riddles

120+ Riddles with Answers for All Age Groups to Solve [2020]

If you’re looking for a good riddle, you’ve come to the right place. Riddles are fun for kids and adults of all ages who are looking to test their genius and are trying to challenge their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

There are tons of fun brain teasers and riddles out there: ones that are simple and easy for a child to solve, ones that require a detailed explanation in order for the answer to make sense, and ones that are so tricky that they might be nearly impossible to solve. 

Here is a full list of easy, tricky, challenging, and funny riddles that kids, math students, teens, and adults will enjoy:

Easy Riddles

Easy, simple riddles are great for kids both in and out of the classroom. By incorporating easy riddles in the lesson plans or adding a math riddle to the end of a math quiz, or playing a math-related guessing game with your child, they can learn and elevate their thinking in a fun, untraditional way. Kids can challenge themselves and strengthen their problem-solving abilities without even realizing it! 

Here are some riddles that a child will find easy to answer:

riddles

Which word is least like the others? Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth?

Third, it is the only one not ending in “th”

riddles with answers

What is the last thing you take off before bed? 

Your feet from the floor!

1 rabbit saw 9 elephants while going to the river.  Every elephant saw 3 monkeys going toward the river. Each monkey had 1 parrot in each hand. How many animals are going towards the river?

10 animals are going towards the river. (1 rabbit + 3 monkeys + 6 parrots)

riddles with answers

What word in the English language has three consecutive double letters? (Clue: it’s a compound word.)

Bookkeeper.

riddles with answers

How many letters are in the alphabet?

There are 11 letters in “the alphabet”.

What kind of room has no windows or doors? 

A mushroom!

Tricky Riddles

Here are some examples of riddles that are quite tricky for kids and easier for teens and adults to answer

There is a single-story yellow and pink house and everything is yellow and pink: yellow bricks, yellow doors, yellow windows, yellow walls, a pink cat, a pink fish, a pink computer, a pink chair, a pink table, a pink telephone, a pink shower. What color is the staircase?

There are no stairs. It’s a one-story house.

You walk into a creepy house by yourself. There is no electricity, plumbing or ventilation. Inside you notice 3 doors with numbers on them. Once you open the doors you will die a particular way. Door #1 You’ll be eaten by a lion who is hungry. Door #2 You’ll be stabbed to death. Door #3 There is an electric chair waiting for you. Which door do you pick?

Door #3, since there is no electricity to harm you. 

riddles with answersAll 5 sisters are busy. Ann is reading a book, Rose is cooking, Katy is playing chess, and Mary is doing the laundry. What is the 5th sister doing?

She’s playing chess, of course! 

Three doctors said that Robert is their brother. Robert says he has no brothers. Who’s lying?

No one is lying – Robert has 3 sisters who all happen to be doctors. 

Mom and dad have four daughters, and each daughter has one brother. How many people are in the family?

7.

riddles with answersA man was found murdered on Sunday morning. His wife immediately called the police. The police went to the crime scene and question the wife and staff and got these alibis: The wife said she was sleeping, the cook was eating breakfast, the gardener was picking vegetables, the maid was getting the mail, the butler was cleaning the closet. The police instantly arrested the murderer. Who did it and how did they know?

It was the Maid. She said she was getting the mail but there’s no mail on Sundays!

Challenging Riddles

Here are a few great riddles to try out if you’re looking to really elevate your thinking:

The person who makes it has no need of it; the person who buys it has no use for it. The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?

A coffin. 

A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states, “Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is the man in the picture in relation to the man looking at the picture?

The man in the picture is his son (the man’s son). Since he doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, the statement my father’s son is himself. A shortened version would be this man’s father is myself, so he is the father of the man in the picture.

riddles with answersA man is found hanging dead from the ceiling of a room. The room’s dimensions are 15 x 15 x 15. The man is only 6ft tall and the rope was only 2ft long. There are no windows and only one door into the room. The door is bolted shut from the inside and there is a puddle of water under the man. How did he kill himself?

The man stood on a block of ice.

The answer I give is yes, but what I mean is no. What was the question?

“Do you mind?”

Popular Riddles 

The following riddles have gone viral for how complicated they are. They’re not the best for any child (unless they have a super high IQ), but more so adults who are looking for a good brain teaser. 

Einstein’s Hard Riddle

Now, if you’re really up for a challenge, here is Albert Einstein’s riddle, a logic puzzle that is believed to be developed when he was young. The best way to find the answer to this riddle is through logic and deductive reasoning. 

Think you can solve it? 

Five houses painted five different colors stand in a row. One person of a different nationality lives in each house. The five homeowners all drink some type of beverage, smoke a certain cigar brand, and have a certain kind of pet. But none of the owners drink the same beverage, smoke the same type of cigar, or have the same pet.

Here are the clues:

  1. The Brit lives in the red house.
    2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
    3. The Dane drinks tea.
    4. The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
    5. The green house’s owner drinks coffee.
    6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
    7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
    8. The owner living in the center house drinks milk.
    9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
    10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
    11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
    12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
    13. The German smokes Prince.
    14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
    15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water.

Now, the question is…Who owns the fish?

Think you figured out the answer to this difficult riddle? Well, here it is:

The German in house #4 owns the fish.

riddles with answers

The Sphinx Riddle

There is a mythological story of a Sphinx, a monster with the body of a lion and the head of a woman. Apparently, the Sphinx sat on top of a rock along the road to the city of Thebes, stopping travelers and proposing to them a riddle. The Sphinx claimed that whoever failed the riddle would be killed, and evidently, not pass through to the city. 

This is the riddle

What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs during the day, and three legs in the evening?

Oedipus, the king of Thebes, figured out the answer to the riddle:

Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff. (Morning, day and night are representative of the stages of life.)

riddles with answers

Here is the full list of easy, tricky, challenging, and funny riddles that kids, teens, and adults will enjoy:

More Riddles

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. January graduated with an English and Literature degree from Columbia University.