37 puzzles with answers · tap one to see its answer
Logic Puzzles With Answers
Logic puzzles give you a handful of clues and one way to fit them together: who owns which pet, who sits where, which of three speakers is lying, how to weigh or measure with what you have. These 37 are all fully determined, so careful reasoning always reaches the answer, and each explanation walks through the key steps. For logic puzzles you play, see the logic puzzle games.
Every puzzle was solved by a second reader who had not seen the answer, on November 9, 2026.
Four kids ran a sack race: Ines, Kofi, Tomas and Wren. Tomas finished ahead of Wren but behind Ines, and Kofi crossed the line right after Wren. Who came in second?
Answer: Tomas
Why: Ines beat Tomas, Tomas beat Wren, and Kofi came in right after Wren, so the finishing order is Ines, Tomas, Wren and then Kofi.
Hana, Luis and Femi live in a row of three houses, and each keeps one pet: a parrot, a rabbit or a tortoise. The tortoise lives in the house between Hana's and Femi's, and Femi's pet can't fly. Who owns the parrot?
Answer: Hana
Why: The house between Hana's and Femi's is the middle one, so Luis keeps the tortoise. Femi's pet can't fly, so Femi has the rabbit, which leaves the parrot to Hana.
Lena's swim meet is the day after tomorrow, and it falls on a Sunday. What day of the week was the day before yesterday?
Answer: Wednesday
Why: Two days before Sunday is Friday, so today is Friday. Two days before Friday is Wednesday.
A prize is hidden in one of three boxes. Box A says, 'The prize is not in here.' Box B says, 'The prize is in Box A.' Box C says, 'The prize is not in Box B.' Only one of the three labels is true. Which box holds the prize?
Answer: Box B
Why: With the prize in Box A, the labels on B and C would both be true; with it in Box C, the labels on A and C would both be true. Only with the prize in Box B is exactly one label, the one on A, true.
Among four friends, Mo is shorter than Jun but taller than Ria, and Ria is taller than Sol. Who is the second shortest?
Answer: Ria
Why: From tallest to shortest the friends line up as Jun, Mo, Ria and Sol, so Ria is second from the bottom.
Asha, Bram and Coco each have a different favorite season (spring, summer or winter) and a different hobby (painting, skating or gardening). The skater's favorite season is winter. Asha doesn't skate and doesn't love spring, while Bram loves spring and doesn't paint. What is Asha's hobby?
Answer: Painting
Why: Bram has spring, so Asha has summer or winter; winter belongs to the skater and Asha doesn't skate, so she has summer and Coco has winter and skates. Bram doesn't paint, so he gardens and Asha paints.
On Mirror Isle, everyone either always tells the truth or always lies. You walk up to a stranger and ask, 'Do you always lie?' What answer will you hear?
Answer: No
Why: A truth-teller honestly says no, and a liar, who can't admit it, also says no. So the answer is always no, and it tells you nothing about the stranger.
You have two fuses that each take exactly 1 hour to burn, but they burn unevenly. At the same moment you light fuse A at both ends and fuse B at one end. The instant A burns out, you light the other end of B. How many minutes after the start does B burn out?
Answer: 45 minutes
Why: Burning from both ends, A lasts 30 minutes whatever its unevenness. B then has 30 minutes of burning left, and lighting its other end halves that to 15, so B finishes at 45 minutes.
Five friends stand in line for a food truck: Val, Will, Xia, Yusuf and Zoe. Val is first, Will is right behind Zoe, and there are exactly two people between Zoe and Xia. Who is last in line?
Answer: Xia
Why: With Val first, Zoe and Xia must be second and fifth in some order. Will stands right behind Zoe, so Zoe can't be last: Zoe is second, Will third, Yusuf fourth and Xia fifth.
On Fable Island, Truthers always tell the truth and Fibbers always lie. Ottilie says, 'Pim is a Fibber.' Pim says, 'Ottilie and I are the same kind.' What are Ottilie and Pim?
Answer: Ottilie is a Truther and Pim is a Fibber
Why: If Pim told the truth, Ottilie would be a Truther too, yet she calls Pim a Fibber, a contradiction. So Pim lies, the two are different kinds, and Ottilie is the Truther, which fits what she said.
A jeweler has 8 pearls that look exactly alike, but one is a fake that weighs slightly less than the rest. Using only a balance scale with no weights, what is the fewest number of weighings that is guaranteed to find the fake?
Answer: 2 weighings
Why: Weigh 3 against 3. If they balance, weigh the last 2 against each other; if not, take the lighter 3 and weigh 1 against 1, and a balance means it is the third. One weighing has only 3 outcomes, too few for 8 pearls.
A park ranger must row a raccoon, a duck and a bag of bread across a lake. The boat holds the ranger and one passenger, the raccoon can't be left alone with the duck, and the duck can't be left alone with the bread. In the shortest plan, which passenger crosses the lake three times?
Answer: The duck
Why: The duck must go first, since leaving it behind with either of the others fails. Whatever goes second can't be left with the duck, so the duck rides back, then crosses once more at the end: 7 trips with the duck on 3 of them.
A market seller wants to weigh any whole number of kilograms from 1 to 13 on a balance scale using just three weights, and she may put a weight on either pan. Which three weights must she buy?
Answer: 1 kg, 3 kg and 9 kg
Why: Each weight can sit on the goods' pan, the other pan or off the scale, which allows at most 13 different positive amounts, so every combination must count. Only 1, 3 and 9 manage it; for example, 5 kg is 9 on one pan against the goods plus 3 and 1.
A coach has 2 green caps and 3 orange caps, and her players know it. She puts a cap on each of three players standing in single file, all facing forward, so each player sees only the caps in front of them. The player at the back says, 'I can't tell my color.' Then the middle player says, 'I can't tell mine either.' What color is the front player's cap?
Answer: Orange
Why: The back player would know their cap was orange if both caps ahead were green, so at least one of those is orange. If the front cap were green, the middle player could then work out that theirs was orange; since they couldn't, the front cap is orange.
A box holds 6 black gloves and 6 white gloves, making 3 left-right pairs of each color. Reaching in without looking, how many gloves must you take out to be sure of getting a left glove and a right glove of the same color?
Answer: 7 gloves
Why: For each color you can hold up to 3 gloves without a match, as long as they are all lefts or all rights, so 6 gloves can still fail. Any 7th glove completes a matching pair.
Three jars hold beads: one has only red beads, one only blue beads, and one a mix of both. They are labeled 'Red', 'Blue' and 'Mixed', but every label is wrong. You may pull out a single bead from a single jar without looking inside. Which jar should you pick from so you can relabel all three correctly?
Answer: The jar labeled Mixed
Why: That jar can't really be mixed, so one bead shows whether it is all red or all blue. If it's red, the jar labeled 'Blue' can be neither blue nor red, so it's the mix, and the jar labeled 'Red' holds the blue beads (and the same logic works if the bead is blue).
A notice board shows four sentences. The first says, 'Exactly one of these four sentences is false.' The second says, 'Exactly two of them are false.' The third says, 'Exactly three of them are false,' and the fourth says, 'All four of them are false.' Which sentence is true?
Answer: The third sentence
Why: The sentences contradict each other, so at most one can be true. If none were true, all four would be false and the fourth would be true, which is impossible; so exactly one is true and three are false, just as the third one says.
Ten crates of apples are numbered 1 to 10. Real apples weigh 100 g each, but one crate is full of apples that weigh 110 g each. You take 1 apple from crate 1, 2 apples from crate 2, and so on up to 10 apples from crate 10, then weigh them all together once. The scale reads 5,540 g. Which crate holds the heavy apples?
Answer: Crate 4
Why: You took 55 apples, which would weigh 5,500 g if all were real. The extra 40 g means 4 heavy apples were in the pile, and only crate 4 gave you 4 apples.
Four soccer teams each played every other team once. A win was worth 3 points, a draw 1 point to each team and a loss nothing. The final totals were 7, 5, 3 and 1 points. How many of the games ended in a draw?
Answer: 2 draws
Why: Four teams play 6 games in all. A game with a winner hands out 3 points and a draw only 2, so 6 decisive games would give 18 points; the actual 16 points means 2 games were drawn.
A school runs one club each weekday: chess, choir, coding, cooking and karate. Cooking meets the day after coding, and chess meets the day after choir. Neither choir nor coding meets on Monday, and karate never meets the day before or the day after choir. On which day does cooking meet?
Answer: Wednesday
Why: The two pairs, coding then cooking and choir then chess, fill four days, and neither pair may start on Monday, so karate must be on Monday. Choir can't be Tuesday, next to karate, so the week runs karate, coding, cooking, choir and chess.
Noor, Omar, Pia, Quinn and Rae live on the five floors of a small building, one per floor. Noor lives above Omar but below Pia, Rae lives directly below Omar, and Pia doesn't live on the top floor. Who lives on the top floor?
Answer: Quinn
Why: Rae, Omar, Noor and Pia must stack in that order, with Rae just under Omar. Since Pia isn't on top, the only fit is floors 1 to 4, which leaves the fifth floor to Quinn.
In Glimmer Valley, every resident is either a Sunny, who always tells the truth, or a Shady, who always lies. Juno says, 'Kip is a Shady.' Kip says, 'Lark is a Shady.' Lark says, 'Juno and Kip are both Shadies.' Who is the only Sunny?
Answer: Kip
Why: If Lark told the truth, Juno would be a Shady, so Juno's claim would be false and Kip would be a Sunny, contradicting Lark. So Lark is a Shady, Kip's claim about Lark is true and Kip is a Sunny, and Juno, who called Kip a Shady, lies.
At a fair, three friends guessed how many jellybeans filled a jar: Ana said 50, Bo said 62 and Cal said 45. One guess was off by 3, one by 9 and one by 14. How many jellybeans were in the jar?
Answer: 59 jellybeans
Why: Ana's guess allows only 47 or 53, 41 or 59, or 36 or 64. Of those, only 59 also makes Bo off by 3 and Cal off by 14, leaving Ana off by 9.
You have an unmarked 6-liter jug, an unmarked 4-liter jug and a tap. You may fill a jug, empty it, or pour from one jug into the other until one is full or the other is empty. Can you ever end up with exactly 5 liters in one of the jugs?
Answer: No, it can't be done
Why: Both jugs hold an even number of liters, and every fill, empty or pour leaves each jug with an even amount. An odd amount like 5 liters can never appear.
A friend picks a whole number from 1 to 1,000 and will answer only yes-or-no questions about it. What is the fewest questions that is always enough to find the number?
Answer: 10 questions
Why: Each answer can at best cut the possibilities in half. Nine questions can tell apart only 512 numbers, while ten can tell apart 1,024, which covers all of them.
Looking at a photo, Mara says, 'I have no brothers or sisters, but this girl's mother is my mother's daughter.' Who is the girl in the photo?
Answer: Mara's daughter
Why: Mara has no siblings, so her mother's only daughter is Mara herself. The girl's mother is Mara, so the girl is her daughter.
Four hikers reach a rope bridge at night with one lantern. At most two can cross at a time, whoever crosses must carry the lantern, and a pair moves at the slower hiker's pace. Alone, the hikers need 1, 3, 6 and 8 minutes. What is the shortest time to get all four across?
Answer: 18 minutes
Why: Send the 1 and 3 over (3 min), the 1 returns (1 min), the 6 and 8 cross together (8 min), the 3 returns (3 min), and the 1 and 3 cross again (3 min). That totals 18, while having the fastest hiker escort everyone takes 19.
Two adult park rangers and two kids must cross a river in a small canoe. It carries either one adult alone or one or two kids, and it can't cross without someone paddling. What is the fewest one-way crossings that gets all four people to the far bank?
Answer: 9 crossings
Why: Moving one adult takes 4 crossings: both kids paddle over, one kid comes back, the adult goes over, and the other kid comes back. Two adults need 8 crossings, and one last trip with both kids makes 9.
Six friends sit evenly spaced around a round table: Ada, Ben, Cy, Dot, Eli and Fay. Ada sits directly across from Ben, Cy sits next to Ada, and Dot sits directly across from Cy. Eli does not sit next to Cy. Who sits between Ben and Cy?
Answer: Fay
Why: Ada and Ben are three seats apart and Cy is beside Ada, so exactly one seat lies between Cy and Ben, with Dot across from Cy. Eli and Fay take that seat and the one beside Ada; the seat between Ben and Cy touches Cy, so Eli can't have it and Fay does.
Gus, Ivy, Kit and Lou each bought a different fruit (mango, pear, plum or kiwi) and rode a different bike (red, black, green or silver). Ivy's bike is neither red nor black. The kiwi buyer rode the green bike, and the plum buyer rode the black one. Kit bought neither the kiwi nor the plum, Gus didn't buy the mango, and neither Kit nor Lou rode the red bike. What color is Kit's bike?
Answer: Silver
Why: Only Gus can ride the red bike, so he has neither the kiwi (green) nor the plum (black), nor the mango: he bought the pear, and Kit bought the mango. Ivy isn't on black, so she has the kiwi and the green bike, Lou has the plum and the black bike, and Kit rides silver.
Every robot in a lab is either a TrueBot, which only says true things, or a LieBot, which only says false things. Robot Zed says, 'I am a LieBot, or Robot Quill is a TrueBot.' What kinds of robots are Zed and Quill?
Answer: Both are TrueBots
Why: A LieBot could never say this, because the part 'I am a LieBot' would make the whole sentence true. So Zed is a TrueBot, the sentence is true, and since its first part is false, Quill must be a TrueBot.
Four pumpkins are named Red, Gold, White and Green. On a balance, Red and Gold together exactly balance White and Green. Red and White together outweigh Gold and Green. Green alone outweighs Gold and White together. Which pumpkin is the lightest?
Answer: Gold
Why: The second weighing is the first with Gold and White swapped between the pans, and it tips toward Red's side, so White outweighs Gold. Adding the two weighings shows Red outweighs Green, and Green beats Gold and White together, so Gold is the lightest of all.
A table holds 30 coins, and exactly 8 of them show heads. You are blindfolded, so you can move and flip coins but can't tell which side is up. How can you split the coins into two piles with the same number of heads?
Answer: Move any 8 coins into a new pile, then flip all 8
Why: Say your 8 coins include h heads; the big pile keeps 8 minus h heads. Your small pile has 8 minus h tails, and flipping every coin in it turns them into exactly 8 minus h heads.
A bike lock's code is three different digits. The guess 507 has one right digit in the wrong place, and so do the guesses 013 and 479. The guess 264 has nothing right. The guess 538 has two right digits, both in the wrong places. What is the code?
Answer: 395
Why: 264 rules out 2, 6 and 4, so 538 puts two of 5, 3 and 8 in the code and 479 puts in 7 or 9. That fills all three digits, so 0 and 1 are out, 013 then puts 3 in, and 507 needs exactly one of 5 and 7, leaving 3, 5, 9 or 3, 8, 7. The set 3, 8, 7 would force 7 into last place, which 507 rules out; so the digits are 3, 5 and 9, and the position hints place them as 395.
Pip the parrot lies on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and tells the truth on the other days. Tiki the tortoise lies on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and tells the truth on the other days. One day, both of them say, 'Yesterday was one of my lying days.' What day is it?
Answer: Thursday
Why: Pip can say it only on Monday (lying) or Thursday (truthfully), and Tiki only on Thursday (lying) or Sunday (truthfully). The one day that works for both is Thursday.
Each card on a table has a color on one side and a shape on the other. You want to test the rule 'Every card with a red side has a circle on its other side.' The four cards show red, blue, a circle and a square. Which cards must you turn over to check the rule?
Answer: The red card and the square card
Why: The red card must have a circle behind it, and the square card must not have red behind it. The blue card can have any shape, and a circle may sit behind any color, so those two can't break the rule.
Fill a 4-by-4 grid so that every row, every column and each of the four 2-by-2 corner boxes holds the numbers 1 to 4 once. The rows, top to bottom, are 1 _ _ 2 / _ _ 3 _ / 3 _ _ _ / _ 2 _ _, where each _ is a blank. What number goes in the bottom-right corner?
Answer: 3
Why: The top row's blanks are 3 and 4, and the 3 lower in the third column forces 4 there, so the top row is 1 3 4 2; the boxes and columns then give a second row of 2 4 3 1 and a 4 at the bottom left. The bottom row is 4 2 _ _, its third cell can only be 1 (that column already has 4 and 3), and the corner gets 3.