115 Riddles for Kids, Adults, Students, and Anyone Who Loves a Challenge

Question: I have a face but never smile. I have hands but never wave. What am I?
Answer: A clock

Question: I have a neck but no head. I wear a cap but no hat. What am I?
Answer: A bottle

Question: I go up when rain comes down. What am I?
Answer: An umbrella

Question: I make mistakes disappear, but I never say sorry. What am I?
Answer: An eraser

Question: I am yellow outside, white inside, and monkeys think I am perfect. What am I?
Answer: A banana

Question: I am cold, sweet, and disappear if you wait too long. What am I?
Answer: Ice cream

Question: I follow you in sunlight but leave you in darkness. What am I?
Answer: Your shadow

Question: I carry a crown on my head, but I am not a king. I wake people up in the morning. What am I?
Answer: A rooster

Question: The more you take from me, the bigger I become. What am I?
Answer: A hole

Question: I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot hold me for long. What am I?
Answer: Breath

Question: I have many layers, but I am not a book. I can make you cry. What am I?
Answer: An onion

Question: I say nothing, but my tail tells you when I am happy. What am I?
Answer: A dog

Question: I wear stripes but I am not a shirt. I buzz but I am not a phone. What am I?
Answer: A bee

Question: I sleep upside down and fly without feathers. What am I?
Answer: A bat

Question: I jump before I walk and carry my baby in a pocket. What am I?
Answer: A kangaroo

Question: I have no mouth, but I can still talk. I often repeat, but I never balk. What am I?
Answer: An echo!

Question: I have a sail but no captain or crew. I fly in the sky, and kids love me too. What am I?
Answer: A kite!

Question: I have keys that open no locks, I have space but no room, and you can enter but can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.

Question: What is purple and smells exactly like green paint?
Answer: Purple paint.

Question: What is taken before you can get it?
Answer: Your picture.

Question: What has four fingers and a thumb but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove.

Question: What do you buy to eat but never consume?
Answer: Cutlery.

Question: Two people are born at the same moment, but they don't have the same birthdays. How?
Answer: They were born in different time zones.

Question: If an electric train is traveling south, then which way is the smoke going?
Answer: There is no smoke, it's an electric train.

Question: What travels the world without ever leaving its corner?
Answer: A postage stamp.

Question: I have a head like a cat and feet like a cat, but I am not a cat. What am I?
Answer: A kitten.

Question: A is B's father but B isn't A's son. How?
Answer: B is A's daughter.

Question: You are outside a closed room with three light switches. Only one of them controls a light inside the room. You can flip the switches as much as you want, but you can only enter the room once to check. How do you know which switch controls the light?
Answer: Turn on two switches, then turn one off after a few minutes. Enter the room; if the bulb is on, it’s the first switch. If the bulb is warm, it’s the second. If cold, it’s the third.

Question: You’re in a room with two doors. One leads to freedom, and the other to doom. Two guards know which door is which. One always tells the truth, the other always lies. You can ask only one question to one guard. What do you ask?
Answer: Ask, “If I asked the other guard which door leads to freedom, what would they say?” Then choose the opposite door.

Question: A farmer needs to transport a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across a river. His boat can only carry him and one other item. If left alone, the wolf will eat the goat, and the goat will eat the cabbage. How can he safely transport all three?
Answer: Take the goat across, go back alone, take the wolf, bring the goat back, take the cabbage across, then return for the goat.

Question: In which month do people sleep the least?
Answer: February, because it’s the shortest.

Question: What can you hold in your left hand but never in your right?
Answer: Your right hand.

Question: I am quiet when I am empty, but noisy when coins enter me. What am I?
Answer: A piggy bank

Question: I record everything said in a room but understand none of it. I cannot be questioned, only played back, and I always tell the same story twice once forward, once in reverse but only one direction makes sense. What am I?
Answer: Tape recorder

Question: I have a mouth but never eat,
a belly but never digest,
a neck but never turn,
and I am most useful when I am empty.
Answer: A bottle

Question: I have four legs,
but never walk.
I carry food, fights, homework, bills,
and sometimes sleeping heads.
Answer: A table

Question: I have a spine but no bones,
many leaves but no roots,
a voice but no mouth,
and I travel furthest when I stay still.
Answer: Book

Question: Two men are in a desert. They both have packs on. One of the guys is dead. The guy who is alive has his pack open, the guy who is dead has his pack closed. What is in the pack?
Answer: A parachute (that didn't open)

Question: Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?
Answer: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

Question: What do clouds wear under their coats?
Answer: Thunderwear.

Question: The more you avoid me, the bigger I become. What am I?
Answer: Your responsibilities.

Question: I come once a month, disappear in two days, and leave behind emotional damage. What am I?
Answer: Salary.

Question: Why did the pencil sit alone?
Answer: It felt pointless.

Question: I get heavier the more you ignore me. What am I?
Answer: Laundry.

Question: What three-word question can you never answer "yes" to?
Answer: “Are you dead?”

Question: I’m small, rectangular, and can ruin your entire month in one swipe. What am I?
Answer: A credit card.

Question: You leave home, take three left turns, and return home. Who are the two masked men waiting for you?
Answer: The Umpire and the Catcher

Question: I’m the only place where “fine” never means fine. What am I?
Answer: A relationship.

Question: I’m what you give when you’re wrong, but want to remain interesting. What am I?
Answer: An explanation.

Question: I’m the place where adults keep vegetables until they become science projects. What am I?
Answer: The fridge.

Question: I am light in your hand but heavy when exams are near. What am I?
Answer: A book

Question: I am a door without a room. You open me to enter the internet. What am I?
Answer: A browser

Question: There are ten horses, but only 9 stables. How do you fit all the horses inside?
-You can't put 2 horses in the same stable.
-You can't make another stable.
-You can't split a stable in half.
Answer: These are the stables.
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Question: You’re trapped in a room with three doors. The first leads to a room on fire, the second to an assassin waiting to kill you, and the third to a lion that hasn’t eaten in three years. Which door is safest?
Answer: The third door. A lion that hasn’t eaten in three years would be dead.

Question: Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?
Answer: Nothing.

Question: A man is driving along and sees two doors: a gold door and a silver door. Which door does he open first?
Answer: His car door

Question: I have a mouth, but I don’t eat. I have a tongue, but I don’t speak. What am I?
Answer: A shoe

Question: From the beginning of eternity To the end of time and space From the beginning of every end And the end of every place. What am I?
Answer: The letter E.

Question: You live in a one story house made entirely of redwood. What color would the stairs be?
Answer: What stairs? You live in a one-story house.

Question: No matter how little or how much you use me, you change me every month. What am I?
Answer: A Calendar.

Question: Mr. and Mrs. Mustard have six daughters and each daughter has one brother. How many people are in the Mustard family?
Answer: There are nine Mustards in the family. Since each daughter shares the same brother, there are six girls, one boy, and Mr. and Mrs. Mustard.

Question: How can you make six into an odd number?
Answer: Remove the letter S and you have IX which is 9 in roman numerals.

Question: How can a girl go 25 days without sleep?
Answer: She sleeps at night.

Question: How many bananas can you eat if your stomach is empty?
Answer: Just one after that it’s not empty anymore.

Question: George, Helen, and Steve are drinking coffee. Bert, Karen, and Dave are drinking soda. Using logic, is Elizabeth drinking coffee or soda?
Answer: Elizabeth is drinking coffee. The letter E appears twice in her name, as it does in the names of the others that are drinking coffee.

Question: What can go through glass without breaking it?
Answer: Light.

Question: When I change, I get bigger but weigh less. What am I?
Answer: Popcorn.

Question: I have no life, but I can die. What am I?
Answer: A battery.

Question: What has many hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A deck of cards.

Question: What’s always on the ground but is never dirty?
Answer: A shadow.

Question: What do you bury when it’s alive and dig up when it’s dead?
Answer: A plant.

Question: What do the numbers 11, 69 and 88 all have in common
Answer: They all read the same way upside down.

Question: I disappear slowly, but only when I am doing my job. What am I?
Answer: Soap

Question: I have a tail, but I am not an animal. I fly when the wind helps me. What am I?
Answer: A kite

Question: I am born from a tap, live in a glass, and vanish when you drink me. What am I?
Answer: Water

Question: I am sweet, I melt, and I make your hand sticky if you wait too long. What am I?
Answer: Chocolate

Question: What's lighter than a feather but even the strongest person can't hold for 10 minutes?
Answer: Their breath!

Question: What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: Cold

Question: What building has most stories?
Answer: A library

Question: I go up and down the stairs without moving?
Answer: A carpet

Question: What did one math book say to the other math book?
Answer: Do you want to hear my problems?

Question: What did the triangle say to the circle?
Answer: You’re pointless.

Question: One is to three as three is to five and five is to four and four is the magic number. What is the pattern?
Answer: One has three letters in the word three has five letters in it five has four letters and four has four letters in it (if you try more numbers they will always come back to the number four: so four is the magic number)

Question: How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25?
Answer: Once, because after you subtract 5 from 25 it becomes 20.

Question: How can you make the following equation true by drawing only one straight line: 5+5+5=550? Can you figure it out?
Answer: Draw a line on the first plus sign that turns it into a 4! The equation then becomes true: 545+5=550.

Question: How old is your son? asked a man to his neighbor. My son is five times as old as my daughter and my wife is five times as old as my son. I am twice as old as my wife whereas my grandmother, who is celebrating her eighty-first birthday is as old as all of us put together. How old is the man's son?
Answer: Five.

Question: If you go to the movies and you're paying, is it cheaper to take one friend to the movies twice, or two friends to the movies at the same time?
Answer: It's cheaper to take two friends at the same time. In this case, you would only be buying three tickets, whereas if you take the same friend twice you are buying four tickets.

Question: You have 6 eggs. You break 2, cook 2 and you eat 2 eggs. How many do you have left?
Answer: 4. The 2 you break are the ones you cook, which are the ones you eat.

Question: What do mathematics teachers like to eat?
Answer: Pi.

Question: I am finite while standing, but infinite while laying. What am I?
Answer: The Number Eight

Question: Peter is 4 and his little brother is 2, half is age. How older will Peter's little brother be when he is 100?
Answer: 98 because there's only 2 year difference.

Question: If three cats catch three mice in three minutes, how many cats would be needed to catch 100 mice in 100 minutes?
Answer: The same three cats would do. Since these three cats are averaging one mouse per minute, given 100 minutes, the cats could catch 100 mice.

Question: What number do you get when you multiply all the numbers on a telephone's number pad?
Answer: 0, anything multiplied by 0 will equal zero.

Question: A man is walking down a road with a basket of eggs. As he is walking he meets someone who buys one-half of his eggs plus one-half of an egg. He walks a little further and meets another person who buys one-half of his eggs plus one-half of an egg. After proceeding further he meets another person who buys one-half of his eggs plus one half an egg. At this point he has sold all of his eggs, and he never broke an egg. How many eggs did the man have to start with?
Answer: 7 eggs. The first person bought one half of his eggs plus one half an egg (3 1/2 + 1/2 = 4 eggs) This left him 3 eggs. The second person bought one-half of his eggs plus one half an egg, (1 1/2 + 1/2 = 2 eggs) leaving the man 1 egg. The last person bought one-half of his eggs plus one-half an egg, (1/2 + 1/2 = 1 egg) leaving no eggs.

Question: How do you go from 98 to 720 using just one letter?
Answer: Add an "x" between "ninety" and "eight". Ninety x Eight = 720

Question: I am a number but I am countless, I am compared with other things but nothing compares to me. What am I?
Answer: Infinity

Question: What is neither water nor land and is always soaking wet?
Answer: Wetlands.

Question: Sara Smith was born on December 27th, but her birthday is always in the summer. Why?
Answer: She lives in the southern hemisphere.

Question: I'm always pulling you down but you can't see me. Without me you'd float away endlessly. What am I?
Answer: Gravity!

Question: I am the child of the water, yet when I return to the water, I die. What am I?
Answer: Ice.

Question: I fall from the sky but I'm not snow. I water gardens wherever I go. What am I?
Answer: Rain!

Question: You will find me in Mercury, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter, but not in Venus or Neptune. What am I?
Answer: The letter R.

Question: If bananas were to have a chemical formula, what would it be?
Answer: BaNa2.

Question: What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge

Question: Occasionally associated with smelly things, what state of matter am I?
Answer: Gas.

Question: I have towns without people, deserts without sand, oceans without water, mountains without land. What am I?
Answer: A map

Question: Turn me on my side, and I am everything. Cut me in half, and I am nothing. What am I?
Answer: The number 8

Question: What is black when you buy it, red when used and grey when thrown away?
Answer: Charcoal

Question: What did the limestone say to the geologist?
Answer: Don't Take me for Granite

Question: I am a god, a planet, and I can measure heat. What am I?
Answer: Mercury

Question: What did the scientist say when he found 2 atoms of helium?
Answer: He he!