Daily Brain Teasers
Three new riddles and logic puzzles every day, with answers and a hint coach.
Today’s three
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Ask the puzzle coach
Stuck on a riddle, a crossword clue or a logic puzzle from anywhere? Paste it here and choose how much help you want. The coach won’t say more than you ask for.
Hints are written by an AI model and can be wrong on ambiguous riddles. Don’t paste personal information.
Brain teasers with answers
Every teaser in the rotation, grouped by type. Tap a question to reveal its answer. Riddles reward thinking about double meanings; logic puzzles reward reading every word; lateral-thinking puzzles reward questioning an assumption you didn’t know you’d made.
Riddles
What has keys but can’t open a single lock?
A piano. Its keys make music rather than open doors.
The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
Footsteps.
What gets wetter the more it dries?
A towel.
I have cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; water, but no fish. What am I?
A map.
What has a neck but no head?
A bottle.
What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
A postage stamp.
What has one eye but can’t see?
A needle.
What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
The letter M.
I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I?
A candle.
What has hands but can’t clap?
A clock.
What begins with T, ends with T and has T in it?
A teapot.
Logic puzzles
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 together. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much is the ball?
5 cents. If the ball were 10 cents, the bat would be $1.10 and the total $1.20. With a 5-cent ball, the bat is $1.05 and the total is $1.10.
Mary’s father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini and Nono. What is the fifth daughter’s name?
Mary. The question tells you at the start.
You’re running a race and pass the person in second place. What place are you in now?
Second. You took their place; the leader is still ahead of you.
Some months have 31 days and some have 30. How many have 28?
All twelve. Every month has at least 28 days.
Two fathers and two sons go fishing. Each catches one fish, yet only three fish are caught in total. How?
There are only three people: a grandfather, his son and his grandson. The middle one is both a father and a son.
Which weighs more: a kilogram of feathers or a kilogram of steel?
Neither. They both weigh one kilogram.
A rooster lays an egg on the peak of a barn roof. Which side does it roll down?
Neither. Roosters don’t lay eggs.
Number teasers
If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would 100 machines take to make 100 widgets?
5 minutes. Each machine makes one widget in 5 minutes, so 100 machines make 100 widgets in the same 5 minutes.
A lily pad patch doubles in size every day. It covers the whole lake on day 48. On which day did it cover half the lake?
Day 47. Since it doubles daily, it was half the size one day earlier.
How many times can you subtract 10 from 100?
Once. After the first subtraction you’re subtracting from 90, not 100.
A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many are left?
9. “All but 9” means nine stayed.
What number do you get when you multiply all the digits on a phone keypad together?
Zero, because 0 is one of the digits.
Divide 30 by one half and add 10. What do you get?
70. Dividing by one half is the same as multiplying by 2, so 30 ÷ ½ = 60, plus 10 is 70.
I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
Seven. Remove the S and you get “even”.
Lateral thinking
A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he’s bankrupt. Why?
He’s playing Monopoly.
A woman shoots her husband, holds him under water for five minutes, then hangs him. Later they go out to dinner. How?
She’s a photographer: she took his photo, developed it in a water bath and hung it up to dry.
A man lives on the tenth floor. Every morning he takes the lift down. Coming home, he rides to the seventh floor and walks the rest, except on rainy days. Why?
He’s too short to reach the button for ten. On rainy days he uses his umbrella to press it.
A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays three days, and leaves on Friday. How?
His horse is named Friday.
A man was outside in the pouring rain with no umbrella or hat, yet not a single hair on his head got wet. How?
He was bald.
Questions players ask
What is a brain teaser?
A short puzzle that needs a moment of insight rather than knowledge: a riddle, a logic trap, a number trick or a lateral-thinking story.
How often are new brain teasers posted?
Three teasers rotate in every day at midnight your time. The full list with answers is always on this page.
How does the puzzle coach work?
You paste a puzzle and pick a hint strength. An AI model, instructed to stay on puzzles and never reveal more than you asked for, writes a hint. It only runs when you press the button.
Why do I keep falling for the bat-and-ball question?
Because the fast answer (10 cents) feels right. Psychologist Shane Frederick used it in his Cognitive Reflection Test precisely because most people answer intuitively before checking.