Answer: The future.
12. What breaks but never falls, and what falls but never breaks? Answer: Day breaks, and night falls.
13. What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years? Answer: The letter M. Minute has one M, moment has two, and thousand years has none.
14. What goes into the water black and comes out red? Answer: A lobster.
15. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it? Answer: Silence.
16. What has a heart that does not beat? Answer: An artichoke.
17. What has an eye and can wreck a whole town, but cannot see? Answer: A hurricane.
18. What has 13 hearts but no other organs? Answer: A deck of cards. Each suit has 13 cards, and the hearts suit has 13 hearts.
19. What cannot talk, but answers whenever you speak to it? Answer: An echo.
20. What has four eyes but cannot see? Answer: Mississippi. Mississippi has four letter I’s, and I sounds like eye.

Read the Mississippi riddle out loud, then write the word on paper. Seeing the four I’s at once is the moment it clicks.

Logic and math riddles

These nine need a pencil more than a lucky guess. Each one has a first answer that feels right and is not. Divide 30 by one half, and the quick answer is 15. Every answer below comes with its reasoning, because the reasoning is what a child can use on the next one.

21. You have three apples and you take away two of them. How many apples do you have? Answer: Two. You took two, so you have two. The one you left behind does not count as yours.
22. Two people play five games of chess. Each person wins three games, and there are no draws. How is that possible? Answer: They were not playing each other. Each one played someone else. Three plus three is six wins, but five games between the same two people can only make five. So at least one of them played a different opponent.
23. How many two cent stamps are there in a dozen? Answer: 12. A dozen is 12 of anything, so there are 12.
24. Divide 30 by one half, then add 10. What do you get? Answer: 70. There are 60 halves in 30, and 60 plus 10 is 70.
25. A patch of lily pads doubles in size every day. It covers the whole pond on day 48. On which day does it cover half the pond? Answer: Day 47.
26. Anna is twice as old as her brother. In ten years she will be one and a half times as old as he is. How old are they now? Answer: Anna is 20 and her brother is 10. In ten years they will be 30 and 20, and 30 is one and a half times 20.
27. I am a two digit number. My digits add up to 9. If you swap my digits, the new number is 27 bigger than I am. What number am I? Answer: 36. Swapping 36 gives 63, and 63 minus 36 is 27.
28. A boat has a rope ladder hanging over its side with six rungs, one foot apart. The bottom rung touches the water. The tide rises three feet. How many rungs are underwater? Answer: None. The boat rises with the tide.
29. If the day before yesterday was Friday, what day will it be the day after tomorrow? Answer: Tuesday. Yesterday was Saturday, today is Sunday, tomorrow is Monday, and the day after tomorrow is Tuesday.

The age riddle with Anna is the one to give a child who likes math. Ask them to write b for the brother and 2b for Anna, and let them do the rest. For puzzles of this kind at a younger level, our brain teasers for kids page has 50 more.

Hard riddles for adults

Parents get a group of their own, because riddles for adults are not so much harder as sneakier. Most are about letters and words, the kind you solve at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. A few are funny riddles for adults, like the breakfast one. Teens and kids can play these too, and a child who solves one before you do will remember it for a week. Eeshan and Vihaan would enjoy that more than any prize.

30. What do you throw out when you want to use it, and take back in when you are finished with it? Answer: An anchor.
31. What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water? Answer: A map.
32. What word becomes some when you take away the whole? Answer: Wholesome. Wholesome minus whole leaves some.
33. A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays for three days, and rides out on Friday. How is that possible? Answer: His horse is named Friday.
34. What can you always find in the middle of nowhere? Answer: The letter H. The middle of the word nowhere is the letter H.
35. I have a face but no eyes, and hands but no fingers. I run all day without moving. What am I? Answer: A clock.
36. What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the start of every end, and the end of every place? Answer: The letter E. Eternity starts with E, time and space end with E, end starts with E, and place ends with E.
37. What starts with T, ends with T, and has T in it? Answer: A teapot.
38. What can be seen in the middle of March and April, but not at the start or end of either month? Answer: The letter R. The middle letter of March is R, and the middle letter of April is R.
39. What two things can you never eat for breakfast? Answer: Lunch and dinner.

The middle of nowhere riddle is the best adult riddle on the page to say out loud, because everyone looks around the room before they think of the word. These adult riddles also work as a warm up before the last group.

Famous hard riddles people look up

Some riddles get typed into search boxes again and again, usually with the words what is the answer. These four are the ones I would put at the top of that list, and the first is the one people ask for most. I reworded each one, so the wording is mine even though the riddles are old.

40. The poor have it. The rich need it. If you eat it, you die. What is it? Answer: Nothing. The poor have nothing, the rich need nothing, and if you eat nothing, you starve.
41. If you have it, you want to share it. If you share it, you no longer have it. What is it? Answer: A secret.
42. The more of me you take, the more you leave behind. What am I? Answer: Footsteps. The more steps you take, the more footprints you leave behind you.
43. What makes a loud pop, grows bigger, and weighs less when it loses its jacket? Answer: Popcorn. The kernel pops its hull, puffs up, and loses water as steam, so it weighs less.

The first one is the best to say slowly. Ask a child what a poor person has, and then what a rich person needs, and wait for the pause.

Classic riddles in verse

Old riddles were often written as short poems, with a rhyme that hid the answer. These four are classic riddles in that style, written fresh for this page. They read slowly and out loud, which is what makes them feel hard even when the answer is an everyday object. If you like old riddles or the rarer kind you find in old books, this is the group to read aloud.

44. I have two legs, but I cannot walk. I have two blades that meet, but I cannot talk. I trim your paper, your string, your hair, and I only work when I am a pair. Answer: A pair of scissors.
45. I never speak, yet I tell no lie. I copy each wave and each blink of your eye. Step up to me and a twin is there. Walk away and he vanishes into air. Answer: A mirror.
46. I join two shores that cannot meet. I am crossed each day by thousands of feet. I carry trains and cars and you, while rivers rush the whole way through. Answer: A bridge.
47. I have many teeth, yet I never bite. I hold your coat shut, snug and tight. A little tab glides up and down, and I close a jacket, a bag or a gown. Answer: A zipper.

Read these in a steady voice and let the rhyme carry the clue. A child who hears the last line before the answer often gets it from the sound alone.

The hardest riddles

The hardest riddles in this set are logic puzzles. They are hard because the first answer that comes to mind is wrong or incomplete, and getting to the right one takes a plan. If you searched for difficult riddles with answers, this is the group. Each answer comes with the reasoning, since the reasoning is the part worth learning.

48. A girl has as many brothers as sisters. Each of her brothers has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many boys and girls are in the family? Answer: 3 boys and 4 girls. The girl has 3 brothers and 3 sisters. Each boy has 2 brothers and 4 sisters, and 2 is half of 4.
49. A clock takes 5 seconds to strike 6 o’clock. How long does it take to strike 12? Answer: 11 seconds. Twelve strikes have eleven gaps, and each gap lasts one second.
50. A man builds a house with all four sides facing south. A bear walks past a window. What color is the bear? Answer: White. The house is at the North Pole, where every direction is south, and the bear there is a polar bear.
51. You face two doors. One leads out and the other leads to danger. One guard always tells the truth and the other always lies, and you do not know which is which. You may ask one question to one guard. What do you ask? Answer: Ask either guard: which door would the other guard say leads out? Then take the other door. If you ask the truthful guard, he truthfully reports the liar’s wrong answer. If you ask the liar, he lies about the truthful guard’s right answer. Either way you hear the wrong door.
52. Eight coins look the same, but one is slightly heavier. You have a balance scale and two weighings. How do you find the heavy coin? Answer: Weigh three coins against three. If the scale balances, weigh the two coins left over, and the heavier one is the answer. If one side is heavier, weigh two of its three coins against each other, and the heavier one is the answer, or the third coin if they balance.
53. There are three closed doors, and a prize is behind one of them. You pick door 1. The host, who knows where the prize is, opens door 3 and shows it is empty. Do you stay with door 1 or switch to door 2? Answer: Switch. Switching wins 2 times out of 3. Your first pick is right 1 time in 3. The other 2 times the prize is behind a door you did not pick, and the host must open the empty one, so the door left over has the prize.
54. A bus driver goes the wrong way down a one way street, passes three police cars, and nobody stops him. Why? Answer: He was walking, not driving.
55. Which is right: the yolk of an egg are white, or the yolk of an egg is white? Answer: Neither. The yolk is yellow.
56. What is the next number? 31, 28, 31, 30, 31, … Answer: 30. The numbers are the days in January to May, and June has 30.

The two guards and the three doors are the best ones to argue about. Let people disagree for a while before you say who is right.

How to solve a hard riddle

A hard riddle gets easier once you have a few habits. These are the five I would teach a child.

• Read it twice, slowly: The trick usually hides in a small phrase, like take away or half.
• Say what it cannot be: If the riddle says no body and no legs, the answer is not an animal.
• Look inside the words: Count letters, spell the word backwards, find the middle letter.
• Write it down: A logic riddle that is hard in your head is often easy on paper.
• Check the first answer: Put your answer back into the riddle and see if it still works.

If you are stuck for more than a few minutes, ask for a hint instead of the answer. That is what the next section is for.

How the hint ladder works

A hint ladder gives help in small steps, so a child gets to make the final jump. Every riddle in the printable pack has two hints. Hint 1 is a nudge about the kind of answer. Hint 2 is a bigger clue. Here is how it runs with riddle 16.

Wait at least half a minute before each step. A hint given too soon spoils the guessing, and a hint given too late ends the game. With the printed hints you never have to make one up on the spot.

Play hard riddles at game night

Hard riddles work best as a group game, because the wrong guesses are half the fun. These are four ways to run it.

• Parents against kids: The kids get the hint ladder, and the parents get no hints.
• Teams of two: One person reads the card and the other answers, then swap.
• One card at dinner: Pick a card and keep going until everyone has a guess.
• Riddle jar: Cut the cards, drop them in a jar and pull one out on a car ride.

Planning a holiday dinner? Our Christmas riddles page has a seasonal set that none of these repeat.

Printable hard riddles with hints

The pack turns this page into a game you can hand over. The PDF has 14 pages. Pages 1 to 7 are the riddle cards, eight to a page, with no answers. Pages 8 to 12 are the hint ladder, with two hints for each riddle. Pages 13 and 14 are the answer key, with the reasoning for the logic riddles.

Free download: Get the hard riddles hint ladder PDF with 56 cards, two hints for every riddle and a full answer key

The PDF is free for your own home, classroom or family night. Please do not resell it or post it on another site.

Frequently asked questions about hard riddles

What are some hard riddles?

Try these two. What has a heart that does not beat? An artichoke. What has panes but never feels any pain? A window. This page has 54 more hard riddles, and each answer sits beside its riddle.

What is the hardest riddle in the world?

There is no official ranking, so nobody can name one for certain. On this page, the three doors riddle is the hardest in my view. Most people think staying and switching are the same, and they are not. Switching wins two times out of three. I ran a simulation of 100,000 games to check, and switching won about 66 percent of them.

What are good riddles for adults with answers?

The adult group on this page has 10, including the anchor, the map and the letter in the middle of nowhere. The hardest group has 9 logic puzzles that suit adults just as well, and every answer comes with its reasoning.

Are hard riddles too hard for kids?

Not with hints. The kids group is for ages 8 to 10, and the hint ladder lets a younger child get most of the way. The ages are my own sorting and not from a study, so move up or down by what your child enjoys.

How do you solve a hard riddle?

Read it twice, say what the answer cannot be, look inside the words, and write logic riddles down on paper. If you are stuck, ask for one hint at a time instead of the answer.

Are these different from your other riddle pages?

Yes. None of the 56 repeat the riddles on our riddles with answers page, our riddles for kids page or our brain teasers page. This page is the hardest of the set, and the others are easier.

What is the answer to the riddle the poor have it, the rich need it?

The answer is nothing. The poor have nothing, the rich need nothing, and if you eat nothing, you starve. It is riddle 40 on this page, in the group of famous hard riddles people look up.

Where can I print these hard riddles?

The free PDF above has 56 cut out cards, two hints for every riddle and a full answer key. It prints on US Letter paper.

Pick three riddles for the next car ride and hold back the hints. Eeshan and Vihaan would argue about the three doors for the whole trip, and I would let them. The argument is what makes the answer stick.