Lateral Thinking Puzzles

These puzzles look impossible until you think outside the box. Use the hints if you get stuck and discover the clever explanations.

8 questions4 minHardRiddles

What's inside this quiz

8 questions in the Riddles & Brain Teasers category, about 4 min. Here are the questions you'll answer — correct answers and explanations appear as you play.

See the questions

A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he's bankrupt. Why?
A man lives on the 10th floor. He takes the lift down every day, but going up he stops at the 7th floor and walks, except on rainy days. Why?
What can you hold in your left hand but never in your right hand?
A woman shoots her husband, holds him underwater for five minutes, then hangs him. Later they go out to dinner. How?
How can a man go eight days without sleep?
Two fathers and two sons go fishing. They catch three fish and each takes one. How?
A rooster lays an egg on the very top of a pointed roof. Which way does it roll?
A box without hinges, key or lid, yet golden treasure is hidden inside. What is it?

Instructions

Read each puzzle and choose the most logical explanation. Use up to two hints if you need help.

Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Why would pushing a car to a hotel leave someone bankrupt? What could rain change about a man's journey to the tenth floor? These eight lateral thinking puzzles ask you to reconsider the scene you first imagine. Rather than adding complicated events, look for an explanation that fits the wording and accounts for the unusual details. Each question offers four answers, with up to two hints available when you need another angle. The situations range from a fishing trip involving two fathers and two sons to a mysterious box containing golden treasure. Some depend on reading a word literally; others invite you to recognize a metaphor, notice overlapping roles or question whether the stated event could happen at all. You will also encounter a photography puzzle and a question about what one hand can hold. Choose the most logical explanation, then read how the details fit together. The appeal lies in discovering how a small change of interpretation can make an apparently impossible situation straightforward.

What you will learn

Reconsider a scene's setting: the car and hotel belong to a Monopoly game, not a roadside breakdown.
Connect an unusual exception to a practical detail: an umbrella lets the lift passenger reach the tenth-floor button.
Separate family roles from headcount: a grandfather, his son and his grandson make two fathers and two sons.
Distinguish literal wording, metaphor and a false premise through the sleep, golden treasure and rooster riddles.

Frequently asked questions

How should I use the hints in these puzzles?: You can use up to two hints per puzzle. Let them guide your interpretation before choosing an answer. In the lift puzzle, for example, the hints ask why rain matters and what people carry when it rains.
Why do two fathers and two sons need only three fish?: The group consists of a grandfather, his son and his grandson. The middle person is both a father and a son, so three people satisfy the description and each can take one fish.
Do the two egg riddles use the same trick?: No. The rooster puzzle asks you to reject a false premise: roosters do not lay eggs, so nothing rolls off the roof. The treasure puzzle uses metaphor: the shell is the box and the golden yolk is its treasure.