41 riddles for teens with answers
Riddles for 12 to 18 year olds: quick tricks, wordplay, sideways thinking and number traps, each marked easy, medium or hard. Use them as a class warm-up or to stump friends.
Updated
Quick tricks
A red house is built from red bricks and a blue house from blue bricks. What is a greenhouse built from?
easy
Glass.
The pattern points to green bricks, but a greenhouse is a glass building for growing plants.
Mr. Blue lives in the blue house, Mr. Pink lives in the pink house, and Mr. Brown lives in the brown house. Who lives in the White House?
easy
The President of the United States.
The pattern makes you look for a Mr. White. The White House is the president's home in Washington, D.C.
In a one-story house, everything is yellow: the walls, the doors, the furniture. What color are the stairs?
easy
There are no stairs. It is a one-story house.
The list of yellow things keeps you thinking about color. "One-story" means there is no upstairs to reach.
A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many are left?
easy
9.
"All but 9" means every sheep except 9, so 9 stay. Subtracting 9 from 17 is the trap.
How many birthdays does the average person have?
easy
One. Every party after that celebrates the anniversary of it.
Your birthday is the day you were born, and that only happens once.
Say the word SILK out loud five times. Now, what do cows drink?
medium
Water.
Repeating SILK primes you to say MILK. Cows make milk, but they drink water.
Why is something you've lost always in the last place you look?
medium
Because once you find it, you stop looking.
It sounds like bad luck, but wherever you find it becomes the last place you looked.
I have a home screen but no house, and plenty of apps but I never order a meal. What am I?
easy
A phone.
"Home" and "apps" sound like a house and appetizers, but both are parts of a smartphone.
I have no life, but I can die, and a night on the charger brings me back. What am I?
medium
A battery.
People say a battery has "died" when it runs out of charge, even though it was never alive.
You can read me without opening a book, and people get annoyed when I'm left on read. What am I?
medium
A text message.
"Left on read" means a message was opened and seen but not answered.
You can like me without meeting me, share me without giving me away, and post me without a stamp. What am I?
medium
A social media post.
Like, share and post all have everyday meanings, but here they are the buttons under something online.
I have thousands of pages but no cover, and you open me with a link. What am I?
medium
A website.
"Pages" makes you think of a book, but web pages have no cover and open from a link.
I'm always talking but never say a word out loud. My members are hardly ever in the same room, and I buzz all night. What am I?
medium
A group chat.
A group chat is a running text conversation between friends, and every new message makes their phones buzz.
I'm called a cloud, but I never rain. I hold thousands of your photos, and you can reach me from any device. What am I?
medium
Cloud storage.
Online storage is called the cloud because your files are kept on distant computers, not only on your phone.
What goes through a door but never goes in or comes out?
medium
A keyhole.
A keyhole goes right through the door itself, but it stays in the door and never enters the room.
Wordplay
Who is bigger: Mr. Bigger, Mrs. Bigger or their baby?
medium
The baby, because he is a little Bigger.
"Bigger" is the family name. The baby is a little Bigger, which sounds like a little bigger.
Railroad crossing, watch out for cars. Can you spell that without any R's?
hard
T-H-A-T.
"That" is the word being asked for. Most people start spelling "railroad crossing" and try to leave the R's out.
What is the difference between here and there?
medium
The letter T.
Put a T in front of HERE and you get THERE.
What can you find in the middle of nowhere?
medium
The letter H.
NOWHERE has seven letters, and the one in the middle, the fourth, is H.
When is a door not a door?
medium
When it's ajar.
Ajar means slightly open, and it sounds like "a jar."
Why is dark spelled with a K and not a C?
medium
Because you can't see in the dark.
"Can't C" sounds like "can't see."
You can hold it, start it and end it, but never touch it, and it takes at least two people. What is it?
medium
A conversation.
You hold, start and end a conversation, but there is nothing to pick up.
What is always in front of you but can never be seen?
medium
The future.
"In front of you" means ahead of you in time, not in space.
What gets harder to catch the faster you run?
medium
Your breath.
The faster you run, the more out of breath you get, and catching your breath means getting it back.
I have plenty of rings but no fingers and no phone. Count them and you'll know my age. What am I?
medium
A tree.
A tree trunk adds a growth ring each year, so counting the rings on a stump tells you roughly how old the tree was.
The older you get, the more of me you have. I take up no space, yet you carry me everywhere. What am I?
hard
Memories.
Every year adds more memories, and they are kept in your mind, not in anything you hold.
Think it through
Imagine you are in a room with no doors or windows, and water is pouring in. How do you get out?
medium
Stop imagining.
The first word put you in the room. Stopping the imagining takes you out.
Two girls were born to the same mother on the same day of the same year, but they are not twins. How?
hard
They are two of a set of triplets.
"Not twins" makes it sound impossible, but babies born three at a time are triplets.
Name three days in a row without saying Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
medium
Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
The rule makes you hunt for other names of weekdays. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are always three days in a row.
A plane crashes exactly on the border between the United States and Canada. Where do they bury the survivors?
easy
Nowhere. Survivors are alive.
The border question keeps you thinking about countries, so the word "survivors" slips past.
Ben stands on one bank of a river and his dog is on the other. He calls, and the dog walks straight across to him without a bridge or a boat, and without getting wet. How?
medium
The river is frozen.
You picture a flowing river. In winter the dog can walk across on the ice.
Leo is 17 years old but has had only four real birthdays. How?
hard
He was born on February 29, which only comes in leap years.
February 29 comes around every four years, so by 17 Leo has seen his real birthday at 4, 8, 12 and 16.
A basketball team wins a game 76 to 40, but not one man on the team scores a point. How?
medium
It is a women's team.
The riddle counts on you picturing men. Nothing says the players are men.
Numbers
Divide 30 by one half and add 10. What do you get?
medium
70.
Dividing by one half is the same as multiplying by 2, so 30 becomes 60, then add 10. Halving 30 is the trap.
How many times can you subtract 10 from 100?
medium
Once. After that, you are subtracting from 90.
The quick answer is 10, but after the first subtraction the number is no longer 100.
When Maya was 8, her brother was half her age. Maya is now 15. How old is her brother?
medium
11.
At 8, half her age made him 4, so he is 4 years younger. The gap never changes, so he is 15 minus 4, not half of 15.
Using eight 8s and only addition, make 1,000.
hard
888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000.
That uses three 8s, two 8s and then three single 8s: eight in all. 888 + 88 is 976, and three more 8s add 24.
Multiply together every digit on a phone keypad. What do you get?
medium
0.
The keypad includes the digit 0, and anything multiplied by 0 is 0.
A snail is at the bottom of a 10-foot well. Each day it climbs 3 feet, and each night it slides back 2 feet. On which day does it reach the top?
hard
Day 8.
It gains 1 foot for each day and night, so after 7 days and nights it is 7 feet up. On day 8 it climbs 3 feet and reaches the top before it can slide back.
If eggs cost 12 cents a dozen, how many eggs can you buy for a dollar?
medium
100 eggs.
12 cents for 12 eggs is 1 cent an egg, so a dollar buys 100. Counting in dozens makes people stop at 8 dozen.
When does 11 plus 3 equal 2?
medium
On a clock: 3 hours after 11 o'clock is 2 o'clock.
On a 12-hour clock the count starts again after 12.
Plan the round and team scores
8 turns × 60 seconds = 8 minutes of play, plus instructions and breaks.
60
These are adjustable house rules. Pause whenever the group needs more time.
Team 1: 0
Team 2: 0
Use this set with a group
Read a prompt, allow thinking time, then invite an answer or a pass. For a timed round, choose a turn length before starting. A host can keep the printed answers out of view until the round ends.