50 Riddles & Brain Teasers Quiz Questions and Answers
This page lists 50 real questions from the Quizlino Riddles & Brain Teasers category, each with four options, the correct answer and, where available, a short explanation. They are arranged from easy to hard, so you can start at the level that suits you. The full category contains 220 questions spread across its levels, so what you see here is a sample to study from, not the whole quiz.
- Cover the answer line, read the question and decide on your option first.
- Check the answer, then read the explanation even if you were right.
- Make a note of the questions you missed and come back to them after a few days.
- When you feel ready, play the timed Riddles & Brain Teasers to test yourself properly.
Riddles & Brain Teasers: Easy Questions
Warm-up questions that most players can answer.
Q1. What has keys but cannot open locks?
Answer: B. A piano
Explanation: A piano has keys, but not the kind that open locks.
Q2. What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A. A clock
Explanation: A clock has a "face" and "hands" for telling time.
Q3. What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: B. A towel
Explanation: A towel gets wetter as it is used to dry things.
Q4. What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: C. An egg
Explanation: An egg must be cracked open before it can be used in cooking.
Q5. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. What am I?
Answer: B. An echo
Explanation: An echo repeats sound without a mouth or ears.
Q6. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: B. A stamp
Explanation: A postage stamp sits in the corner of an envelope as it travels.
Q7. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: C. Footsteps
Explanation: Each step you take leaves a footstep behind.
Q8. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: A. The letter M
Explanation: The letter "M" appears once in "minute," twice in "moment," and never in "thousand years."
Q9. What has many teeth but cannot bite?
Answer: D. All of the above
Explanation: Saws, combs, and zippers all have "teeth" but none can bite.
Q10. Which month of the year has 28 days?
Answer: B. All months
Explanation: Every month has at least 28 days, even if some have more.
Q11. What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: B. A cold
Explanation: You can "catch" a cold, but not throw it.
Q12. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: D. All of the above
Explanation: Bottles, shirts, and guitars can all have a "neck."
Q13. What kind of room has no doors or windows?
Answer: B. A mushroom
Explanation: A mushroom has a "room" (cap) with no doors or windows.
Q14. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: B. Your age
Explanation: Your age only ever increases, never decreases.
Q15. What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: B. A sponge
Explanation: A sponge is full of tiny holes yet can hold water.
Riddles & Brain Teasers: Medium Questions
A step up in difficulty, for players who know the basics.
Q16. A man looks at a photo and says, "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is in the photo?
Answer: C. His son
Explanation: "My father's son" who has no siblings is the man himself, so the photo shows his son.
Q17. What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water?
Answer: B. A map
Explanation: A map represents these features symbolically, not literally.
Q18. The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: B. Darkness
Explanation: Increasing darkness reduces visibility.
Q19. What word becomes a different, longer-sounding word when you add "er" to it, describing something smaller?
Answer: A. Short
Explanation: Adding "er" to "short" forms "shorter," the classic riddle answer.
Q20. What has many keys but cannot open a single door?
Answer: D. Both A and B
Explanation: Keyboards and pianos both have "keys" that do not unlock doors.
Q21. If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you no longer have me. What am I?
Answer: B. A secret
Explanation: Sharing a secret means it is no longer just yours.
Q22. What can you hold in your left hand but not in your right hand?
Answer: B. Your right elbow
Explanation: You cannot hold your own right elbow with your right hand.
Q23. What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: A. Rain
Explanation: Rain only ever falls downward.
Q24. What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
Answer: B. A glove
Explanation: A glove is shaped like a hand but is not alive.
Q25. Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I?
Answer: A. The word "ton"
Explanation: The word "ton" spelled backward is "not."
Q26. A father and son are in a car crash. The father dies, and the son is rushed into surgery. The surgeon says, "I cannot operate on my son." How is this possible?
Answer: A. The surgeon is the boy's mother
Explanation: This classic riddle highlights an assumption about gender in professions.
Q27. Which word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly, no matter what?
Answer: A. "Incorrectly"
Explanation: The word "incorrectly" is technically always spelled "incorrectly."
Q28. I have branches but no fruit, trunk, or leaves. What am I?
Answer: A. A bank
Explanation: A bank has "branches" (locations) but no plant parts.
Q29. What has 13 hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A. A deck of cards
Explanation: A standard deck of cards has 13 cards in the hearts suit.
Q30. The person who makes it doesn't want it, and the person who buys it doesn't use it. What is it?
Answer: A. A coffin
Explanation: A coffin-maker doesn't want to need one, and the buyer isn't the one who uses it.
Riddles & Brain Teasers: Hard Questions
Challenging questions for confident players.
Q31. A man is found dead in an open field with an unopened package beside him. There are no other tracks nearby. What happened?
Answer: A. He died from a failed parachute jump
Explanation: The unopened package was his parachute, which failed to open.
Q32. There are three houses in a row: one red, one blue, one white. If the red house is left of the middle house, and the blue house is right of the middle house, where is the white house?
Answer: A. In Washington, D.C.
Explanation: The White House is a real building in Washington, D.C., not one of the three colored houses.
Q33. A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he's bankrupt. Why?
Answer: A. He's playing Monopoly
Explanation: In the board game Monopoly, players move pieces representing cars to properties like hotels.
Q34. You see a boat full of people, yet there isn't a single person on board. How is that possible?
Answer: A. All the people on the boat are married
Explanation: "Single" refers to marital status, not the literal count of people.
Q35. What can you never eat for breakfast, no matter what?
Answer: A. Lunch and dinner
Explanation: By definition, lunch and dinner happen later in the day than breakfast.
Q36. A woman shoots her husband, holds him underwater for five minutes, then hangs him, yet minutes later they enjoy dinner together. How?
Answer: A. She's a photographer who shot, developed, and hung his photo
Explanation: "Shot" and "hung" refer to photography terms, not violence.
Q37. What has an endless supply of letters, yet starts out completely empty?
Answer: A. A mailbox
Explanation: A mailbox holds letters (mail) but starts empty until delivery.
Q38. Two fathers and two sons go fishing and each catches one fish, but they only bring home three fish total. How is this possible?
Answer: A. There were only three people: grandfather, father, and son
Explanation: The three people include a grandfather, his son, and his grandson, making "two fathers and two sons."
Q39. What can go up a chimney down but cannot go down a chimney up?
Answer: A. An umbrella
Explanation: An open umbrella can be pushed up a chimney but not down it in that shape.
Q40. A girl fell off a 50-foot ladder but wasn't hurt at all. How is this possible?
Answer: A. She fell off the bottom rung
Explanation: Falling from the bottom rung means only a tiny drop to the ground.
Riddles & Brain Teasers: Expert Questions
The toughest questions in the category, for true fans of the subject.
Q41. A snail climbs 3 m up a 10 m well each day and slips back 2 m each night. On which day does it get out?
Answer: B. Day 8
Explanation: After 7 days it is at 7 m; on day 8 it climbs 3 m and reaches the top.
Q42. What do you get if you multiply all the numbers on a phone keypad?
Answer: D. 0
Explanation: The keypad includes 0, so the product is 0.
Q43. How many squares of all sizes are there on a chessboard?
Answer: B. 204
Explanation: 1×1 to 8×8 squares add up to 64 + 49 + 36 + 25 + 16 + 9 + 4 + 1 = 204.
Q44. What comes next: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ...?
Answer: D. 13
Explanation: Each number is the sum of the two before it (Fibonacci).
Q45. What comes next: 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, ...?
Answer: C. 42
Explanation: The gaps grow by 2 each time: +4, +6, +8, +10, +12.
Q46. What comes next: O, T, T, F, F, S, S, E, ...?
Answer: A. N
Explanation: They are the first letters of One, Two, Three... so next is Nine.
Q47. What comes next: J, F, M, A, M, J, ...?
Answer: D. J
Explanation: They are the first letters of the months: next is July.
Q48. What is the first number, counting up, whose English spelling contains the letter 'a' (written without the word 'and')?
Answer: C. One thousand
Explanation: No number from one to nine hundred ninety-nine uses the letter 'a'.
Q49. How many times does the digit 1 appear when you write the numbers from 1 to 20?
Answer: A. 12
Explanation: 1, 10, 11 (twice) and 12–19 give 1 + 1 + 2 + 8 = 12.
Q50. A father is 4 times as old as his son. In 20 years, he will be twice as old. How old is the son now?
Answer: B. 10
Explanation: Father 40, son 10; in 20 years, 60 and 30.
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