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Guide for Opening a Secret Puzzle Box

• Date: April 7, 2024
• Time to read: 10 min.

Secret puzzle boxes, also known as mystery boxes or trick boxes, have captivated the minds of people for centuries.

These intriguing wooden contraptions are often beautifully crafted and can hold hidden treasures or messages inside.

Solving the puzzle to open the box can be a fascinating and rewarding experience, making them popular collectibles and unique gifts for puzzle enthusiasts.

The art of constructing and solving secret puzzle boxes dates back to ancient times, with examples found in many cultures worldwide.

The process of opening a secret puzzle box typically involves maneuvering, sliding, or rotating a series of wooden beams or panels in a specific sequence.

While some boxes can be opened relatively easily, others demand a keen eye for detail, patience, and persistence.

In this article, we will explore various techniques and strategies for unlocking these enigmatic boxes.

Whether you are an experienced puzzler or a newcomer to the world of secret puzzle boxes, this guide aims to help unravel the mystery and reveal the hidden treasures they may contain.

Table of Contents

Understanding Puzzle Boxes

Puzzle boxes are a unique and fascinating category of puzzles that challenge both the mind and dexterity.

They come in various shapes, sizes, and complexities, with varying degrees of difficulty. In this section, we’ll cover Japanese Puzzle Boxes, the materials and craftsmanship involved, and the types and difficulties available.

Japanese Puzzle Boxes

These beautifully crafted wooden puzzle boxes, also known as “himitsu-bako,” have been popular in Japan for centuries.

They often feature intricate designs, such as the traditional Japanese art of yosegi-zaiku, an inlay technique used to create decorative patterns with various shades of wood.

A Japanese puzzle box can have as few as 2 beams or as many as 4, impacting the complexity and the process of opening the box. The goal is to uncover the hidden compartments, which often house a gift or a small item.

Material and Craftsmanship

Wooden puzzle boxes are typically made from high-quality wood, such as mahogany, walnut, or cherry. Craftsmen use precise woodworking techniques and attention to detail to create these intricate objects.

The boxes can feature a variety of designs, including yosegi-zaiku inlays or other exquisite patterns, that make them as visually appealing as they are challenging.

Types and Difficulties

There is an extensive range of puzzle boxes available, with varying levels of complexity:

• Easy: Suitable for beginners, these boxes often require only a few steps to open and may have only a single hidden compartment.
• Intermediate: These boxes may require more moves to unlock, possibly including sliding and rotating pieces or using a specific sequence of actions.
• Difficult: For experienced puzzle enthusiasts, these boxes can involve many steps and complex mechanisms that require exceptional dexterity and problem-solving skills.

To open a puzzle box, one must examine the outer design, count the beams, and try different methods, such as rocking or jiggling, until the hidden compartment reveals itself.

By understanding the type and complexity of the puzzle box, you can better appreciate the process of opening it and the satisfaction it brings when the secret is finally unveiled.

Step-By-Step Guide to Unlocking Puzzle Boxes

Step 1: examining the box.

Start by carefully observing the puzzle box to identify its key features and components. Count the number of wooden beams surrounding the box, as this may provide clues for the unlocking process.

Different types of wooden puzzles have a varying number of beams, with some requiring extra steps for ‘opening’ if there are more beams.

Step 2: Finding Key Motions

Once you have analyzed the box, look for any possible patterns or key unlocking motions. These can often be found in the form of hidden sliders, buttons, or panels.

Determine the sequence of actions needed to unlock the box – think of aligning beams or locating the correct combination.

Step 3: Pressing and Sliding Techniques

Pressing and sliding certain components may be necessary to open the puzzle box. For boxes with fewer beams, the process is typically simpler, as it may only require minimal pressure applied on certain parts.

Conversely, boxes with more beams may require more complex pressing and sliding actions. It is crucial to maintain gentle pressure when handling the box, as forcing its elements could cause damage.

Step 4: Advanced Methods

Some puzzle boxes may require more advanced techniques to unlock. Knowledge of specific dimensions, unique patterns, or particular tools can be essential in successfully opening certain boxes.

If you find yourself stuck, do not hesitate to consult additional resources like tutorials or videos to obtain further guidance on unlocking the box. Remember, patience and attention to detail are key factors in solving a puzzle box.

Additional Unlocking Strategies

Force and handling.

When attempting to open a secret puzzle box, it’s important to handle it gently while observing its components.

Applying too much force might damage the box or the delicate mechanisms within. Be mindful of any wooden beams or joints, since they can provide helpful clues to the box’s unlocking process.

If there’s a ring or other piece of jewelry inside the box, it’s especially important to avoid using excessive force to protect the contents of the box.

Using Jiggling and Rocking Motions

One technique to consider when attempting to open a puzzle box is using jiggling and rocking motions.

Often, secret compartments within wooden boxes are designed to open only when a certain series of movements are performed.

By gently jiggling or rocking the box, the user might be able to discover these necessary actions and unlock the hidden compartment.

• Jiggling : Use slight side-to-side or circular motions. Listen for clicks or other sounds that may indicate the box’s internal mechanism is responding.
• Rocking : Holding the box securely, gently rock it back and forth. Be attentive to any shifting components or changes in the box’s feel.

Leveraging Magnets

Some puzzle boxes employ magnets in their locking mechanism. In such cases, using a magnet can help unlock the secret compartment.

Approach this method with caution, as strong magnets might damage other components inside the box or affect a house’s magnetic field. When using magnets, follow these steps:

• Slowly move the magnet around the surface of the wooden box, taking note of any areas where it feels particularly attracted.
• Focus on these areas and try adjusting the position of the magnet. This might trigger the release of the locking mechanism.
• Check for any assembly or disassembly clues during this process, as they can offer additional insights into how the box opens.

Remember, a gentle touch and patience are key when trying to solve a puzzle box. By exploring these additional unlocking strategies, users can increase their chances of revealing the treasure hidden inside the secret compartments.

Puzzle Box Designs and Uses

Puzzle boxes come in various intricate designs and serve multiple purposes. Some boxes are themed, while others are rare, making them highly sought after by collectors.

Themed and Rare Puzzle Boxes

Themed puzzle boxes often draw inspiration from various cultures and symbols.

For instance, Japanese puzzle boxes showcase sophisticated craftsmanship with their detailed wooden patterns, requiring multiple hidden steps to be opened.

Other examples include puzzle boxes shaped like pineapples , animals, or heart designs.

Rare puzzle boxes can be limited editions or customized by artists, making them valuable additions to collections.

These rare boxes may include a ball -lifting mechanism, exceptional materials, or unique designs. Some may even come with a plush velvet interior, adding an extra layer of luxury.

Usage as Souvenirs and Decor

Puzzle boxes are popular souvenirs, especially when traveling to regions with a rich history of crafting these intricate items, such as Japanese puzzle boxes . Intricate designs, vibrant colors, and culturally significant symbols increase their appeal as decorations.

In addition, they can make excellent conversation pieces when displayed in one’s home. Common themes include nature-inspired elements, such as island landscapes, or intricate patterns resembling traditional art or statues .

Storage for Valuables

Beyond their decorative nature, puzzle boxes also serve as functional storage. They can hold small valuables like jewelry, coins, or sentimental mementos.

The boxes’ unique locking mechanisms add an extra layer of security, as they require specific steps to be unlocked, deterring any casual tampering.

The sense of mystery and exclusivity provided by these boxes makes them ideal for safely storing cherished items.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you solve a japanese yosegi puzzle box.

Japanese Yosegi Puzzle Boxes are known for their intricate design and sliding mechanisms. To solve one, examine the box carefully for any movable parts or notches.

Slide these parts in a specific sequence to gradually reveal the hidden compartment. Note that every Yosegi Puzzle Box may have a unique solution, so practice patience to solve it.

What are some solutions for wooden puzzle boxes?

Wooden puzzle boxes come in various types and designs. Some solutions may involve sliding panels, rotating parts, or using a combination of moves.

A common approach is to inspect the box and locate any movable pieces, then experiment with different sequences to unlock the secret compartment. Websites like WikiHow offer step-by-step instructions for specific designs.

How can I unlock a wooden money puzzle box?

Unlocking a wooden money puzzle box may require a combination of moves. First, examine the box for any movable parts and try sliding or rotating them.

Next, investigate if the pieces fit together to reveal the hidden compartment. Keep experimenting with different combinations until you discover the solution.

What is the technique to open a Moroccan puzzle box?

Moroccan puzzle boxes often feature a locking mechanism hidden within one or more sliding panels.

To open the box, locate the hidden panel(s) and slide them in the correct sequence.

Pay attention to the design and craftsmanship, as clues might be integrated within the decorations on the box. As with other puzzle boxes, patience and a keen eye for detail are essential.

Can you provide guidance on opening a Chinese puzzle box?

Chinese puzzle boxes often involve sliding panels or hidden compartments. Like other puzzle boxes, start by examining the box for any obvious clues or movable parts.

Experiment by sliding panels or rotating pieces in different positions to reveal the hidden compartment. Keep in mind that each Chinese puzzle box might have a unique solution, so patience is key.

What is the solution for an impossible box puzzle?

Impossible box puzzles are designed to be incredibly difficult, sometimes seeming unsolvable. The solution to these puzzles often involves locating hidden or disguised compartments, panels, or mechanisms.

Persistence and a keen eye for detail are crucial when attempting to solve an impossible box puzzle. Keep exploring and testing different combinations until you deduce the solution.

Key Takeaways

When attempting to open a secret puzzle box, it’s important to carefully observe and analyze the box and its components. Look for any clues or hints that may provide insight on how to unlock it.

Puzzle boxes may have a series of intricate moves, such as sliding, unlocking, lifting, and pressing to reveal their hidden compartment 1 .

Counting the number of wooden beams surrounding the box can help to determine the complexity of the opening process 2 . Boxes with four beams usually require additional steps compared to those with only two beams.

Remember never to use force when manipulating a puzzle box, as its pieces should move easily if they are meant to 3 .

Some puzzle boxes may even have hidden levers or openings that need to be located and manipulated in order to unlock the box 4 . Patience and attention to detail are key in discovering these hidden mechanisms.

By following these tips and practicing with different types of puzzle boxes, you can become skilled in opening them and enjoy the challenge they provide.

https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/puzzles/puzzle-box.htm ↩

https://www.wikihow.com/Open-a-Puzzle-Box ↩

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gOLhL04SB8 ↩

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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

Level 7 sequential discovery puzzle box​

Made from original LEGO® bricks​

Find the  GOLDEN BAR  to complete the challenge

CAN YOU HANDLE IT?..

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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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!

Sarah Mind Tools Coach

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The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Workweek and Lifestyle Design Blog. Tim is an author of 5 #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers, investor (FB, Uber, Twitter, 50+ more), and host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast (400M+ downloads)

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.  

Related and Recommended

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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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”

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 ...

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Best Puzzle Subscriptions

Buffalo Games is our top puzzle subscription pick due to its customized puzzles

Puzzle subscription boxes offer a great way for both adults and children to challenge their minds and amuse themselves. The hands-on activity provides for hours of fun, and the boxes make it easy to enjoy new types of puzzles for all different skill levels, some with special themes or accompanying kids' activities.

When you sign up for one of these puzzle subscriptions, you can have a brand-new puzzle delivered to your doorstep each month. Learn more about the best puzzle subscription boxes here.

Best Puzzle Subscription Boxes of 2024

• Best Overall: Buffalo Games Monthly Puzzle Subscription
• Best Budget: Puzzle Warehouse Puzzle of the Month Club
• Best for Cubers: Puzzlcrate
• Best for Borrowing: Completing the Puzzle
• Best for Masters: The Thinker Box
• Best for Families: Puzzle Culture
• Best for Beginners: MicroPuzzles
• Best for Wooden Puzzles: Hoefnagel Wooden Puzzle Club
• Our Top Picks
• Buffalo Games Monthly Puzzle Subscription
• Puzzle Warehouse Puzzle of the Month Club
• Completing the Puzzle
• The Thinker Box
• Puzzle Culture
• MicroPuzzles

Hoefnagel Wooden Puzzle Club

• See More (5)

Final Verdict

• Compare Products
• Guide to Choosing

Methodology

Best overall : buffalo games monthly puzzle subscription.

 Buffalo Games

• Cost : Starts at $62 for a six-month subscription
• Free shipping : One-time shipping fee
• Features : Highly customizable boxes

Buffalo Games allows you to choose your preferred style and puzzle image, the number of puzzle pieces, and the length of your subscription.

Customizable for varying skill sets

Subscription makes puzzles very affordable

Printed on premium quality recycled materials

Have to sign up for at least six-month subscription

No universal return policy

Buffalo Games & Puzzles has been in the puzzling business since 1986, so it knows how to keep the whole family entertained. There are three different tiers for Buffalo Games subscriptions: 300- to 500-piece puzzles, 750- to 1,000-piece puzzles, and 2,000-piece puzzles.

Puzzles are printed on thick, durable graphic boards, and the company is licensed to reproduce some of your favorite images, whether it’s a watercolor landscape by a popular artist or a dizzying assortment of Coca-Cola bottles.

Unlike many other subscription boxes, this membership isn’t available on a month-to-month basis—you have to commit to either six or 12 months upfront. The cheapest option, featuring 300- to 500-piece puzzles, costs $62 for a six-month subscription; the 2,000-piece subscription is $105 for six months. When you break it down, though, the puzzles cost about $15 each, a bargain when compared with buying individual puzzles. 

There is a one-time shipping fee, and members receive an email at the start of every month allowing them to choose between three puzzle options, so you’ll always get a puzzle you actually want to work on. This is one of the best ways to get high-quality puzzles on a regular—and affordable—basis.

Best Budget : Puzzle Warehouse Puzzle of the Month Club

 Puzzle Warehouse

• Cost : Starts at about $20 per month
• Free shipping: Yes, except for Alaska and Hawaii
• Features : Wide selection for several skill sets

Puzzle Warehouse Puzzle of the Month Club has a great selection of puzzles at affordable rates, with more than one subscription option.

Pick your challenge level

Swap out selection if you don’t like a puzzle

Choose from a number of puzzle brands

Can choose monthly or bi-monthly

Reasonable monthly cost

Refund not possible when canceling yearly subscriptions

Puzzle Warehouse is a well-established online retailer of jigsaw puzzles from all over the country, so you know it has a great selection. With the Puzzle of the Month Club, you can take advantage of all the hard work the company has done to collect the coolest puzzles around.

You pick the challenge level (300, 500, or 1,000 pieces) and Puzzle Warehouse will send you a new puzzle every month. It promises that none of the puzzles are too niche for the average puzzler. In other words, there are no fluffy unicorn or anime puzzles, but you still have several ways to swap out that month’s selection if you’re not into it. 

A standard membership is $20 per month and gives you your choice of thousands of puzzles from top brands. You also can choose the bi-monthly membership for $35 per shipment and access even more. The low cost is enough for us to choose this subscription as our budget pick.

As a member, you get free shipping on any puzzle you order from their site when you bundle it with your monthly club shipment, regardless of how much you spend.

Best for Cubers : Puzzlcrate

 Puzzlcrate

• Cost : Starts at about $30 per month
• Free shipping: No; $3 per box in the U.S.
• Features : Handheld, mechanical puzzles

This is a good option for people who like hand-held puzzles rather than massive jigsaw puzzles.

Many handheld puzzle options

Get gifts in first box

Monthly subscription auto-renews

No jigsaw puzzle options

Not into jigsaws, but still like to give the ol’ noggin a good workout from time to time? Then you might be a “cuber”—someone who likes handheld puzzles like Rubik’s Cubes. If this is you, Puzzlcrate has got you covered.

When you sign up for a Puzzlcrate subscription, you’ll receive a new twisty puzzle to obsess over every month. How many twisty puzzles can there possibly be out there, you wonder? Trust us. There are lots .

The inventory page on Puzzlcrate is loaded with handheld puzzles in all different shapes and sizes, promising to stretch the limits of your brain in totally different ways. You might not know what a dodecahedron is now, but you will if you sign up for Puzzlcrate.

Subscriptions to Puzzlcrate start at $30 per month with a $3 shipping fee in the U.S. You always get one twisty puzzle and one description card in each box. However, your first box also includes a few fun puzzle-themed gifts like cube lube, which loosens up any tough-to-manipulate puzzles and makes them easier to twist and turn.

Best for Borrowing : Completing the Puzzle

Puzzlcrate 

• Cost : Starts at $28 per month
• Free shipping: Yes
• Features : Sustainable puzzle swap program

Completing the Puzzle is ideal because it’s a swap program for people who don’t want to become puzzle hoarders.

Easy puzzle swap program so no puzzle accumulation

Choose your skill set

Take as long as you need with your puzzle

Sustainable/reduces waste

Puzzles well-sanitized before you receive them

Free shipping and returns

Will buy your previously owned puzzles too

You’re charged for missing puzzle pieces

Monthly charge even when you keep a puzzle longer than a month

Completing the Puzzle works like a magical puzzle library. When you sign up for a membership to this family-owned online business, the company sends you a puzzle in your chosen challenge level—beginner, intermediate, and expert. You put the puzzle together, send it back with a prepaid shipping label when you’re done, and then Completing the Puzzle sends you another puzzle. Just like that!

You can take as long as you need to with your puzzle, meaning you can spend two months working on it or just a few days. Yup, it’s unlimited puzzles for those of you that are super speedy.

What we love about the service offered with this subscription is that it’s sustainable and reduces waste, and there are a lot of features built-in for your peace of mind. The staff thoroughly checks every puzzle for missing pieces but will assist you ASAP if you find yours is missing one. If you lose a piece, the first time, the fee is waived. After that, there’s a $5 fee.

Subscriptions start at $28 per month for a six-month subscription. Shipping is free, and there’s even a puzzle buyback option if you want to receive a little extra credit on your account.

Best for Masters : The Thinker Box

 Kubiya Games

• Cost : $36 per month when you subscribe for 12 months
• Free shipping : Yes, except for Alaska and Hawaii
• Features : Handheld puzzles that will challenge pros

The Thinker Box puzzles offer a challenge to highly skilled puzzle wizards looking for one. You can select these wooden puzzles in age-appropriate categories.

Puzzles for more advanced users

“Master” level subscription available

Variety of puzzle styles

Get up to two puzzles in a box

Free shipping

Not for jigsaw puzzle lovers

On the expensive side

Can you complete a Rubik’s Cube in five minutes flat? Solve marble mazes with ease? Laugh in the face of 2,000-piece puzzles? If so, we have a subscription for you, courtesy of the puzzle masterminds at Kubiya Games, Brooklyn-based makers of wooden mechanical puzzles, brain games, and escape room puzzles.

There are varying levels of subscriptions to Kubiya Games’ puzzle boxes, but The Thinker Box is for “masters,” meaning this isn’t your grandpa’s old wooden puzzle box. These puzzles are level four or five (five being the highest) challenges made for the most committed of puzzlers, chosen from Kubiya Games’ most popular wooden mechanical puzzles.

Each box comes with one or two mechanical puzzles—think mazes, locks, and cubes—along with step-by-step solutions and a sticker.  Each subscription box is $36 per month with a 12-month subscription. Shorter durations cost slightly more. You don’t have to commit upfront, and you can cancel or change your plan at any time. Honestly, good luck!

Best for Families : Puzzle Culture

 Puzzle Culture

• Cost : Starts at roughly $40 per box for annual subscription
• Free shipping: No, charge is $7 per box
• Features : Themed puzzles with gifts

Puzzle Culture offers yearly or quarterly plans, with curated puzzle boxes and extra puzzle-themed gifts.

Themed puzzle boxes

Puzzle-themed gifts come with jigsaw puzzle

Challenge cards

1,000-piece puzzles showcase independent artists’ work

No free shipping

Puzzle Culture subscriptions are available in both quarterly and yearly options. Staff curate boxes around different themes, ranging from food to world culture to nature.

Along with a 1,000-piece puzzle, each box comes with three to five puzzle-themed gifts—tees, pins, trinkets, household items, and more—all matched to either the artwork of the puzzle or to the unique interests of puzzle lovers. You'll also get a challenge card, which offers a different way to approach piecing together your puzzle.

A quarterly subscription is $45 plus $7 shipping per box. The 12-month prepay option is $160 plus shipping, or $40 per box.

Best for Beginners : MicroPuzzles

 MicroPuzzles

• Cost : Starts at close to $20 per month for an annual subscription
• Features : Simple, small puzzles

The MicroPuzzles company specializes in small, simple puzzles that are great for puzzle newbies, like young kids.   

Two easy puzzles a month

Relatively inexpensive 

Makes a great gift

Not for experts

Can’t change puzzle out if you don’t like it

Whether you’re shopping for a kid or a beginner puzzler, a MicroPuzzles subscription box is a great way to help someone dip their toes into the wide world of puzzling. MicroPuzzles’ specialty is eye-catching mini-puzzles that can be done in just an hour or two, making an impact on your coffee table but not on your time or budget.

MicroPuzzles will send you two mini puzzles of 150 pieces each, packaged in a cute and convenient test tube for easy storage. Once completed, the puzzles are 4 by 6 inches in size and feature bright, colorful, kid-friendly designs.

The designs are usually themed and are also exclusive to MicroPuzzles. In fact, they can’t be found anywhere else, so you’re getting unique artwork.

A monthly subscription starts at $24 per month with shipping included. MicroPuzzles says it occasionally tosses in extra puzzle goodies and accessories from time to time, making this a solid choice for the occasional puzzler or puzzle-loving kid in your life.

Best for Wooden Puzzles : Hoefnagel Wooden Puzzle Club

• Cost: $30 to $34 per month
• Free shipping: No, $10 shipping charge per two-puzzle pack
• Features: High-quality laser or hand-cut wooden puzzles

Your subscription means you can receive as many new, high-quality, durable wooden puzzles as you like with a monthly membership.

You can choose from a library of over 1,000 puzzles

Durable, aesthetically pleasing puzzles

Keep the puzzles as long as you like

Have to send puzzles back to get new ones

The Hoefnagel wooden puzzle subscription is based on a library of more than 1,000 different hand-cut or laser-cut wooden puzzles. You can receive two as often as you like to keep as long as you need. Simply sign up for one of its monthly or annual rental periods and before you know it, you’ll get something beautiful in the mail. Each time you send a puzzle back, you’ll receive another from your wish list.

It’s worth noting that you are renting the puzzles—you can’t keep them indefinitely—and you will have to pay $10 in shipping to return the puzzle each time. The same fee applies if you request more than one pack per month. Wooden puzzles aren’t cheap to buy, so this rental might be a good option.

The Buffalo Games & Puzzles monthly puzzle subscription earned top marks because it offers so much variety, is customizable for different skill sets, and allows you to pick the puzzle you get every month. But you can't go wrong with any of the subscription boxes on this list.

Whether you're a master or trying your hand at a 1,000-piece puzzle for the first time, there's a great option for you. MicroPuzzles are a great pick for young kids, while Kubiya Games' Thinker Box options are an expert challenge. Every puzzle subscription box on this list comes with some very cool, fun puzzles that will no doubt up your game time.

Compare the Best Puzzle Subscription Boxes

Guide to choosing the best puzzle subscription boxes.

Puzzle subscription boxes can be an excellent family bonding activity. They can foster collaboration and teamwork, and they can boost your child’s problem-solving skills. 

Just bear in mind that not all puzzles are appropriate if you have young children that like to put things in their mouths. If you have a child under 2, keep your puzzles well out of reach and make sure you don’t drop pieces (or wait until your child is older, then look for puzzles made for preschoolers ).

What to Look for in a Puzzle Subscription

If you’re considering a puzzle subscription, there are a few things to consider, including:

• Cost: Puzzles aren’t generally that expensive to buy individually, ranging in price from $12 to $40 or more, depending on how many pieces they have. So when you’re looking for a puzzle subscription, make sure you’re actually saving on the per-puzzle cost or, at the very least, getting something with value. Some subscriptions allow you to “rent” the puzzle rather than buy it.
• Payment renewal: Some puzzle subscriptions renew every month, while others renew every three, six, or even 12 months. Make sure you’re considering how often you want to be billed. It might be more cost-effective to sign up for a 12-month subscription, but you’ll likely have to pay for the whole year upfront and may not be eligible for a refund if you change your mind later.
• Puzzle difficulty: If you’re an expert with puzzles, you might relish the challenge of a 2,000-piece puzzle, but if you’re shopping for kids or the whole family, consider a difficulty level that's appropriate for everyone.
• Artwork: Some puzzle subscriptions offer cool or unique artwork that might be hard to find in a store.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should i buy a puzzle subscription.

With most subscription boxes, a membership gets you some kind of discount on the products included. For example, a new 2,000-piece Buffalo Games & Puzzles puzzle bought online could cost between $20 and $30 plus shipping, as opposed to around $15 with the subscription. Subscriptions also offer unique designs and products.

Are Puzzles Good for Your Child's Development?

As long as your child is past the age where puzzle pieces are a choking hazard, puzzles can be a great activity for kids. They can teach your child cognitive and problem-solving skills , logical reasoning, discipline, and pattern recognition. Handling small pieces also helps them work on their fine motor skills .

How Often Will I Get a Puzzle?

Most puzzle subscription boxes are monthly. So, you’ll get one or two puzzles every 30 days, depending on the shipment schedule of the company you choose. Some subscriptions, though, are only delivered quarterly, while the lending subscription available through Completing the Puzzle is unlimited—you set the pace, getting a new puzzle each time you return one you've finished.

How Do I Buy Good Puzzles?

When shopping for good puzzles, first research products and reputable companies and learn about the materials used in making puzzles. You'll also want to choose puzzles that match the interests and skill level of those playing with them.

We looked for subscription boxes that not only offer different challenge levels to members—like beginner, intermediate, and expert—but also give you a lot of options when it comes to the artwork or themes featured. These boxes mix up their selections frequently and, in some cases, allow you to swap out that month’s puzzle for one that better suits your preferences.

Likewise, puzzles aren’t as inexpensive as many people expect them to be. A high-quality, 1,000-piece puzzle can cost at least $20 in a store or online, so a puzzle subscription box should offer you decent savings along with a large or unique selection of offerings. Whether it’s through other shop discounts, prepay options, or the inclusion of additional goodies, these seven boxes all maximize the value of your puzzling costs when you sign up.

Verywell Family / Design by Amelia Manley

By Sarah Bradley Sarah Bradley has been writing parenting content since 2017, after her third son was born. Since then, she has expanded her expertise to write about pregnancy and postpartum, childhood ages and stages, and general health conditions, including commerce articles for health products. Because she has been homeschooling her sons for seven years, she is also frequently asked to share homeschooling tips, tricks, and advice for parenting sites.

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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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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The New York Times

The upshot | a quick puzzle to test your problem solving.

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A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving

By DAVID LEONHARDT and YOU JULY 2, 2015

A short game sheds light on government policy, corporate America and why no one likes to be wrong. Related Article

Here’s how it works:

We’ve chosen a rule that some sequences of three numbers obey — and some do not. Your job is to guess what the rule is.

We’ll start by telling you that the sequence 2, 4, 8 obeys the rule:

Obeys the rule

Now it’s your turn. Enter a number sequence in the boxes below, and we’ll tell you whether it satisfies the rule or not. You can test as many sequences as you want.

Enter your first sequence here:

I don't want to play; just tell me the answer.

Guess wrong

The answer was extremely basic. The rule was simply: Each number must be larger than the one before it. 5, 10, 20 satisfies the rule, as does 1, 2, 3 and -17, 14.6, 845. Children in kindergarten can understand this rule.

But most people start off with the incorrect assumption that if we’re asking them to solve a problem, it must be a somewhat tricky problem. They come up with a theory for what the answer is, like: Each number is double the previous number. And then they make a classic psychological mistake.

They don’t want to hear the answer “no.” In fact, it may not occur to them to ask a question that may yield a no.

Remarkably, 80 percent of people who have played this game so far have guessed the answer without first hearing a single no. A mere 7 percent heard at least three nos — even though there is no penalty or cost for being told no, save the small disappointment that every human being feels when hearing “no.”

It’s a lot more pleasant to hear “yes.” That, in a nutshell, is why so many people struggle with this problem.

Confirmation Bias

This disappointment is a version of what psychologists and economists call confirmation bias. Not only are people more likely to believe information that fits their pre-existing beliefs, but they’re also more likely to go looking for such information. This experiment is a version of one that the English psychologist Peter Cathcart Wason used in a seminal 1960 paper on confirmation bias. (He used the even simpler 2, 4 and 6, rather than our 2, 4 and 8.)

Most of us can quickly come up with other forms of confirmation bias — and yet the examples we prefer tend to be, themselves, examples of confirmation bias. If you’re politically liberal, maybe you’re thinking of the way that many conservatives ignore strong evidence of global warming and its consequences and instead glom onto weaker contrary evidence. Liberals are less likely to recall the many incorrect predictions over the decades, often strident and often from the left, that population growth would create widespread food shortages. It hasn’t.

This puzzle exposes a particular kind of confirmation bias that bedevils companies, governments and people every day: the internal yes-man (and yes-woman) tendency. We’re much more likely to think about positive situations than negative ones, about why something might go right than wrong and about questions to which the answer is yes, not no.

Sometimes, the reluctance to think negatively has nothing to do with political views or with a conscious fear of being told no. Often, people never even think about asking questions that would produce a negative answer when trying to solve a problem — like this one. They instead restrict the universe of possible questions to those that might potentially yield a “yes.”

Government Policy

In this exercise, the overwhelming majority of readers gravitated toward confirming their theory rather than trying to disprove it. A version of this same problem compromised the Obama administration’s and Federal Reserve’s (mostly successful) response to the financial crisis. They were too eager to find “green shoots” of economic recovery that would suggest that the answer to the big question in their minds was, just as they hoped and believed: “Yes, the crisis response is aggressive enough, and it’s working.” More damaging was the approach that President George W. Bush’s administration, and others, took toward trying to determine whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction a decade ago — and how the Iraqi people would react to an invasion. Vice President Dick Cheney predicted in 2003, “We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.”

Corporate America

Corporate America is full of more examples. Executives of Detroit’s Big Three didn’t spend enough time brainstorming in the 1970s and 1980s about how their theory of the car market might be wrong. Wall Street and the Fed made the same mistake during the dot-com and housing bubbles. To pick an example close to home, newspapers didn’t spend enough time challenging the assumption that classified advertisements would remain plentiful for decades.

One of the best-selling business books in history — about negotiation strategy — is “Getting to Yes.” But the more important advice for us may instead be to go out of our way to get to no. When you want to test a theory, don’t just look for examples that prove it. When you’re considering a plan, think in detail about how it might go wrong.

Some businesses have made this approach a formal part of their decision-making: Imagine our strategy has failed; what are the most likely reasons it did? As Jason Zweig has written in The Wall Street Journal, “Gary Klein, a psychologist at Applied Research Associates, of Albuquerque, N.M., recommends imagining that you have looked into a crystal ball and have seen that your investment has gone bust.”

When you seek to disprove your idea, you sometimes end up proving it — and other times you can save yourself from making a big mistake. But you need to start by being willing to hear no. And even if you think that you are right, you need to make sure you’re asking questions that might actually produce an answer of no. If you still need to work on this trait, don’t worry: You’re only human.

Guess right

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Guppies in the puzzle box: innovative problem-solving by a teleost fish

• Original Article
• Published: 06 January 2021
• Volume 75 , article number  17 , ( 2021 )

Cite this article

• Alberto Mair   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9377-4723 1 ,
• Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato 2 &
• Angelo Bisazza 1  

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Behavioural innovations allow an individual to solve new problems or find new solutions to an existing problem. Despite being considered an important source of phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary changes, innovative problem-solving remains poorly understood, except in a few species of mammals and birds. We investigated innovative problem-solving performance and its underlying psychological mechanisms in a teleost fish, the guppy Poecilia reticulata . We assayed guppies in Thorndike’s puzzle-box problem: we placed them in a small chamber, where they had to learn to dislodge an object to access a tunnel leading to their home tank. Guppies showed heightened performance with most individuals (23 out of 24) solving the problem, within, on average, three trials. After a fish solved the task for the first time, improvement was still visible in the form of an increased likelihood to solve the problem over trials. An individual’s sex and willingness to solve the task were unimportant, but behavioural traits related to neophilia significantly predicted problem-solving performance. High exploration in a new environment and high attraction towards novel objects favoured the guppies in learning the task solution. Our finding suggested that this fish species shows remarkable performance and individuality in innovative problem-solving. As observed in warm-blooded vertebrates, these cognitive features may have important consequences for individual fitness and the species’ invasiveness in nature.

Significance statement

Behavioural innovation is an important mechanism that allows animals to adapt to their environment. Among the others, it permits solving new problems and obtaining new resources. However, innovative problem-solving remains poorly understood except for a few species of mammals and birds. Our study suggests that fish can learn a novel problem-solving task and improve over time to find the solution. Fish learned to dislodge an object to access a tunnel leading to their home tank. Problem-solving performance was linked to the propensity to explore novel objects and novel environments. Individuals with greater neophilia may have higher propensities for innovative problem-solving.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Elena Bortolotto for her help in testing the animals and to two anonymous reviewers for their comments.

Funding was provided by DOR grant from the University of Padova to AB.

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Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Alberto Mair & Angelo Bisazza

Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. AM and AB collected the data. TL-X performed statistical analysis. All authors wrote the manuscript and approved its final versions.

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Correspondence to Alberto Mair .

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Experiments were conducted in accordance with the law of the country in which they were performed (Italy, D.L. 4 Marzo 2014, n. 26). The Ethical Committee of the University of Padova reviewed and approved all the experimental procedures (protocol n. TLX2015).

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Mair, A., Lucon-Xiccato, T. & Bisazza, A. Guppies in the puzzle box: innovative problem-solving by a teleost fish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 75 , 17 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02953-7

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Received : 07 September 2020

Revised : 10 December 2020

Accepted : 15 December 2020

Published : 06 January 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02953-7

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To get the best possible solution, we uses 3 types of algorithm with an iteration limit of up to only 5,000. Our AI-powered solver find and save the shortest path of all solved problems and matches these path faces with the new path to reuse the solution, that way it gives answers in second and less iteration.

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50+ Puzzle Reasoning questions with Answers । Logical Reasoning Puzzle

Puzzle reasoning questions are questions or tasks that require the use of logical thinking and analytical skills to solve a puzzle or brainteaser. These types of questions are often found in competitive exams, aptitude tests or job interviews as a way to assess a person’s problem-solving abilities. In this post, covered most important 50+ Puzzle Reasoning questions with Answers that help to enough practice of Puzzle reasoning questions for government exam. Let’s start some basic to hard examples of Puzzle Reasoning questions and Answers

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• Puzzle Reasoning Questions For Competitive Exam
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Puzzle reasoning is the process of solving puzzles which is already confused in a given question, generally this questions solved by creating table and diagram formatted data which is quite challenging and to be much difficult to solve, often requiring logical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Puzzles can be in many different forms, such as crosswords, word searches, riddles, or math problems. Puzzle reasoning involves using various strategies and techniques to analyze and understand the puzzle, and then coming up with a solution. It can be a fun and engaging way to exercise the mind and improve problem-solving skills.

• Read the question carefully and make sure you understand what is being asked.
• Break the problem down into smaller pieces and work on each piece separately.
• Look for patterns or trends in the data provided.
• Draw the multiple diagrams according to their given possibilities
• Find the correct diagram, which is fit in all given statement.
• Once you found correct diagram, start to Solve their parent questions.

Q.1-3. Study the following information carefully and answer the question given below: There are five batsmen A, B, C, D and E who have scored the number of centuries and have taken the different number of innings while each batsman has a different total score. D has scored the highest number of centuries but has not taken the maximum number of innings among them. The person who scores least total runs takes the highest number of innings. The person who has taken least innings has also made least number of centuries but scores highest total runs. A takes less innings than C and E. E takes less innings than only B and D. C scores total runs more than D but scores less number of centuries than B and D. E sores total runs more than only B. E takes less innings than D and has scored more centuries than only A.

Q-1 Among the following persons who scores highest number of total runs? (1) B (2) C (3) D (4) E (5) A

Q-2 Who among the following is highest and lowest scorer respectively? (1) A,B (2) D,E (3) C,D (4) B,C (5) E,C

Q-3 How many persons take less innings than D to score more runs than D? (1) One (2) Two (3) More than two (4) None (5) Cannot be determined

Q.4-5 . Read the given information carefully and answer the questions given below: Nine friends P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W and X are organising a party in three different months among January, March and April but not necessarily in the same order. The party held on three different dates like 15th, 16th and 17th of each month. No two friends organise the party on the same date of the same month. Only two friends organising the party before W. Three friends organise the party between Q and X. U organises the party on 16th of the month which has less than 31 days. Q’s party is after W and not on an odd date. R and X organise the party in the same month. Only two friends organising the party between R and S. T does not organise the party on an odd date but organises the party after P.

Q-4 How many person are organizing the party between Q and U? (1) One (2) Two (3) Three (4) Four (5) None of these

Q-5 Whose party is on the 15th of April? (1) X (2) U (3) P (4) R (5) None of these

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Rubiks cube solver with camera, jam soft llc, designed for ipad.

• 4.7 • 260.1K Ratings
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Description.

Take a photo of your Rubik's Cube with the camera and see how to solve the puzzle. The app uses the camera to recognize and solve puzzles: - 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube (Magic Cube, Speed Cube, Puzzle Cube) - 2x2x2 Pocket Cube (Mini Cube) - 4x4x4 Rubik's Revenge (Master Cube) - 5x5x5 Professor's Cube - Pyraminx (Meffet's Pyramid) - Megaminx - Rubik's Void Cube - Skewb - 1x2x3 Puzzle 123 - 2x3x3 Domino - Ivy Cube - Kilominx without centers - Kilominx with centers - Dino Cube - 2x2x3 Tower new puzzles will be ready soon. Scan the puzzle with your camera and ASolver will walk you through the steps to solve it in minutes! You can solve the puzzle by looking at the interactive model. Or see a list of moves that solve the puzzle. The camera is not always able to recognize the puzzle, for example in poor lighting or due to glare. This is not a problem - the puzzle can easily be entered in manual mode. For simple puzzles (2x2x2, 2x2x3, 2x3x3, 1x2x3, Skewb, Ivy, Pyraminx, Dino) ASolver finds the optimal solution with the minimum possible number of moves. The solution of the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube and the 3x3x3 Void Cube is very close to optimal. For a well tangled puzzle, that's about 19 moves. For 4x4x4, 5x5x5, Kilominx with and without centers, and Megaminx the optimal solution is unknown, so nobody knows :) A well-tangled: - 4x4x4 on average is solved in 48 moves - 5x5x5 in 83 moves - Kilominx with centers in 35 moves - Kilominx without centers in 33 moves. ASolver is the solution to any puzzle.

Version 24.05.011

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260.1K Ratings

I just wanted to say that I love this app. I really wanted to solve one of my Rubiks cubes that have had fallen apart. I thought then I put it back together correctly but I guess I didn’t. So it wouldn’t let me do that Rubiks cube. But then I tried it on another Rubik’s cube, that had not fallen apart. And it worked it was so nice! So I think that this app is really good if you want to solve your Rubiks cube. It’s nice because it works with a lot of Rubiks cubes and it’s nice because you can just take a picture of your Rubiks cube side and you don’t have to like press the color that you want on like that space you can do it manually if you want it gives you the option which is nice also but you don’t have to. So I gave this a five star review because I love it! Hope this help you and hope you can solve your Rubiks cube! Have a great day or have a great night! Or even a great week!

Doesn’t work on megaminx

I have some rubik’s cube apps that make me feel better about not being able to solve my megaminx. I tested this app on one of the fake ones (3x3) and it works fine. But for some reason it won’t work on a megaminx. So when I try to do the megaminx with the camera it just says there’s an error. I tried different lighting, I made sure I turned the “cube” correctly, none of it worked. You know, It’s kind of weird that they call it a rubik’s *cube* even though it’s really a pentagon/polygon. I guess that’s why they have names such as Megaminx, or Pyraminx… Anyways, I tried doing Manual Input but it said “Wrong orientation of corner piece”. This really confused me because, well, isn’t it supposed to look like *your* rubik’s cube? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Meanwhile, none of this happened with the 3x3, besides once when it said the lighting wasn’t right, but then I did it again and it worked just fine. Please fix this. Sorry you had to listen to me blabber about how bad the Megaminx works for about a million years… I suppose that’s why we write reviews, but still.

DON’T GET THIS APP!!!

When I downloaded this app I had high hopes in it cause of all the reviews but the app was not as good as I was expecting it does solve the cubes and has more options that other apps but the camera option is what made it a 1 star you have to have perfect lighting and a perfect angle just for 1 color to be a different one and then you move the cube like 1 milliliter and the whole thing changes color!!! Then when you go back a few days later to solve another cube you select one and then it gives you a screen that says something like “Best option $10 a month for unlimited solves,” Sometimes it gives you the option to watch an add to solve the cube so then it gives you like a 5 minute long add of a random dude talking about a random game and then you can solve it by wasting 5 minutes of your day just to solve a Rubik’s cube like I have way better results just by taking off the stickers and half the time 1 of the colors changes to another one so the cube doesn’t even get solved properly! I have deleted and redownloaded this app so many times just to not watch a 15 minute long Royal Match add! AGAIN DON’T DOWNLOAD!!!

App Privacy

The developer, Jam Soft LLC , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

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Information

• Puzzles unlimited $1.49
• 10 puzzles $0.99
• Puzzles unlimited $6.99
• Developer Website
• App Support
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NYT Connections Answers And Hints - May 1, 2024 Solution #325

Need a hand with today's particularly difficult Connections puzzle?

Quick Links

Category hints, today's answers.

It's a new day and that means a new puzzle wall to solve in the New York Times's Connections game. If you're looking to save your streak and only want to nail down that last pesky category, don't worry - we have all the hints you could need.

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You'll find everything you need below, from vague hints as to what you should be looking for to the outright answers. Whether you're looking for a nudge in the right direction or a sneaky way to preserve your blemish-free record, you've come to the right place.

If you're here by mistake and instead need the answers for April 30 , click here .

Today's puzzle is very difficult.

We'll present these hints from the easiest category to the hardest , as prescribed by the puzzle itself - Yellow, Green, Blue, then Purple.

If you want today's category hints, click below ! These will not spoil the actual names of the categories but will nudge you in the right direction.

Today's yellow category deals with popular legwear. Think Levi's.

Today's green category is mathematical. Think about how things are viewed based on the number of dimensions they have.

Today's blue category deals with the methods we use to access the internet. You'll be using one right now.

Today's purple category deals with a particular genre of music and a specific era. Think 'bands in their singular' and a random, lone Muppet.

Herring Watch : We thought there might be an 'Out Of _____' category, but no such luck.

Today's puzzle took us quite a while to figure out, and we had to take multiple punts.

If you want today's answers, click below !

Today's answers are listed below:

Yellow Category : Features On A Pair Of Jeans

Button, Fly, Pocket, Rivet

Green Category : Objects In 0-, 1-, 2-, And 3-Dimensional Space

Line, Plane, Point, Solid

Blue Category : Web Browser Menus

File, History, View, Window

Purple Category : Member Of A '60s Band

Animal, Door, Kink, Supreme

Mobile Games That Can Improve Your Vocabulary