problem solving puzzles

Math and Logic Puzzles

If you REALLY like exercising your brain, figuring things 'round and 'round till you explode, then this is the page for you !

Whosoever shall solve these puzzles shall Rule The Universe!

... or at least they should ...

20 Tough Riddles for Adults That Will Have You Scratching Your Head

Put your logic and math skills to the test. No cheating!

So go grab a pencil and a piece of scratch paper and prepare to rip your hair out (and we really do mean that in the best way possible). When you think you’ve got the right answer, click the link at the bottom of each riddle to find the solution. Got it wrong? No worries, you have 19 other riddles to test out.

Navigate Through Our Riddles:

Puzzmo / The King’s Orders / How Many Eggs? / The Gold Chain / Pickleball / Circuit Breaker / Two Trains, Two Grandmas / Ant Math / Peppermint Patty / Great American Rail Trail / A Cruel SAT Problem / Movie Stars Cross a River / Tribute to a Math Genius / One Belt, One Earth / Elbow Tapping / Whiskey Problem / Doodle Problem / Stumping Scientists / What ’ s On Her Forehead? / Keanu for President / Who Opened the Lockers?

Riddle No. 1: The King’s Orders Make for One Hell of a Brain Teaser

Difficulty: easy.

King Nupe of the kingdom Catan dotes on his two daughters so much that he decides the kingdom would be better off with more girls than boys, and he makes the following decree: All child-bearing couples must continue to bear children until they have a daughter!

But to avoid overpopulation, he makes an additional decree: All child-bearing couples will stop having children once they have a daughter! His subjects immediately begin following his orders.

After many years, what’s the expected ratio of girls to boys in Catan?

The likelihood of each baby born being a girl is, of course, 50 percent.

Ready for the solution? Click here to see if you’re right .

Riddle No. 2: How Many Eggs Does This Hen Lay?

This problem is in honor of my dad, Harold Feiveson. It’s due to him that I love math puzzles, and this is one of the first problems (of many) that he gave me when I was growing up.

A hen and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half. How many eggs does one hen lay in one day?

Riddle No. 3: The Gold Chain Math Problem Is Deceptively Simple

Difficulty: moderate.

You’re rummaging around your great grandmother’s attic when you find five short chains each made of four gold links. It occurs to you that if you combined them all into one big loop of 20 links, you’d have an incredible necklace. So you bring it into a jeweler, who tells you the cost of making the necklace will be $10 for each gold link that she has to break and then reseal.

How much will it cost?

Riddle No. 4: Try to Solve This Pickleball Puzzle

Difficulty: 🚨hard🚨.

Kenny, Abby, and Ned got together for a round-robin pickleball tournament, where, as usual, the winner stays on after each game to play the person who sat out that game. At the end of their pickleball afternoon, Abby is exhausted, having played the last seven straight games. Kenny, who is less winded, tallies up the games played:

Kenny played eight games

Abby played 12 games

Ned played 14 games

Who won the fourth game against whom?

How many total games were played?

Riddle No. 5: Our Circuit Breaker Riddle Is Pure Evil. Sorry.

The circuit breaker box in your new house is in an inconvenient corner of your basement. To your chagrin, you discover none of the 100 circuit breakers is labeled, and you face the daunting prospect of matching each circuit breaker to its respective light. (Suppose each circuit breaker maps to only one light.)

To start with, you switch all 100 lights in the house to “on,” and then you head down to your basement to begin the onerous mapping process. On every trip to your basement, you can switch any number of circuit breakers on or off. You can then roam the hallways of your house to discover which lights are on and which are off.

What is the minimum number of trips you need to make to the basement to map every circuit breaker to every light?

The solution does not involve either switching on or off the light switches in your house or feeling how hot the lightbulbs are. You might want to try solving for the case of 10 unlabeled circuit breakers first.

Riddle No. 6: Two Trains. Two Grandmas. Can You Solve This Tricky Math Riddle?

Jesse’s two grandmothers want to see him every weekend, but they live on opposite sides of town. As a compromise, he tells them that every Sunday, he’ll head to the subway station nearest to his apartment at a random time of the day and will hop on the next train that arrives.

If it happens to be the train traveling north, he’ll visit his Grandma Erica uptown, and if it happens to be the train traveling south, he’ll visit his Grandma Cara downtown. Both of his grandmothers are okay with this plan, since they know both the northbound and southbound trains run every 20 minutes.

But after a few months of doing this, Grandma Cara complains that she sees him only one out of five Sundays. Jesse promises he’s indeed heading to the station at a random time each day. How can this be?

The trains always arrive at their scheduled times.

Riddle No. 7: Here’s a Really F@*#ing Hard Math Problem About Ants

Max and Rose are ant siblings. They love to race each other, but always tie, since they actually crawl at the exact same speed. So they decide to create a race where one of them (hopefully) will win.

For this race, each of them will start at the bottom corner of a cuboid, and then crawl as fast as they can to reach a crumb at the opposite corner. The measurements of their cuboids are as pictured:

If they both take the shortest possible route to reach their crumb, who will reach their crumb first? (Don’t forget they’re ants, so of course they can climb anywhere on the edges or surface of the cuboid.)

Remember: Think outside the box.

Riddle No. 8: This Peppermint Patty Riddle Is Practically Impossible

You’re facing your friend, Caryn, in a “candy-off,” which works as follows: There’s a pile of 100 caramels and one peppermint patty. You and Caryn will go back and forth taking at least one and no more than five caramels from the candy pile in each turn. The person who removes the last caramel will also get the peppermint patty. And you love peppermint patties.

Suppose Caryn lets you decide who goes first. Who should you choose in order to make sure you win the peppermint patty?

First, solve for a pile of 10 caramels.

Riddle No. 9: Can You Solve the Great American Rail-Trail Riddle?

This problem was suggested by the physicist P. Jeffrey Ungar.

Finally, the Great American Rail-Trail across the whole country is complete! Go ahead, pat yourself on the back—you’ve just installed the longest handrail in the history of the world, with 4,000 miles from beginning to end. But just after the opening ceremony, your assistant reminds you that the metal you used for the handrail expands slightly in summer, so that its length will increase by one inch in total.

“Ha!” you say, “One inch in a 4,000 mile handrail? That’s nothing!” But … are you right?

Let’s suppose when the handrail expands, it buckles upward at its weakest point, which is in the center. How much higher will pedestrians in the middle of the country have to reach in summer to grab the handrail? That is, in the figure below, what is h ? (For the purposes of this question, ignore the curvature of the Earth and assume the trail is a straight line.)

Pythagoras is a fascinating historical figure.

Riddle No. 10: This Riddle Is Like an Especially Cruel SAT Problem. Can You Find the Answer?

Amanda lives with her teenage son, Matt, in the countryside—a car ride away from Matt’s school. Every afternoon, Amanda leaves the house at the same time, drives to the school at a constant speed, picks Matt up exactly when his chess club ends at 5 p.m., and then they immediately return home together at the same constant speed. But one day, Matt isn’t feeling well, so he leaves chess practice early and starts to head home on his portable scooter.

After Matt has been scooting for an hour, Amanda comes across him in her car (on her usual route to pick him up), and they return together, arriving home 40 minutes earlier than they usually do. How much chess practice did Matt miss?

Consider the case where Amanda meets Matt exactly as she’s leaving their house.

Riddle No. 11: Can You Get These 3 Movie Stars Across the River?

Three movie stars, Chloe, Lexa, and Jon, are filming a movie in the Amazon. They’re very famous and very high-maintenance, so their agents are always with them. One day, after filming a scene deep in the rainforest, the three actors and their agents decide to head back to home base by foot. Suddenly, they come to a large river.

On the riverbank, they find a small rowboat, but it’s only big enough to hold two of them at one time. The catch? None of the agents are comfortable leaving their movie star with any other agents if they’re not there as well. They don’t trust that the other agents won’t try to poach their star.

For example, Chloe’s agent is okay if Chloe and Lexa are alone in the boat or on one of the riverbanks, but definitely not okay if Lexa’s agent is also with them. So how can they all get across the river?

There isn’t just one way to solve this problem.

Riddle No. 12: This Ludicrously Hard Riddle Is Our Tribute to a Late Math Genius. Can You Figure It Out?

On April 11, John Horton Conway , a brilliant mathematician who had an intense and playful love of puzzles and games, died of complications from COVID-19. Conway is the inventor of one of my favorite legendary problems (not for the faint of heart) and, famously, the Game of Life . I created this problem in his honor.

Carol was creating a family tree, but had trouble tracking down her mother’s birthdate. The only clue she found was a letter written from her grandfather to her grandmother on the day her mother was born. Unfortunately, some of the characters were smudged out, represented here with a “___” . (The length of the line does not reflect the number of smudged characters.)

“Dear Virginia,

Little did I know when I headed to work this Monday morning, that by evening we would have a beautiful baby girl. And on our wedding anniversary, no less! It makes me think back to that incredible weekend day, J___ 27th, 19___ , when we first shared our vow to create a family together, and, well, here we are! Happy eighth anniversary, my love.

Love, Edwin”

The question: When was Carol’s mother born?

This problem is inspired by Conway’s Doomsday Rule .

Riddle No. 13: To Solve This Twisty Math Riddle, You Just Need One Belt and One Earth

Imagine you have a very long belt. Well, extremely long, really … in fact, it’s just long enough that it can wrap snugly around the circumference of our entire planet. (For the sake of simplicity, let’s suppose Earth is perfectly round, with no mountains, oceans, or other barriers in the way of the belt.)

Naturally, you’re very proud of your belt. But then your brother, Peter, shows up—and to your disgruntlement, he produces a belt that’s just a bit longer than yours. He brags his belt is longer by exactly his height: 6 feet.

If Peter were also to wrap his belt around the circumference of Earth, how far above the surface could he suspend the belt if he pulled it tautly and uniformly?

Earth’s circumference is about 25,000 miles, or 130 million feet … but you don’t need to know that to solve this problem.

Riddle No. 14: This Elbow Tapping Riddle Is Diabolical. Good Luck Solving It.

In some future time, when the shelter-in-place bans are lifted, a married couple, Florian and Julia, head over to a bar to celebrate their newfound freedom.

They find four other couples there who had the same idea.

Eager for social contact, every person in the five couples enthusiastically taps elbows (the new handshake) with each person they haven’t yet met .

It actually turns out many of the people had known each other prior, so when Julia asks everyone how many elbows they each tapped, she remarkably gets nine different answers!

The question: How many elbows did Florian tap?

What nine answers did Julia hear?

Riddle No. 15: You’ll Need a Drink After Trying to Solve This Whisky Riddle

Alan and Claire live by the old Scottish saying, “Never have whisky without water, nor water without whisky!” So one day, when Alan has in front of him a glass of whisky, and Claire has in front of her a same-sized glass of water, Alan takes a spoonful of his whisky and puts it in Claire’s water. Claire stirs her whisky-tinted water, and then puts a spoonful of this mixture back into Alan’s whisky to make sure they have exactly the same amount to drink.

So: Is there more water in Alan’s whisky, or more whisky in Claire’s water? And does it matter how well Claire stirred?

The size of the spoon does not matter.

Riddle No. 16: The Doodle Problem Is a Lot Harder Than It Looks. Can You Solve It?

This week’s riddle is relatively simple—but sinister all the same.

The question: Can you make 100 by interspersing any number of pluses and minuses within the string of digits 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1? You can’t change the order of the digits! So what’s the least number of pluses and minuses needed to make 100?

For instance, 98 - 7 - 6 + 54 - 32 shows one way of interspersing pluses and minuses, but since it equals 107, it’s not a solution.

I call this a “doodle problem”: one that’s best worked on during meetings where you might be doodling otherwise.

You might want to start looking for solutions that use a total of seven pluses and minuses (although there are ways to use fewer).

Ready for the solution? Click here to see if you’re right.

Riddle No. 17: This Math Puzzle Stumped Every Scientist but One. Think You Can Crack It?

Difficulty: hard.

In honor of Freeman Dyson, the renowned physicist who died last month , here’s a legendary tale demonstrating his quick wit and incredible brain power.

One day, in a gathering of top scientists, one of them wondered out loud whether there exists an integer that you could exactly double by moving its last digit to its front. For instance, 265 would satisfy this if 526 were its exact double—which it isn’t.

After apparently just five seconds , Dyson responded, “Of course there is, but the smallest such number has 18 digits.”

This left some of the smartest scientists in the world puzzling over how he could have figured this out so quickly.

So given Dyson’s hint, what is the smallest such number?

My second grader has recently learned how to add a 3-digit number to itself using the classic vertical method:

18-digit numbers, of course, can be added in the same way.

Riddle No. 18: Figure Out What’s on Her Forehead

Cecilia loves testing the logic of her very logical friends Jaya, Julian, and Levi, so she announces:

“I’ll write a positive number on each of your foreheads. None of the numbers are the same, and two of the numbers add up to the third.”

She scribbles the numbers on their heads, then turns to Jaya and asks her what her number is. Jaya sees Julian has 20 on his forehead, and Levi has 30 on his. She thinks for a moment and then says, “I don’t know what my number is.” Julian pipes in, “I also don’t know my number,” and then Levi exclaims, “Me neither!” Cecilia gleefully says, “I’ve finally stumped you guys!”

“Not so fast!” Jaya says. “Now I know my number!”

What is Jaya’s number?

Jaya could be one of two numbers, but only one of those numbers would lead to Julian and Levi both not knowing their numbers. Why?

Riddle No. 19: Can You Get Keanu Reeves Elected As President?

It’s 2024, and there are five candidates running in the democratic primary: Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Keanu Reeves, and Dwayne Johnson. (Hey, it could happen.) As usual, the first primary is in Iowa.

In an effort to overcome its embarrassment after the 2020 caucus debacle , the Iowa Democratic Party has just announced a new, foolproof way of finding the best candidate: there will be four consecutive elections.

First, candidate 1 will run against candidate 2. Next, the winner of that will run against candidate 3, then that winner will run against candidate 4, and finally the winner of that election will run against the final candidate. By the transitive property, the winner of this last election must be the best candidate ... so says the Iowa Democratic Party.

Candidate Keanu has been feeling pretty low, as he knows he is ranked near the bottom by most voters, and at the top by none. In fact, he knows the Iowa population is divided into five equal groups, and that their preferences are as follows:

Keanu is childhood friends with Bill S. Preston, Esq., the new head of the Iowa Democratic Party. Preston, confident that the order of the candidates doesn’t matter for the outcome, tells Keanu he can choose the voting order of the candidates.

So what order should Keanu choose?

How would Keanu fare in one-to-one races against each candidate?

Riddle No. 20: Who Opened All These Damn Lockers?

There are 100 lockers that line the main hallway of Chelm High School. Every night, the school principal makes sure all the lockers are closed so that there will be an orderly start to the next day. One day, 100 mischievous students decide that they will play a prank.

The students all meet before school starts and line up. The first student then walks down the hallway, and opens every locker. The next student follows by closing every other locker (starting at the second locker). Student 3 then goes to every third locker (starting with the third) and opens it if it’s closed, and closes it if it’s open. Student 4 follows by opening every fourth locker if it’s closed and closing it if it’s open. This goes on and on until Student 100 finally goes to the hundredth locker. When the principal arrives later in the morning, which lockers does she find open?

Make sure you pay attention to all of the factors.

Laura Feiveson is an economist for the government, a storyteller, and a lifelong enthusiast of math puzzles.  She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters. 

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If You Can Solve These Puzzles, You'll Have a Head Start at Work!

Book Insight

Puzzles for Professionals

I love puzzles, and I've included lots of them in this blog. They're fun challenges, perfect for sharing, and a great way to test a range of thinking skills. But they also reveal the serious professional benefits that come from learning how to think creatively .

I was reminded of this when I read "The Creative Thinking Handbook," the new book from creativity guru Chris Griffiths. It's sprinkled with puzzles that illustrate the dos and don'ts of problem solving. Griffiths shows what a difference it can make when we develop a robust creative process – as individuals, teams and entire organizations.

Before writing, I spent 10 years as a teacher, and I often used puzzles to stretch my students' thinking. As the kids grappled with intriguing problems, they gained the confidence to take risks, to keep going, and to be creative as part of a team.

Now, after moving back into a business environment, I realize that these skills are more important in the workplace than ever. So try to match wits with me – and, in the process, see how you can start to think better, and achieve more, wherever you work.

Puzzles and Riddles

Let's start with one of my favorites. 

Puzzle 1:  If these nine dots were printed on paper, how could you link all nine by drawing just four straight lines – and without taking your pen off the page?

Have a go – it's not as easy as it looks! If you're stuck, see if someone nearby has any ideas. And try to recognize how you tackle this puzzle – because your strategies here should reveal a lot about your approach to problem solving as a whole.

In case you don't crack it, the answer to this and all my other puzzles are at the end of the blog. But try to resist the temptation to look too soon! You've got a lot to gain from stretching your thinking skills and persisting even if your first attempt fails. It's like resistance training for your brain, building strength to tackle the real-life problems that crop up every day. 

Puzzles for Learning

Puzzles get you thinking and learning in new ways. They force you to challenge the idea that there's only one way of doing things, and they train you to explore a range of options . By doing that, you develop a much richer understanding of any situation, and get your "creative juices" flowing.

You also get a taste of metacognition – "thinking about thinking." If you let them, puzzles will give you valuable insights into the way you approach problems. And the more alert you are to what's going on in your brain when you're in puzzle-solving mode, the more you'll gain, and the faster you'll grow.

Your experiences should also help others to unlock their creativity. And by leading creative-thinking teams, you can make your whole organization more exciting, more innovative, and more successful.

Avoid the Thinking Traps

In puzzles, as in life, you often learn more from your mistakes. It's particularly important to notice which styles of thinking help you to find answers, and which get in the way. In fact, many of the best puzzles are designed to tempt you into these thinking "traps."

For example:

Puzzle 2: A horse is tied to a 10-foot rope, so how does it reach the bale of hay 15 feet away? (This question tempts you to make assumptions – which are so often the enemies of creative problem-solving.)

Puzzle 3: If a plane crashes exactly on the border between France and Germany, in which country should the survivors be buried? (Many people get this one wrong by overlooking the obvious.)

Puzzle 4: Bob and Ben were born on the same day, to the same parents, but they aren't twins. How come? (You'll only solve this puzzle if you can take a seemingly impossible situation, and find a new way of looking at it.)

When the time comes to check the answers, notice any thinking traps you fell into. Think about whether you ever make the same mistakes with real-life problems!

Positive Problem-Solving Strategies

As well as avoiding the traps laid by puzzles writers, you also need to have a range of effective thinking strategies if you're going to find the answers.

Puzzles are a great way to build confidence , and strengthen persistence, open-mindedness, and flexibility. As you work out exactly what a question is asking, discard any "red herrings," and try various positive tactics until one works. In that way, you train yourself to take a strategic, energetic, and resilient approach to solving problems. 

Use some more of mine to put yourself to the test.

For each of the following questions, choose a strategy to start with. But, if that doesn't work, find a different plan of attack. See what happens when you ask friends and family for their ideas. And don't give up. Sometimes, like Sherlock Holmes playing his violin, you'll need to go away and do something else to cut loose your creativity and make the breakthrough. 

Puzzle 5 : Where in the world does Friday come before Thursday?

Just as tricky is this:

Puzzle 6: Which substance is represented by the letters HIJKLMNO?

This is fiendish:

Puzzle 7: 3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, ? What's next in this numeric code – and why?

Puzzles With Words

Our brains work through connections, and puzzles strengthen our ability to make links, see patterns, and piece things together. They also provide a rich opportunity to collaborate with other people.

Word problems are particularly good for this. When you work on a cryptic crossword with a friend, for example, you have the opportunity to explore someone else's understanding of the possibilities of language.

You find yourself looking at words and phrases in a new light, making new connections, and exploring seemingly meaningless clues from different angles. Until, suddenly, something clicks.

Here are three to try now, on your own – or, even better, in collaboration with someone sitting nearby!

Puzzle 8: Mode of transport crashed in Nepal (5) (Clue: "crashed" means that there's an anagram here.)

Puzzle 9: Singer in tunnel visit (5) (Clue: the singer's name is in "tunnel visit.")

Puzzle 10: Moscow funding? (7) (Clue: it's a word that could define "Moscow" AND "funding.")

Puzzles Boost Profits!

In education, training, and in the world of work generally, I've seen the way that puzzles can inspire a curious, playful attitude. And it spreads. It can change the way any kind of organization works for the better.

As Griffiths shows in his book, creative companies are some of the most enjoyable to work in – and among the most successful in the long term.

One reason for this is that playing around with puzzles gets you used to making mistakes. Good puzzle-solving involves free thinking and gathering a range of ideas from the whole team.

But it also requires staying focused on the question, and making sure that your solution answers it well.

Train Your Creative Brain

These days, there's no shortage of puzzles to challenge yourself with, in books, magazines and online. So take every chance you get to put your brain to work, and to share the fun with others.

Most importantly, see what happens when you put your problem-solving skills to use. You'll likely have a different outlook on real-world problems, because you'll have a range of powerful ways to solve them.

And here's one more puzzle from me to keep you practicing this creative – but concerted – approach. Why not share it with your colleagues? One person might solve it, or maybe you'll get there together.

Puzzle 11: You've put a coin inside an empty wine bottle and sealed it with a cork. How can you remove the coin without pulling the cork out of the bottle, and without damaging the bottle or the cork?

Get the Answers – by Opening Your Mind!

As "Creative Thinking Handbook" author Chris Griffiths puts it, creative thinking is about much more than "thinking outside of the box." It's about getting rid of the box altogether! And that's why I chose the puzzle at the start of this blog – because you won't solve it by staying within the confines of the grid itself.

You need to stretch some of your lines beyond its boundaries, and move into the white space outside.

When you're ready, there's a diagram below to explain the full, surprisingly simple (though sneaky!) solution.

Puzzles in a New Light

It's a great feeling when you solve a puzzle like this. But the best puzzles should keep you entertained and intrigued while you're still wrestling with them, allowing you to enjoy the process of training your creative brain.

So, see how well you get on with the ones I've set here – maybe with "The Creative Thinking Handbook" by your side! Share them to challenge your friends. And see if you notice a difference when you put your new, confident problem-solving strategies into action at work. 

" The Creative Thinking Handbook: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Problem Solving in Business ," by Chris Griffiths with Melina Costi, is published by Kogan Page.

If you're a Mind Tools Club member, you can listen to our Book Insight review .

Answers to the Puzzles

2. The other end of the rope isn't tied to anything.

3. Survivors don't need to be buried anywhere.

4. They're two of a set of triplets.

5. In a dictionary.

6. Water: "H to O"! (H 2 O)

7. 4 (As the question says, it's a "numeric" code, but it's based on the number of letters in each number word: one (3 letters), two (3), three (5), and so on. So the next number is nine, which has four letters in it.)

10. capital

11. Push the cork into the bottle.

About the Author

Jonathan was World Memory Champion and has written extensively about learning. He also spent 15 years as a BBC Radio presenter, followed by a decade as a teacher and school leader. Jonathan writes many different Mind Tools resources, as well as presenting videos and podcasts. He’s particularly proud of his articles about tackling discrimination, embracing neurodiversity, and supporting working parents. Jonathan enjoys running, crosswords, and traveling with his family. His top advice is to keep reflecting on how you feel about your work. “Life’s too short to be unhappy. If something’s not right – change it!”

24 comments on “If You Can Solve These Puzzles, You'll Have a Head Start at Work!”

I love it❤very helpful indeed? Thank you so much? God bless!

Thank you Sr Helen for that feedback. Hope you enjoy more of our resources here to help with your learning and development.

This is so interesting and thrilling. Although I could not get any correctly but am happy I tried it. Thank you

Great that you tried these puzzles Somina! I also struggled with getting the correct answers when I tried it too! 😉

In the first puzzle, why do you need to draw four lines?!! Try connecting the dots with THREE lines without lifting the pencil. It has a perfectly logical answer?

You are indeed correct and you have done brilliantly to spot another solution! I think it takes a particular kind of brain to solve these puzzles! I know I am challenged with many of them!

We are very impressed with your problem-solving skills and are grateful that you have highlighted another option to us. As a result, we're going to change the design of the puzzle, so that our solution is the only one that works.

Problem 2 is also solvable if you assume the horse is staked to a post 10 feet away, as long as the bale is on the other side of the stake. In such a setup, the horse could reach a bale *20* feet from it.

It has given complete different way of thinking, other side of coin. I could say Indirect Way of Thinking. Thank you, I will try similar way in my personal and professional life ahead.

We're glad you found this helpful, Rajesh! Different ways of thinking and looking at challenges help us to see different (and new) solutions too. Good luck!

learnt from these puzzles that need to see the problems with alternate thinking.

Great to hear Prakash that you learned something from doing these puzzles. I definitely believe that they can stretch our thinking which in turn helps us when we face situations at work.

sound exercises with solutions

Thanks, Harry, for that feedback. Puzzles certainly do stretch my thinking which in turn helps me as I approach work tasks!

Really thoughtful & motivate to think alternatively ….

Helpful in a way that one stretches his or her thinking beyond the normal view.

Help to overcome daily routine challenges.

Nice, good tips

Great post! It was very informative and helpful! You always offer fresh ideas to all readers like me.

I LOVE these puzzles! It makes us think ourside the box (no pun inended). Speaking of the box; what is the solution to the 9-dot puzzle using only 3 lines?

Hi Craig - they're great, aren't they! I have to admit I get a bit frustrated by some of them - which probably means I should practice them a bit more.

Craig, you ask what is the solution to the 9-dot puzzle using only 3 lines? The puzzle is to solve it in 4 lines, are you suggesting there's a way to do it in 3? If so I can't see it - do tell!

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Critical thinking puzzles for adults (with answers)

Critical thinking can help to better navigate the information-dense and complex world we live in. By thinking critically we can better identify priorities, take a sensible approach to problem-solving and reach conclusions logically in line with evidence. Puzzles are an excellent way both to learn and practice critical thinking skills.

If you’d like to learn more about critical thinking or simply practice your skills with some puzzles, then this is the article for you. Read a little bit more about critical thinking skills and how to apply them first, or just skip straight to the puzzles and see how you get on.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is a broad approach to problem solving and analysis based on logic and evidence. It brings together a wide range of intellectual competences and the ability to combine and cross-reference them. Some of the most important elements of a critical thinking approach include:

Analytical skills:

• understanding of questions and concepts
• differentiation of relevant / irrelevant evidence and information
• identification of similarities, connections and differences
• use of metaphors or analogies to communicate ideas

Powers of inference:

• extraction of meaning from data using inductive or deductive reasoning
• extrapolation of data or abstraction into concepts and patterns
• correct identification and deployment of analogies and assumptions
• grasp of causal relationships, allowing development of conclusions and theories.

Data and theory evaluation:

• assessment of how strong, important or credible a theory might be
• taking on board new data and new arguments which alter understanding of ideas and theory

Rational decision-making:

– application of all the skills and competences above in order to come to a rational conclusion.

Problem-solving attitude: In addition to being able to think critically, you must also be personally inclined to think critically when facing a difficult or complex challenge. Developing qualities including curiosity and fairness, while distancing yourself from ideologies and group-think, should all help to create the kind of psychological landscape where critical thinking can flourish.

How can I learn critical thinking?

Critical thinking skills are hard to develop from only reading books or listening to lectures. The most effective way to sharpen and deepen critical thinking faculties is to practice critical thinking . Critical thinking puzzles offer a fun way to learn and the eight critical thinking puzzles we’ve chosen for this article should help you make a good start.

The aMAZEing PuzzleBox

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Made from original LEGO® bricks​

Find the  GOLDEN BAR  to complete the challenge

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Eight critical thinking puzzles – with answers

Puzzle 1 – letter puzzles.

What common feature do the following words share?

Answer: All of these words begin with a vowel. This type of puzzle may send your mind off in the wrong direction, thinking about the objects or concepts described by the words, and the properties they might share. In fact, the solution lies in a far more simple consideration of the alphabet. Puzzle 1 is a simple example of a common type of letter or word puzzle.

Puzzle 2 – Commonalities and differences

What do the following items have in common and which is the odd one out?

Orange Juice

Answer: These items are all liquids and the odd one out is petrol, since all the others are drinkable liquids.

Puzzle 3 – Falling on his feet

A man who lives in a high-rise building decides to exit through the window one morning rather than using the door. Somehow he survives the fall without a scratch and walks away to work. How did this happen?

Answer: The man lived on the ground or first floor and merely stepped or jumped down to the pavement outside. By stating early on that the building in question was a high-rise building, it’s easy for someone reading quickly to assume that the man jumped from a window on a high store but this it s not necessarily the case.

Puzzle 4 – Walk this way

A group of five people enter a windowless meeting room together. An hour later when the meeting ends, four walk out of the door, leaving the room empty. What has happened to the fifth member of the group?

Answer: The fifth person was in a wheelchair and wheeled out of the room rather than walked. Solving this puzzle requires you to think laterally about the question and the possible solutions. The answer can be found by asking yourself whether the emphasis of the question is on the emptiness of the room or the means by which the other four people left.

Puzzle 5 – Shapes and symbols

When lying on my side, I am everything, but when cut in half, I am nothing. What am I?

Answer: The number 8. This puzzle requires that you think about a shape being repositioned or cut in a way that can change it to “everything” or “nothing”. Number 8 on its side is the mathematical symbol for infinity (i.e. everything) and also shaped like two small number 0s put together.

Puzzle 6 – Three hard options

The hero is escaping the lair of an evil super-villain and is faced with three possible exits:

• Door A leads into a pit of bubbling lava
• Door B leads to a room housing a deadly hitman
• Door C leads to the den full of lions that haven’t had a meal for a year.

Which door should the hero choose?

Answer: Door C. If the lion hasn’t eaten in a year, it will definitely be dead by now. This type of puzzle requires you to consider the full implications of the information given, rather than being drawn into a comparison of the relative dangers of lava, hitmen and lions…

Puzzle 7 – The bus driver’s eyes

You are a bus driver. Today the bus is empty at the start of your route but at the first stop, four people get onto the bus. Eight people get on at the second stop, while three alight. When the bus reaches the third stop, one more gets off, and three get on.

At the fourth stop, two people get off the bus and one gets on. The bus is traveling at an average speed of 30mph and its tires are new.  What color are the bus driver’s eyes?

Answer: You are the bus driver so the color will be the color of your own eyes. This type of puzzle tries to confuse you and obscure the single piece of relevant information by presenting large quantities of irrelevant information.

Puzzle 8 – Losing weight

A man walks into a room, closes the doors behind him and presses a button. In a matter of seconds the man is 20lb lighter. Despite this, he leaves the room at the same weight he entered it.

Answer: The room in question is actually an elevator. When the man gets in and presses the button, the elevator moves downwards with an acceleration that reduces the effect of gravity and makes the man temporarily 20lb lighter. Once the lift stops moving, the man’s weight is subject to normal gravity, just the same as before. Solving this puzzle requires a small piece of general physics knowledge.

A final word…

We hope you’ve enjoyed our critical thinking puzzles for adults and that your critical thinking skills are feeling refreshed and sharpened after reading our article. Whether at school, in the workplace, or in general life, critical thinking can be a valuable tool for success and anyone can learn to use it.

Get more critical thinking puzzles on our Youtube channel:

20 Challenging Lateral Thinking Puzzles That Are Harder Than They Seem

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The Path to Better Thinking Through Puzzles and Riddles

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The following is a guest post from A.J. Jacobs ( @ajjacobs ), a bestselling author, journalist, and human guinea pig. It is excerpted from his new book The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life . A.J. has written four New York Times bestsellers, including The Year of Living Biblically (for which he followed all the rules of the Bible as literally as possible) and Thanks a Thousand (for which he went around the world and thanked every person who had even the smallest role in making his morning cup of coffee possible). He has given four TED talks with a combined 10M+ views. He contributes to NPR and The New York Times and wrote the article “My Outsourced Life,” which was featured in The 4-Hour Workweek . He was once the answer to one down in The New York Times crossword puzzle.  You can find my interview from 2016 with A.J here , and you can find last week’s interview with A.J. here . Please enjoy!

My father was the one to introduce me to math puzzles.

He didn’t focus on the traditional kind. His were weirder than that, more homegrown. My dad’s greatest joy comes from baffling unsuspecting people—strangers, friends, family, whomever—and he often accomplishes this with math-based hijinks.

One time, when I was about eight years old, I asked my dad how fast race cars went. This was before Google, so my father was my version of a search engine.

“The fastest ones get up to about 50 million,” my dad said.

Even to my unschooled mind, 50 million miles per hour seemed off.

“That doesn’t sound right,” I said.

“Yes it is,” he said. “50 million fathoms per fortnight.”

I just stared at him.

“Oh, you wanted miles per hour ?” my dad said. “I thought you meant in fathoms per fortnight.”

As you might know, a fathom equals six feet, and a fortnight is two weeks. My dad had decided that fathoms per fortnight would be his default way to measure speed, on the probably correct theory that no one else on earth had ever used that metric. I thanked him for this helpful information.

So, as you can see, I was exposed to recreational math early on, leaving me with a mixed legacy—a love of numbers, a healthy skepticism about numbers, and paranoia.

For this puzzle project, I’ve bought a dozen books with math and logic brainteasers. Reading these books often induces a mild panic. How would I know how many spheres can simultaneously touch a center sphere? I can’t even figure out where to start. What’s the entry point?

To remedy this problem, I decided to consult one of the world’s experts on math puzzles, hoping to learn some of her methods. Tanya Khovanova greets me on a video call. But before I’m allowed to ask her anything, she has a question for me .

“I have two coins,” she says, in a Russian accent. “Together they add up to 15 cents. One of them is not a nickel. What are the two coins?”

My palms begin to sweat. I did not expect a pop quiz.

Maybe she’s talking about foreign coins? Maybe rubles are involved, I say?

“Not foreign coins,” she says. “American currency.”

I employ one of the puzzle-solving strategies that I do know: Look closely at all of the words and see if you have fallen for any hidden assumptions.

Two coins. Add up to 15. One of them is not a nickel.

That last phrase is kind of ambiguous. She didn’t say “neither of them are nickels.” So . . . what if one is not a nickel, but the other one is?

“A dime and a nickel?” I say, tentatively. “Because the other one is a nickel?”

“Okay. You passed the test. So you can continue,” she says, smiling.

This is a relief. Because Tanya is a fascinating character. She is a Russian émigré who is now a lecturer at MIT. She writes a popular blog about the world’s twistiest math and logic puzzles (it’s called simply Tanya Khovanova’s Math Blog ). And she has cracked pretty much every great math puzzle ever created. We’re talking coin puzzles, matchstick-arranging puzzles, river-crossing puzzles, math equation puzzles.

Tanya is on a mission. “I am very upset at the world,” she says. “There is so much faulty thinking, and puzzles can help us think better.”

Consider probability, she says. We are terrible at thinking probabilistically, and puzzles about odds can help us learn. They could teach us, for instance, the folly of playing the lottery. “The situation is unethical. I think that lottery organizers should spend part of the money they make on lotteries to educate people not to play the lottery.”

Tanya has been fascinated with math since her childhood in Moscow.

“The first thing that I remember, it wasn’t a puzzle, it was an idea. I remember that I was five years old and we were on a vacation in a village, and I was trying to go to sleep and I was thinking after each number there is the next number, and then there is the next number. At some point, I realized that there should be an infinity of numbers. And I had this feeling like I’m touching infinity, I’m touching the universe, just a euphoric feeling.”

Being a female Jewish math genius in 1970s Soviet Russia was not easy. She faced sexism and anti-Semitism. Tanya says the test for the prestigious Moscow State University—the Soviet equivalent of MIT—was rigged against Jews. Jewish students were given a separate and more difficult test. The problems were called “coffin problems,” which translates to “killer problems.” Tanya studied with other Jewish students and managed to pass the unfair test.

In 1990, Tanya left Russia. She moved to the United States and married a longtime American friend. She worked for a defense contractor near Boston but hated it because “I thought it destroyed my karma.” She started teaching as a volunteer at MIT before they hired her as a full-time lecturer.

Her philosophy: puzzles should be used more often in teaching math. First of all, they entertain us while teaching us how to think rigorously. And second, puzzles can lead to genuine advances in mathematics—topics such as conditional probability and topology were originally explored in puzzle form.

Math Puzzles 1.0

The very first math puzzles—at least according to some scholars—date back to Egypt’s Rhind Papyrus, about 1500 B.C.E. They’re closer to problems than puzzles, since they don’t require much ingenuity. But the unnamed author did try to spice them up with some whimsical details, such as in Problem 79.

Problem 79. There are seven houses. In each house there are seven cats. Each cat kills seven mice. Each mouse has eaten seven grains of barley. Each grain would have produced seven hekat (a unit of measurement). What is the sum of all the enumerated things?

Arguably the first book with actual twisty and turny math puzzles came several centuries later. The ninth century Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne was a puzzle addict, and he hired a British scholar named Alcuin of York to be his official puzzlemaker. Alcuin’s book Problems to Sharpen the Young introduced, among other things, the first known river-crossing problem. Here it is:

A man has to transport a wolf, a goat, and a bunch of cabbages across a river. His boat could take only two of these at a time. How can he do this without leaving the wolf alone with the goat (as he might eat it) or the goat alone with the cabbages (as it might eat them)?

For river-crossing problems, you need to realize that you must take a counterintuitive step backward before continuing forward. You must think outside the box.

Way Outside the Box

Tanya reminds me that “thinking outside of the box” wasn’t always a cliché. The origin of the phrase is an actual puzzle: Connect all the dots in this diagram using just four straight lines:

The answer:

Nowadays the phrase is overused and is often a punchline, as in the cartoon of the cat thinking outside its litter box. But it’s still an important concept: to find a solution, you often have to break expectations.

“My students have taught me as much as I have taught them about this,” she says.

“How do you mean?” I ask.

She tells me to think about this puzzle: “You have a basket containing five apples. You have five hungry friends. You give each of your friends one apple. After the distribution, each of your friends has one apple, yet there is an apple remaining in the basket. How can that be?”

The traditional answer is: you give four friends an apple, and then hand the fifth friend the basket with the apple still in it. So each friend has an apple, and there’s still one in the basket.

“For that answer, you have to think out of the box,” says Tanya. “But my students have come up with answers that are even farther out of the box.”

Their suggestions include:

One friend already has an apple. You kill one of your friends. You are narcissistic and you are your own friend. The friend who didn’t get an apple stops being your friend. An extra apple falls from the tree to the basket. And Tanya’s favorite: The basket is your friend. We should not discount people’s emotional connection with inanimate objects.

“The lesson my students taught me is that I’m good at thinking outside the box. But I realized, I’m inside my own bigger box. And maybe we all are.”

How to Solve Problems

But how do you get yourself to think outside the box? How do you approach a math problem? I know how to start a jigsaw puzzle (the edges, usually) and a crossword (look for plurals and fill in the S es). But how do you approach a math problem?

After talking to Tanya and another great math puzzle expert, Dartmouth professor Peter Winkler , I’ve come up with a list of tools for math and logic problems. Here are three of my favorites.

1) Reverse it.

When confronted with a problem, try reversing it. Turn it upside down.

Sometimes quite literally, turn it upside down.

Such as this problem:

What number belongs in the blank in this sequence: 16 06 68 88 __ 98 (It’s 87. Turn the page upside down to see why.)

There are other puzzles that require you to reverse your thinking in a slightly less literal way. Like this one:

A man is imprisoned in a ten-foot by ten-foot by ten-foot room. The walls are made of concrete, the floor is made of dirt, and the only openings are a locked door and a skylight. The man has a small shovel and starts to dig a hole in the floor. He knows that it is impossible to tunnel out of the prison cell, but he continues to dig anyway. What is the man’s plan?

Pause here if you want to figure it out yourself.

The solution is: The man wasn’t just digging a hole. He was also doing the opposite: building a little mountain of dirt. And his plan was to climb the mountain and get to the skylight.

I love reversing my thinking. Earlier this week, I was cleaning up the trail of clothes left by the males in our family (including me) that littered our apartment. I picked up an armload of clothes, then went to the hamper in my bedroom and dumped the clothes, then went back out. But wait. What if I . . . took the hamper with me. If I bring the hamper to the clothes. I’d save myself several trips. As Will Shortz once suggested, I took a bow.

2) Figure out the real goal .

One of my favorite brainteasers comes from Martin Gardner , who wrote a famous monthly column about math puzzles in Scientific American for three decades, starting in 1962. He died in 2010, but he still has tons of devotees, hundreds of whom attend a biannual event, the Gathering 4 Gardner, where they talk puzzles, paradoxes, and the genius of Martin.

Martin posed this puzzle in his book Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles :

Two boys on bicycles, 20 miles apart, began racing directly toward each other. The instant they started, a fly on the handlebar of one bicycle started flying straight toward the other cyclist. As soon as it reached the other handlebar, it turned and started back. The fly flew back and forth in this way, from handlebar to handlebar, until the two bicycles met.

If each bicycle had a constant speed of 10 miles an hour, and the fly flew at a constant speed of 15 miles an hour, how far did the fly fly?

Pause here if you want to try it yourself, spoilers ahead.

So how to solve this? Most people’s first instinct—including mine—is to trace the back-and-forth path of the fly and try to add up the distance.

With this method, you’d try to calculate the distance from Biker 1’s handlebars to Biker 2’s handlebars. Then the fly would make a U-turn, so you’d calculate the next distance, from Biker 2 to Biker 1. And so on until the bikes met.

This turns out to be a highly complex computation involving the speed of the bikers, the speed of the insect, and time and distance. The operation is called “summing an infinite series.”

This calculation is impossible to do in your head. Well, practically impossible. Legend has it that the brilliant Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann was once asked this brainteaser at a party, and, to the amazement of the quizzer, gave the correct answer by summing the “infinite series” in his head, no calculator needed.

Von Neumann was too smart for his own good. If he had paused for a moment, he might have realized there’s a much easier way to solve this problem.

Which brings me back to the strategy: What is the real goal?

You want to phrase the problem in the simplest possible way. Strip the problem to its basics, and you’ll realize you are looking for one thing: the distance the fly can fly in an allotted amount of time.

You can ignore the fly’s back and forth switch of directions. You can ignore the handlebars. They’re irrelevant. You just need to know how far the insect can go in the time it takes the bikes to meet.

Which turns out to be a pretty easy calculation:

If each bike was going at 10 miles per hour, and they were 20 miles apart, then it would take the bikes one hour to reach each other.

So the fly was buzzing around for one hour. What is the distance the fly can cover in one hour? Well, it’s going 15 miles per hour. So the answer is fifteen miles.

We often complicate problems when there’s an easier method right in front of us. I think this is true in more than just math puzzles.

I’m not sure if this is exactly analogous, but it’s staring me in the mirror, so let me tell you about one example. Recently, I was faced with the puzzle of how to cut my own hair. During quarantine, I couldn’t go to the barber, and Julie claimed she wasn’t qualified. I had to do it myself using YouTube tutorials.

My first attempt to cut my own hair had mixed results. The front turned out okay, but the harder-to-reach back of my head was a disaster, filled with uneven patches.

So I paused. I rephrased the problem. The goal is not to cut my hair flawlessly. The goal is to look respectable on Zoom. And on Zoom, no one ever sees the back of my head.

So the simplest solution: Just cut the front of my hair and leave the back alone to grow wild and free. Puzzle solved! Though for the first time in my life, I do have a mullet.

3) Break it down into manageable chunks 

One type of logic puzzle—often called Fermi Problems —provides excellent training for solving some real-life problems. A Fermi Problem is one like this: “How many piano tuners are there in New York City?” You have to estimate the size of something about which you are totally ignorant. 

If you just take a wild guess without reflecting, you’ll probably be off by orders of magnitude. Instead, as David Epstein explains in the psychology book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World , the best method is to break the problem down into parts you can reasonably estimate.

As Epstein writes: “How many households are in New York? What portion might have pianos? How often are pianos tuned? How long might it take to tune a piano? How many homes can one tuner reach in a day? How many days a year does a tuner work?” 

You won’t guess it exactly, but you’ll be much more likely to be in the ballpark. As Epstein writes, “None of the individual estimates has to be particularly accurate in order to get a reasonable overall answer.”

Epstein calls it an important tool in his “conceptual Swiss Army knife.” I too find it helpful when reading statistics from dubious media sources, or listening to wild cocktail party speculation. 

Breaking problems into chunks even works when trying to motivate yourself. Take the puzzle of how I can get my lazy butt to walk the treadmill for a few minutes a day. If I say to myself, “You have to walk on the treadmill for an hour today,” I will delay this task forever. So I break it down. I put the big picture out of my mind. First, I tackle the subgoal of putting on my sneakers. I can do that. Then the subgoal of turning the treadmill on. I can do that. And just step onto the rubber belt for just five minutes. I can do that. And eventually, I’m walking and realize this isn’t so bad. I can do this. I stay on for the full hour. Excerpted with permission from THE PUZZLER: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J Jacobs.  

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The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page .

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Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name , as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)

A.J. Jacobs is one of my favorite guests. If you liked this topic you might enjoy the Remote Associates Test. (remote-associates-test.com)

Puzzles and riddles have been used for centuries as a way to improve thinking skills. They force you to think outside the box and look at problems in new and different ways. In addition, puzzles and riddles can help improve your memory and attention span. While there are many different ways to improve your thinking skills, puzzles and riddles offer a fun and unique way to challenge yourself. So next time you’re feeling stuck, try working on a puzzle or riddle. You might be surprised at how much better you think after.

Re the “16 06 68 88 __ 98” puzzle – I think it’s rather flawed, as you’d have to write this upside down to fit the puzzle, hence it wouldn’t be “87”

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Logical Puzzles

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• Andrew Hayes

A logical puzzle is a problem that can be solved through deductive reasoning. This page gives a summary of the types of logical puzzles one might come across and the problem-solving techniques used to solve them.

Elimination Grids

Truth tellers and liars, cryptograms, arithmetic puzzles, river crossing puzzle, tour puzzles, battleship puzzles, chess puzzles, k-level thinking, other puzzles.

Main Article: Propositional Logic See Also: Predicate Logic

One of the simplest types of logical puzzles is a syllogism . In this type of puzzle, you are given a set of statements, and you are required to determine some truth from those statements. These types of puzzles can often be solved by applying principles from propositional logic and predicate logic . The following syllogism is from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known under his pen name, Lewis Carroll.

I have a dish of potatoes. The following statements are true: No potatoes of mine, that are new, have been boiled. All my potatoes in this dish are fit to eat. No unboiled potatoes of mine are fit to eat. Are there any new potatoes in this dish? The first and third statements can be connected by a transitive argument. All of the new potatoes are unboiled, and unboiled potatoes aren't fit to eat, so no new potatoes are fit to eat. The second statement can be expressed as the equivalent contrapositive. All of the potatoes in the dish are fit to eat; if there is a potato that is not fit to eat, it isn't in the dish. Then, once again, a transitive argument is applied. New potatoes aren't fit to eat, and inedible potatoes aren't in the dish. Thus, there are no new potatoes in the dish. \(_\square\)

Given below are three statements followed by three conclusions. Take the three statements to be true even if they vary from commonly known facts. Read the statements and decide which conclusions follow logically from the statements.

Statements: 1. All actors are musicians. 2. No musician is a singer. 3. Some singers are dancers.

Conclusions: 1. Some actors are singers. 2. Some dancers are actors. 3. No actor is a singer.

Answer Choices: a) Only conclusion 1 follows. b) Only conclusion 2 follows. c) Only conclusion 3 follows. d) At least 2 of the conclusions follows.

Main Article: Elimination Grids

Some logical puzzles require you to determine the correct pairings for sets of objects. These puzzles can often be solved with the process of elimination, and an elimination grid is an effective tool to apply this process.

An example of an elimination grid

Elimination grids are aligned such that each row represents an object within a set, and each column represents an object to be paired with an object from that set. Check marks and X marks are used to show which objects pair, and which objects do not pair.

Mr. and Mrs. Tan have four children--three boys and a girl-- who each like one of the colors--blue, green, red, yellow-- and one of the letters--P, Q, R, S.

• The oldest child likes the letter Q.
• The youngest child likes green.
• Alfred likes the letter S.
• Brenda has an older brother who likes R.
• The one who likes blue isn't the oldest.
• The one who likes red likes the letter P.
• Charles likes yellow.

Based on the above facts, Darius is the \(\text{__________}.\)

Main Article: Truth-Tellers and Liars

A variation on elimination puzzles is a truth-teller and liar puzzle , also known as a knights and knaves puzzle . In this type of puzzle, you are given a set of people and their respective statements, and you are also told that some of the people always tell the truth and some always lie. The goal of the puzzle is to deduce the truth from the given statements.

20\(^\text{th}\) century mathematician Raymond Smullyan popularized these types of puzzles.

You are in a room with three chests. You know at least one has treasure, and if a chest has no treasure, it contains deadly poison.

Each chest has a message on it, but all the messages are lying .

• Left chest: "The middle chest has treasure."
• Middle chest: "All these chests have treasure."
• Right chest: "Only one of these chests has treasure."

Which chests have treasure?

There are two people, A and B , each of whom is either a knight or a knave.

A says, "At least one of us is a knave."

What are A and B ?

\(\) Details and Assumptions:

• A knight always tells the truth.
• A knave always lies.

Main Article: Cryptograms

A cryptogram is a puzzle in which numerical digits in a number sentence are replaced with characters, and the goal of the puzzle is to determine the values of these characters.

\[ \begin{array} { l l l l l } & &P & P & Q \\ & &P & Q & Q \\ + && Q & Q & Q \\ \hline & & 8 & 7 & 6 \\ \end{array} \]

In the sum shown above, \(P\) and \(Q\) each represent a digit. What is the value of \(P+Q\)?

\[ \overline{EVE} \div \overline{DID} = 0. \overline{TALKTALKTALKTALK\ldots} \]

Given that \(E,V,D,I,T,A,L\) and \(K \) are distinct single digits, let \(\overline{EVE} \) and \( \overline{DID} \) be two coprime 3-digit positive integers and \(\overline{TALK} \) be a 4-digit integer, such that the equation above holds true, where the right hand side is a repeating decimal number.

Find the value of the sum \( \overline{EVE} + \overline{DID} + \overline{TALK} \).

Main Articles: Fill in the Blanks and Operator Search

Arithmetic puzzles contain a series of numbers, operations, and blanks in order, and the object of the puzzle is to fill in the blanks to obtain a desired result.

\[\huge{\Box \times \Box \Box = \Box \Box \Box}\]

Fill the boxes above with the digits \(1,2,3,4,5,6\), with no digit repeated, such that the equation is true.

Enter your answer by concatenating all digits in the order they appear. For example, if the answer is \(1 \times 23 = 456\), enter \(123456\) as your final answer.

Also try its sister problem.

\[ \LARGE{\begin{eqnarray} \boxed{\phantom0} \; + \; \boxed{\phantom0} \; &=& \; \boxed{\phantom0} \\ \boxed{\phantom0} \; - \; \boxed{\phantom0} \; &=& \; \boxed{\phantom0} \\ \boxed{\phantom0} \; \times \; \boxed{\phantom0}\; &=& \; \boxed{\phantom0} \\ \boxed{\phantom0} \; \div \; \boxed{\phantom0} \; &=& \; \boxed{\phantom0} \\ \end{eqnarray}} \]

Put one of the integers \(1, 2, \ldots , 13\) into each of the boxes, such that twelve of these numbers are used once for each (and one number is not used at all) and all four equations are true.

What is the sum of all possible values of the missing (not used) number?

Main Article: River Crossing Puzzles

In a river crossing puzzle , the goal is to find a way to move a group of people or objects across a river (or some other kind of obstacle), and to do it in the fewest amount of steps or least amount of time.

A famous river crossing problem is Richard Hovasse's bridge and torch problem , written below.

Four people come to a river in the night. There is a narrow bridge, but it can only hold two people at a time. They have one torch and, because it's night, the torch has to be used when crossing the bridge. Person A can cross the bridge in one minute, B in two minutes, C in five minutes, and D in eight minutes. When two people cross the bridge together, they must move at the slower person's pace. The question is, can they all get across the bridge in 15 minutes or less? Assume that a solution minimizes the total number of crosses. This gives a total of five crosses--three pair crosses and two solo crosses. Also, assume we always choose the fastest for the solo cross. First, we show that if the two slowest persons (C and D) cross separately, they accumulate a total crossing time of 15. This is done by taking persons A, C, D: D+A+C+A = 8+1+5+1=15. (Here we use A because we know that using A to cross both C and D separately is the most efficient.) But, the time has elapsed and persons A and B are still on the starting side of the bridge and must cross. So it is not possible for the two slowest (C and D) to cross separately. Second, we show that in order for C and D to cross together that they need to cross on the second pair cross: i.e. not C or D, so A and B, must cross together first. Remember our assumption at the beginning states that we should minimize crosses, so we have five crosses--3 pair crossings and 2 single crossings. Assume that C and D cross first. But then C or D must cross back to bring the torch to the other side, so whoever solo-crossed must cross again. Hence, they will cross separately. Also, it is impossible for them to cross together last, since this implies that one of them must have crossed previously, otherwise there would be three persons total on the start side. So, since there are only three choices for the pair crossings and C and D cannot cross first or last, they must cross together on the second, or middle, pair crossing. Putting all this together, A and B must cross first, since we know C and D cannot and we are minimizing crossings. Then, A must cross next, since we assume we should choose the fastest to make the solo cross. Then we are at the second, or middle, pair crossing, so C and D must go. Then we choose to send the fastest back, which is B. A and B are now on the start side and must cross for the last pair crossing. This gives us, B+A+D+B+B = 2+1+8+2+2 = 15. It is possible for all four people to cross in 15 minutes. \(_\square\)

Main Article: Tour Puzzles See Also: Eulerian Path

In a tour puzzle , the goal is to determine the correct path for an object to traverse a graph. These kinds of puzzles can take several forms: chess tours, maze traversals, eulerian paths , and others.

Find the path that leads from the star in the center back to the star in the center. Paths can only go in the direction of an arrow. Image Credit: Eric Fisk Show Solution The solution path is outlined in red below.

Determine a path through the below graph such that each edge is traversed exactly once . Show Solution There are several possible solutions. One possible solution is shown below, with the edges marked in the order they are traversed.

A chess tour is an interesting type of puzzle in its own right, and is explained in detail further down the page.

Main Article: Nonograms

A nonogram is a grid-based puzzle in which a series of numerical clues are given beside a rectangular grid. When the puzzle is completed, a picture is formed in the grid.

The puzzle begins with a series of numbers on the left and above the grid. Each of these numbers represents a consecutive run of shaded spaces in the corresponding row or column. Each consecutive run is separated from other runs by at least one empty space. The puzzle is complete when all of the numbers have been satisfied. The primary technique to solve these puzzles is the process of elimination. If the puzzle is designed correctly, there should be no guesswork required.

Complete the nonogram: Show Solution

One of the many logical puzzles is the Battleship puzzle (sometimes called Bimaru, Yubotu, Solitaire Battleships or Battleship Solitaire). The puzzle is based on the Battleship game.

Solitaire Battleships was invented by Jaime Poniachik in Argentina and was first featured in the magazine Humor & Juegos.

This is an example of a solved Battleship puzzle. The puzzle consists of a 10 × 10 small squares, which contain the following:

• 1 battleship 4 squares long
• 2 cruisers 3 squares long each
• 3 destroyers 2 squares long each
• 4 submarines 1 square long each.

They can be put horizontally or vertically, but never diagonally. The boats are placed so that no boats touch each other, not even vertically. The numbers beside the row/column indicate the numbers of squares occupied in the row/column, respectively. ⬤ indicates a submarine and ⬛ indicates the body of a ship, while the half circles indicate the beginning/end of a ship.

The goal of the game is to fill in the grid with water or ships.

Main Article: Sudoku

A sudoku is a puzzle on a \(9\times 9\) grid in which each row, column, and smaller square portion contains each of the digits 1 through 9, each no more than once. Each puzzle begins with some of the spaces on the grid filled in. The goal is to fill in the remaining spaces on the puzzle. The puzzle is solved primarily through the process of elimination. No guesswork should be required to solve, and there should be only one solution for any given puzzle.

Solve the sudoku puzzle: Puzzle generated by Open Sky Sudoku Generator Each row should contain the each of the digits 1 through 9 exactly once. The same is true for columns and the smaller \(3\times 3\) squares. Show Solution

Main Article: Chess Puzzles See Also: Reduced Games , Opening Strategies , and Rook Strategies

Chess puzzles take the rules of chess and challenge you to perform certain actions or deduce board states.

One kind of chess puzzle is a chess tour , related to the tour puzzles mentioned in the section above. This kind of puzzle challenges you to develop a tour of a chess piece around the board, applying the rules of how that piece moves.

Dan and Sam play a game on a \(5\times3\) board. Dan places a White Knight on a corner and Sam places a Black Knight on the nearest corner. Each one moves his Knight in his turn to squares that have not been already visited by any of the Knights at any moment of the match.

For example, Dan moves, then Sam, and Dan wants to go to Black Knight's initial square, but he can't, because this square has been occupied earlier.

When someone can't move, he loses. If Dan begins, who will win, assuming both players play optimally?

This is the seventeenth problem of the set Winning Strategies.

Due to its well-defined ruleset, the game of chess affords many different types of puzzles. The problem below shows that you can even deduce whose turn it is from a certain boardstate (or perhaps you cannot).

Whose move is it now?

Main Article: K-Level Thinking See Also: Induction - Introduction

K-level thinking is the name of a kind of assumption in certain logic puzzles. In these types of puzzles, there are a number of actors in a situation, and each of them is perfectly logical in their decision-making. Furthermore, each of these actors is aware that all other actors in the situation are perfectly logical in their decision-making.

Calvin, Zandra, and Eli are students in Mr. Silverman's math class. Mr. Silverman hands each of them a sealed envelope with a number written inside.

He tells them that they each have a positive integer and the sum of the three numbers is 14. They each open their envelope and inspect their own number without seeing the other numbers.

Calvin says,"I know that Zandra and Eli each have a different number." Zandra replies, "I already knew that all three of our numbers were different." After a brief pause Eli finally says, "Ah, now I know what number everyone has!"

What number did each student get?

Format your answer by writing Calvin's number first, then Zandra's number, and finally Eli's number. For example, if Calvin has 8, Zandra has 12, and Eli has 8, the answer would be 8128.

Two logicians must find two distinct integers \(A\) and \(B\) such that they are both between 2 and 100 inclusive, and \(A\) divides \(B\). The first logician knows the sum \( A + B \) and the second logician knows the difference \(B-A\).

Then the following discussion takes place:

Logician 1: I don't know them. Logician 2: I already knew that.

Logician 1: I already know that you are supposed to know that. Logician 2: I think that... I know... that you were about to say that!

Logician 1: I still can't figure out what the two numbers are. Logician 2: Oops! My bad... my previous conclusion was unwarranted. I didn't know that yet!

What are the two numbers?

Enter your answer as a decimal number \(A.B\). \((\)For example, if \(A=23\) and \(B=92\), write \(23.92.)\)

Note: In this problem, the participants are not in a contest on who finds numbers first. If one of them has sufficient information to determine the numbers, he may keep this quiet. Therefore nothing may be inferred from silence. The only information to be used are the explicit declarations in the dialogue.

Of course, the puzzles outlined above aren't the only types of puzzles one might encounter. Below are a few more logical puzzles that are unrelated to the types outlined above.

You are asked to guess an integer between \(1\) and \(N\) inclusive.

Each time you make a guess, you are told either

(a) you are too high, (b) you are too low, or (c) you got it!

You are allowed to guess too high twice and too low twice, but if you have a \(3^\text{rd}\) guess that is too high or a \(3^\text{rd}\) guess that is too low, you are out.

What is the maximum \(N\) for which you are guaranteed to accomplish this?

\(\) Clarification : For example, if you were allowed to guess too high once and too low once, you could guarantee to guess the right answer if \(N=5\), but not for \(N>5\). So, in this case, the answer would be \(5\).

You play a game with a pile of \(N\) gold coins.

You and a friend take turns removing 1, 3, or 6 coins from the pile. The winner is the one who takes the last coin.

For the person that goes first, how many winning strategies are there for \(N < 1000?\)

\(\) Clarification: For \(1 \leq N \leq 999\), for how many values of \(N\) can the first player develop a winning strategy?

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Problem Solving Games, Activities & Exercises for Adults

Here is our list of the best problem solving games, activities and exercises for adults.

Problem solving games are activities that require players to use critical thinking skills to solve puzzles. Example activities include escape rooms, Sudoku, and murder mysteries. The purpose of these exercises is to sharpen reasoning and decision-making skills in group settings and to do team building with employees.

These activities are a subset of remote team games , found in problem solving books , and are similar to team puzzles , team building brain teasers and team riddles .

This article contains:

• team building problem solving activities for employees
• free problem solving games for adults
• virtual problem solving activities for students
• group problem solving activities
• problem solving team builders

Here we go!

List of problem solving games & activities

From word and number puzzles to role-playing games, here is a list of inexpensive and free problem solving team builders that help groups practice the art of critical thinking and compromise.

1. Espionage! (Team Favorite)

For an exciting game of social deduction, check out Espionage! This thrilling experience will put your team’s wits and instincts to the test.

Espionage! offers the following:

• a 90-minute session led by an experienced host
• undercover teams of agents and spies
• challenging puzzles, tasks, and maneuvers
• team conversations to help uncover secret identities

The best part is we will bring all the necessary game materials to your preferred location. If you are interested in boosting communication and critical-thinking skills within your team, then consider Espionage!

Learn more about Espionage!

2. Art Heist: The Vanishing of Van Gogh (Hosted)

You can turn your team into skilled detectives with Art Heist: The Vanishing of Van Gogh! In this captivating mystery, participants will locate the stolen artwork, The Bedroom .

Key features of this experience include:

• a 90-minute adventure led by a world-class host
• detailed puzzles, clues, and mysteries to unravel
• trails of evidence and hidden secrets
• group discussions to find the art

Additionally, you can include a cocktail kit to spice up your event. Through Art Heist, you will enhance your team’s ingenuity and problem-solving skills!

Learn more about Art Heist: The Vanishing of Van Gogh .

Get our free team building toolbox

• icebreaker games
• bingo cards

3. War of the Wizards (Popular)

With War of the Wizards, teams roleplay as minions of powerful wizards to vanquish forces of evil. Participants will play thrilling games and go on a quest to restore harmony to the realm!

War of the Wizards offers the following:

• a 90-minute journey guided by a distinguished host
• immersive storytelling that transports players into a magical realm
• engaging activities like world-building, role-playing games, and storytelling
• opportunities for forming alliances, facing challenges, and going on quests

Through the power of imagination and teamwork, your team can overcome tasks and participate in an epic fantasy battle. To improve communication and bonds, include War of the Wizards in your agenda!

Learn more about War of the Wizards .

Sudoku is one of the most popular free problem solving games for adults. The objective of this game is to fill each box of a 9×9 grid so that every row, column, and letter contains each number from one to nine. The puzzle makes a great team challenge. To play Sudoku on Zoom, screen share the game board. Then, turn on the annotation features. Using the add text functions, participants can fill in the numbers on the grid.

We made a starter puzzle you can use in your next meeting or virtual team bonding session:

Here are more online Sudoku puzzles .

5. Crossword puzzles

Crossword puzzles are word games that ask players to fill in words based on clues. Words interconnect, and players must think critically about the surrounding words to select the right phrase for the space.

You can use an online crossword puzzle maker to create a custom puzzle. Here are a few themes you may want to consider:

• teammates’ tastes and interests
• company knowledge and history
• industry terms and trends

Or, create a miscellaneous puzzle just for fun.

We made a sample puzzle you can use for your game:

To complete puzzles during online meetings, you can use the share screen function and add text through annotations.

Or, subscribers can play the New York Times’ daily crossword puzzle virtually . Dictionary.com also offers a free daily online crossword puzzle .

Check out more vocabulary games .

6. Online Escape Rooms

Escape rooms are timed games that get groups working together to solve puzzles. Traditionally, players enter a locked room and must complete all puzzles in an hour or two to unlock the door. However, groups can also play escape rooms online.

Digital escape rooms typically come in one of two forms: in a Zoom room and led by a host, or in a choose-your-own adventure format via Google Forms or websites. To play escape rooms virtually, enter a video meeting and follow the prompts, or screen share the Google Form and work out the puzzles together.

Check out our full list of online escape rooms .

7. Murder Mysteries

Murder Mysteries are story-based games that ask players to take on the roles of suspects or detectives while trying to identify a killer. These games often involve reading lines from a script, searching for clues, and occasionally solving puzzles to get hints.

These games make participants pay attention to conversations, analyze other characters’ behavior, and search for hidden meaning in the script. Players must use their powers of observation and logic to unravel the mystery.

Check out our list of Zoom murder mystery games .

8. Treasure Hunts

Treasure hunts are scavenger hunts with intention. While virtual scavenger hunts often ask players to collect random items, treasure hunts require participants to locate clues that lead to other prompts and hints. The game typically ends with players finding a treasure or solving a mystery, sometimes both.

The treasure hunt can have a specific theme such as secret agent missions or a hunt for pirate treasure, or you can run a more general hunt. Teammates can either compete simultaneously via Zoom call, or can play the hunt on an app individually and compete to beat each other’s scores.

Check out our list of treasure hunt apps .

9. Poem or story challenge

Most team building problem solving activities for employees revolve around science, math, and logic. Poem/story challenges rely on writing skills and are sure to appeal to the language lovers on your team.

Each player receives a limited word bank to use to create a story or poem. Then, players have a few minutes to craft their pieces. Afterward, everyone reads out or screen shares their creations.

Here are a few word challenge activities you can do remotely:

• Found poems or stories : Participants make poems or stories out of words they find by visiting websites, searching emails, glancing out the window, or taking a walk or drive around the neighborhood.
• Random word generators : Teammates use a random word generator to populate a word bank, and must use each word in the poem or story.
• Poetry magnets : Group members make poems using poetry magnets. You can send poetry magnet sets to employees and assemble the verses on a cookie pan during a Zoom call. Or, teammates can play with poetry magnets online .
• Page poems: Participants receive one page of a book or magazine, and must make a poem or story by blocking out other words so only the chosen text remains visible. This activity is part storytelling, part art, since story crafters can illustrate the pages as part of the design.
• Ransom note stories or poems : Players cut out letters from magazines and must form new words to make poems and stories. Or, players can receive a mix of random letters, form words, and run the text through a ransom note generator .

These activities are suitable for teams and individual players.

10. Moral challenge

Some problems are ethical rather than factual. Moral judgment plays just as important a role in the decision-making process as technical prowess. Players can flex their moral problem-solving skills by tackling ethical dilemmas or social puzzles.

Here are some social problem solving games online:

• Moral machine
• Scruples – the game of moral dilemmas
• Morality play

To play these games, either download the apps, or pull up the website and then screen share the prompts. These games are best played when discussed as a group, because the more belief systems and opinions, the harder an issue is to resolve. These exercises provide practice for real-life conflict resolution.

You can find similar challenges on our list of online personality tests .

11. Frostbite

Frostbite is a group game that hones team leaders’ communication skills while sharpening teammates’ listening and cooperation skills. The premise behind the game is that a group of explorers gets caught in a snowstorm and must build a shelter. Frostbite has paralyzed the leaders’ hands and snow-blinded the rest of the team. The leader must give the team instructions to build a tent that can resist arctic winds.

To play Frostbite, each teammate wears a blindfold. Then, the leader gives directions. Once the structures are complete, players turn on a fan to test whether tents can withstand the wind.

Frostbite is usually an in-person game, however you can also play virtually. In the remote version of the game, teammates construct tents out of cards and tape, while the leader surveys the scene on screen.

This exercise demonstrates the challenges of leading remotely, as teams need to operate with minimal oversight or supervisor observation. Therefore, instructions need to be clear and direct to be effective.

Check out more team building games .

12. Virtual Hackathons

Hackathons are events where participants have a set amount of time to design and pitch a new product or solution. This type of event originated in the programming world and is often used to create new apps, however you can apply the game to any industry or school subject.

Virtual hackathons are online versions of the event. Teams enter the competition, then work with each other via virtual meeting software or remote work communication platforms to design the solution. At the end of the competition, teams pitch ideas to a panel of judges and a winner is decided.

To run a virtual hackathon, first announce the theme of the event and collect sign-ups. So that no teams work ahead, hint at the general idea of the issue, and only explain the precise problem when the event begins. Then, give teams anywhere from a few hours to a few days to complete the project.

Discover more virtual hackathon ideas .

13. Improv games

Improv games are excellent problem solving activities. These exercises force participants to think and respond quickly to keep scenes moving in a logical and entertaining way.

Here are some good problem solving improv games:

Banned words : Performers cannot say certain words. Scene partners will conceive of situations that encourage the actors to use those words, and the actors must find alternatives, such as using synonyms or taking the scene in a new direction.

Scenes from a chat : Audience gives a suggestion for a scene, and players act the scene out. Though it’s a fictional and often ridiculous scenario, actors must react to the situation and solve the problem in order for the scene to end.

Miracle cure : Miracle cure is a quick-moving exercise that follows a simple format. One player declares, “I have a problem.” Another player responds, “I have a….[random object.]” The first player then replies, “great! I can use the [random object] to….” and describes how they will solve the problem.

Check out more problem-solving improv games .

14. Spaghetti Tower

The spaghetti tower is a classic team building game. Participants gather uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows, and must construct the tallest freestanding tower.

During the in-person version, players must construct one tall freestanding tower. However, for the virtual version of the game, players construct individual towers. You can send groups to breakout rooms for the build, then reconvene in the main room for judging. Teams are judged on three main factors: number of towers, height, and uniformity.

This version of the game not only tests the structural integrity of the tower, but also consistency and quality control. This exercise teaches teams to align and collaborate remotely, and produce a consistent product even when far apart.

15. What Would You Do?

What Would You Do? is a simple situational game that challenges participants to react to different circumstances. To play this game, read prompts one by one, and then ask participants to respond with gameplans. You can use the polling or raise hand feature to vote for the best option.

Here are some problem solving scenarios for adults or kids to use in the game:

• Zombies attack and you have to find a place to hide.
• You are at the zoo and the animals escape. Which one do you try to corral back into the pen first?
• After waiting in line for hours, someone cuts in front of you last minute. The person appears to be visually and hearing impaired, and doesn’t notice your protests. An official announces that due to diminishing supply, this individual will be the last in line to be served.
• You are eating a meal with important clients and/or your partner’s parents, and you want to impress. The individuals make you a dish that does not fit within your dietary restrictions, but you do not speak the same language and cannot explain why you do not want to eat.
• An imposter has infiltrated the organization, who looks, speaks, and behaves exactly like you. How do you convince your peers that you are the original?

For similar dilemmas, check out this list of Would You Rather? questions.

16. Desert Island Survival

Desert Island Survival is a game that challenges players to prioritize. The premise is that players have been stranded on an island, and must decide what order to perform survival steps.

Here are the possible actions:

• Set up shelter
• Explore the island
• Try to signal for help
• Make weapons for self-defense
• Build a raft to escape the island
• Start a fire
• Choose a group leader
• Search for other survivors

All group members must agree on the order of the steps. Players should explain the reasoning for the order of each step while ranking the actions.

Another version of the game involves players receiving a list of 15 to 20 items, and selecting five or so to bring to the island. You can also vary the location of the game, substituting remote islands for destinations like outer space or the distant past.

17. Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose Your Own Adventure stories enable readers to determine the outcome of the story by making decisions. Each action has a consequence that takes the tale in a different direction. Participants can try to guess how the story may unfold by talking through the different choices. When completing the activity in a group setting, the majority of the team must agree on an action before moving forward in the story.

There are a few ways to facilitate these activities online:

• Play an online role playing video game
• Watch an interactive movie like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
• Read from a Choose Your Own Adventure book on Zoom
• Click through a Choose Your Own Adventure platform
• Create your own story using a Google Form

Whichever way you choose to do the exercise, you can use the screen share feature in your virtual meeting software so that listeners can more easily follow along.

18. MacGyver

MacGyver is a show where the hero escapes sticky situations by improvising tools out of unlikely materials. For example, in one episode the hero makes a telescope out of a newspaper, magnifying lens, and a watch crystal.

To play MacGyver, you can either list three to five objects participants can use, or challenge players to use items that are within arms reach.

Simply state a desired end result, such as “a way to open a locked door,” or “a getaway vehicle,” and then ask teams to explain what they will build and how they will build it. To make the activity more collaborative, you can give teams five or ten minutes in breakout rooms to strategize and design a prototype.

19. Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a roleplaying game where players pretend to be magical figures and creatures. One player serves as the dungeon master, who guides the game, while the other players pick characters and make decisions to move the story forward. Upon choosing a course of action, players roll a twenty-sided die to determine whether or not the plan succeeds. The game is story-based, the possibilities are nearly limitless, and truly creative problem solving options arise. Also, since gameplay is mostly verbal, Dungeons & Dragons is an easy activity to do over Zoom.

Here are the basic rules for Dungeons & Dragons .

20. Pandemic

Pandemic is a game that pits players against the forces of nature in a race to contain and control disease outbreaks. At the beginning of the game, each player receives a role such as containment specialist or operations expert. Participants must carry out the duties of their roles by choosing appropriate actions. Pandemic is a great game for groups because each team member has a clear part to play, and players must collaborate and work together instead of competing against each other.

To play the game online, you can use a Pandemic game app , or talk through the exercise while one attendee moves and displays pieces on the board.

Note: The subject of this game might hit too close to home for some players, considering recent history. You can find games with similar mechanics that deal with different subject matter, such as Forbidden Island.

Check out more team building board games .

21. Model UN

Model UN is one of the best virtual problem solving activities for students. This exercise casts participants in the role of international diplomats who must negotiate to solve realistic problems. Each player assumes the role of a country ambassador and must form alliances and propose solutions to solve crises.

Here are some sample Model UN scenarios:

• Human rights violation by powerful country
• Food shortage
• Disease epidemic
• Technology privacy violations
• Civil war branching into surrounding countries
• Natural disasters

Depending on the size of the group, participants either take on the part of an entire government of a country, or play a certain role within the government. To carry out the activity on Zoom, players can take turns giving speeches, message other countries privately via the chat, meet in breakout rooms to form alliances or have more intimate discussions, and use the polling feature to vote on propositions.

If politics does not resonate with your group, then you can alter the exercise by applying the same activity structure to a different theme, such as the Justice League, movie characters, business board members, or reality TV stars.

The main purpose of the exercise is to research, talk through problems, and compromise. As long as these elements are present, then the specifics of the setup do not matter.

There are many types of problem solving activities for adults. You can do online problem solving games, which require a different skill set than in-person problem solving. For instance, communication must be much clearer and more abundant when group members are far apart and unable to demonstrate or pick up physical cues.

Though many problem solving games include props and in-person elements, there are many games you can play together online. These exercises work well as educational tools as well as team bonding accelerators. Upon completion, participants are likely to feel a sense of accomplishment and increased confidence. These games are also great practice for real life conflict resolution, creative thinking and team building.

Next check out this list of connection games , this collection of crime-solving games , and this post with conflict resolution games .

We also have a list of the best decision making books and a list of team building problems for work .

Book wildly fun team building events with expert hosts

FAQ: Problem solving activities

Here are common answers to questions about group problem solving activities.

What are problem solving games?

Problem solving games are challenges that ask players to think critically and use logic to overcome issues or answer riddles. Examples include sudoku, murder mysteries, and spaghetti towers. These games are also known as “problem solving exercises”, “problem and solution games” and “group problem solving activities.”

What are the best problem solving games for groups?

The best problem solving games for groups include online escape rooms, moral challenges, and improv games.

What are some good problem solving team building activities for students?

Some good problem solving activities for students include crossword puzzles, choose your own adventure stories, and model UN.

How do you play problem solving games online?

The best way to play problem solving games online is to join a video call meeting to talk through the issue. Using the screen sharing and digital whiteboard features helps participants visualize the problem more clearly. Breakout rooms give teams the chance to discuss the issue more intimately.

Author: Angela Robinson

Marketing Coordinator at teambuilding.com. Team building content expert. Angela has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and worked as a community manager with Yelp to plan events for businesses.

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Best Games That Reward Creative Problem-Solving

• As video game technology advances, puzzles have become more open-ended, allowing for creative solutions and multiple outcomes.
• Games like Portal 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 reward players for thinking creatively and finding unique ways to solve problems.
• Undertale and Scribblenauts Unlimited offer players the freedom to approach puzzles in their own way, showcasing the importance of player choice.

In the early days of video games, puzzles and their solutions were pretty cut and dry. Get from Point A to Point B, and accomplish A, B, and C using a very specific method. There was only one way to beat the game; players just needed to find it. Part of this was due to hardware and scripting limitations. Consoles had such limited memory that there simply wasn't room for more creative solutions.

11 Best Puzzle Games On Steam That Deserve More Attention

But as video games and consoles become more advanced, puzzle-solving in games has become more open-ended. Developers are now usually more than happy to hand players the reins and let them run wild with their creativity. All the pieces are there; players just need to put them together. There are no right or wrong answers, just what works and what doesn't, and for those looking to flex their creative puzzle-solving muscles and get rewarded for doing so , there are plenty of gaming options available.

Peace is Always An Option

Platform(s) PS Vita, Switch, PS4, PC, Xbox One

Released September 15, 2015

Developer(s) Toby Fox

Genre(s) RPG

This 2015 smash hit revolutionized puzzle-solving and story progression in RPG adventure games, being one of the first where players could complete the entire game without killing a single enemy. Instead, they could choose the Pacifist route and befriend NPCs instead (or go from killing a single enemy to all of them in the notorious Genocide route ).

Beyond the multiple endings, Undertale is filled with puzzles to overcome, not all of which have a single solution. Is a dastardly skeleton placing a maze trap before the fallen human? They might be able to solve it, or they can opt to simply walk around it. New dialogue options and story branches open and close based on who the player chooses to spare and how. The reward for creative puzzle-solving is that players get to explore more of this colorful world and iconic characters.

Scribblenauts Unlimited

The noun's the limit.

Platform(s) Wii U, Switch, PS4, PC, iOS, Android, 3DS, Xbox One

Released November 13, 2012

Developer(s) 5th Cell

Genre(s) Puzzle, Sandbox

Scribblenauts proves that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword. No, seriously. The titular heroes in this popular puzzle RPG series use the power of words to solve all their problems. Players can write down a noun and watch it appear in the world. Giving it an adjective results in the object or creature transforming to match its new description. Giving a pig wings will allow it to fly, and manifesting some glue out of the ether will permit players to stick things together. The possibilities are literally endless.

Scribblenauts Unlimited builds on its predecessors with an expansive list of nouns, adjectives, and adverbs that players can use and provides multiple ways to solve each puzzle. The game doesn't care how players accomplish their goals, so long as they clear the level's main objective. The only real limit is the player's imagination (and their vocabulary).

Aperture Science Tests One's Creativity

Platform(s) PS3, Switch, Xbox 360, PC

Released April 18, 2011

Developer(s) Valve

Genre(s) Puzzle, Platformer

The Portal games make no secret that they want to test players' problem-solving abilities. The game's central antagonist, GLaDOS , makes that abundantly clear. In fact, the entire plot is to use those same skills to escape the testing facility once and for all. Each test follows the same simple premise: get to the end of the testing chamber in one piece. How the player does it is up to them - and the game's physics engine. Jump through portals, avoid deadly turrets and bottomless pits, propel through the air -- it doesn't matter. As the saying goes, "If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid."

Portal 2 takes this engaging premise and amps it up to eleven. Puzzles are bigger, deadlier, and more complicated than ever before. While some answers are laid out more obviously than others, players are free to ignore those options and think outside the box as much as they want. So long as they reach the final door, GLaDOS doesn't mind how they did it. After all, data is data.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Zonai devices help players reinvent the wheel.

Platform(s) Switch

Released May 12, 2023

Developer(s) Nintendo

Genre(s) Adventure

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a massive breath of fresh air for the franchise. Linear adventures with clear-cut solutions were swapped out for a massive open world and a fun new physics engine that led to infinitely creative gameplay. Many fans of the series felt the game essentially reinvented the wheel of a franchise that had started to get a bit formulaic. However, its direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom , didn't just reinvent the wheel; it allowed players to invent their own.

8 Hardest Zelda Games To 100% Complete

On top of the many new mechanics introduced in Breath of the Wild , Tears of the Kingdom introduced several new mechanics for players to tinker around with. The best by far is the introduction of Zonai devices, allowing players to use various moving mechanical parts in endless combinations to solve puzzles. Gamers can build siege engines that breathe fire, gliders powered by fans, or massive catapaults to launch enemies (or themselves) off into the horizon.

Baldur's Gate 3

Any solution is just a dice roll away.

Platform(s) Xbox Series X, PS5, PC, macOS, Stadia

Released August 3, 2023

Developer(s) Larian Studios

This award-winning RPG action-adventure game from 2023 famously adapted the core rules of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition into a video game format. But the game didn't just take the basic stats and mechanics; it went above and beyond to allow players to think just as creatively as they would while playing real D&D . Any D&D campaign can go off the rails at any moment. One bad dice roll or truly chaotic player choice, and there will be consequences. That's what makes the game so fun, and Baldur's Gate 3 understands this.

No two playthroughs of Baldur's Gate 3 are the same, thanks to the infinite array of choices , dice checks, and consequences. Players are rewarded for seeing just how many different ways they can solve the same problem. Do they exterminate the goblin camp or side with them? Can they pickpocket the vendor for powerful items to avoid paying? Can they talk their way out of being arrested, either through smooth-talking or saber-rattling? Every decision opens doors and closes others. Each interaction can forge new allies or enemies. Every quest has multiple endings, good or bad. Players can play the campaign however they want and will be rewarded for their creative thinking along the way.

Puzzle Games You Have To Be A Genius To Complete

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Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: can language models solve olympiad programming.

Abstract: Computing olympiads contain some of the most challenging problems for humans, requiring complex algorithmic reasoning, puzzle solving, in addition to generating efficient code. However, it has been understudied as a domain to evaluate language models (LMs). In this paper, we introduce the USACO benchmark with 307 problems from the USA Computing Olympiad, along with high-quality unit tests, reference code, and official analyses for each problem. These resources enable us to construct and test a range of LM inference methods for competitive programming for the first time. We find GPT-4 only achieves a 8.7% pass@1 accuracy with zero-shot chain-of-thought prompting, and our best inference method improves it to 20.2% using a combination of self-reflection and retrieval over episodic knowledge. However, this is far from solving the benchmark. To better understand the remaining challenges, we design a novel human-in-the-loop study and surprisingly find that a small number of targeted hints enable GPT-4 to solve 13 out of 15 problems previously unsolvable by any model and method. Our benchmark, baseline methods, quantitative results, and qualitative analysis serve as an initial step toward LMs with grounded, creative, and algorithmic reasoning.

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