Try today’s riddle before opening the answer. If you get stuck, the hint gives you one smaller step to think about. The explanation shows why the answer fits.
The daily card rotates through 31 riddles using your device’s date. The set repeats after 31 days. Use Previous day and Next day to browse, or pick a difficulty for an extra puzzle.
Today’s riddle
A daily puzzle with a hint and answer
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31 riddles, repeating every 31 days. Dates follow your device. Copy question leaves the hint and answer out.
One riddle before the answers come out
For a class or a family table, read the question twice, wait for a few guesses, then offer the hint. Ask which clue supports an answer. Some of the tricky questions allow more than one sensible solution; an answer that fits every clue counts.
Easy riddles: familiar things
These clues point to objects you might find at home or at school. Answers stay folded away until you choose them.
- 1.I stay inside a story while you go to sleep. When you come back, I show you where to begin again. What am I?
Hint
You put me between two pages.
Answer and why
A bookmark. It marks the page where you stopped reading.
- 2.Pull my little handle up and two rows become one. Pull it down and they split apart. What am I?
Hint
Look at the front of a jacket.
Answer and why
A zipper. The slider joins or separates the two rows of zipper teeth.
- 3.I lose a little of myself every time I make a pencil mistake disappear. What am I?
Hint
You might find me on the end of a pencil.
Answer and why
An eraser. Rubbing away a pencil mark wears down the eraser.
- 4.I start as a picture you cannot see all at once. My corners are often found before my middle. What am I?
Hint
My picture comes in loose pieces.
Answer and why
A jigsaw puzzle. People often build the edge before filling in the middle.
- 5.You feed me a blunt pencil, turn it, and get a sharper pencil plus a pile of curls. What am I?
Hint
The curls are thin pieces of wood.
Answer and why
A pencil sharpener. Its blade cuts away wood to expose and shape the pencil tip.
- 6.You press me once outside a house so that someone inside knows you are there. I do not open the door. What am I?
Hint
Listen for the answer.
Answer and why
A doorbell. Pressing its button makes a sound or alert inside.
- 7.I can keep your soup hot or your juice cold, but I cannot turn one into the other. What am I?
Hint
I am a special kind of bottle.
Answer and why
An insulated bottle or thermos. Insulation slows heat moving in or out; it does not heat or chill the drink by itself.
- 8.My little metal bite holds sheets of paper together. My food is not paper, but a row of bent metal pieces. What am I?
Hint
You press down on my top.
Answer and why
A stapler. A stapler uses staples to fasten sheets together.
- 9.I make an ant look bigger without feeding it or changing the ant. You hold me between your eye and the ant. What am I?
Hint
I have a handle and a lens.
Answer and why
A magnifying glass. Its lens makes a nearby object appear larger.
- 10.I can reach across a room, then curl into a case small enough for your hand. Numbers run along my length. What am I?
Hint
A builder uses me to find a length.
Answer and why
A tape measure. Its numbered strip unrolls to measure a distance and rolls back into its case.
Start with the bookmark for younger children. The insulated-bottle riddle needs the idea of keeping a drink hot or cold.
Medium riddles: follow the clues
A little counting or a sketch helps here. The three-card number puzzle has two correct answers.
- 11.A red box, a blue box and a green box stand in a row. Red is somewhere left of blue. Green is not at either end. Which box is on the right?
Hint
Put green in its only possible place first.
Answer and why
The blue box. Green must be in the middle. Red must then be on the left and blue on the right.
- 12.Mia, Leo and Sam each have one different pet: a cat, a fish or a rabbit. Mia has the fish. Leo does not have the cat. Who has the rabbit?
Hint
Only two pets remain after Mia chooses.
Answer and why
Leo. Leo cannot have the fish or the cat, so he has the rabbit. Sam has the cat.
- 13.Three cards show 2, 5 and 8. Use each card once to make a three-digit number greater than 500 but less than 600. The number must be even. What can it be?
Hint
The first card is fixed. Either remaining card can go last.
Answer and why
528 or 582. Both start with 5 and end in an even digit. There are two correct answers.
- 14.A robot must face north after making exactly three quarter-turns. It starts facing north. Each turn can be left or right. Can it do it?
Hint
After one turn it faces east or west. What happens after three?
Answer and why
No. An odd number of quarter-turns leaves it facing east or west, never north.
- 15.Jo has more marbles than Max. Max has more than Bea. Bea has more than Kim. Who has the second-fewest marbles?
Hint
Read the order from smallest to largest.
Answer and why
Bea. The order is Kim, Bea, Max, Jo.
- 16.A two-digit number has digits that add up to 9. Swapping them makes a number 27 larger. What is the original number?
Hint
The second digit is three larger than the first.
Answer and why
36. 3 plus 6 is 9, and 63 minus 36 is 27.
- 17.A box contains only red and blue blocks. There are three red blocks for every blue block, and 12 blocks altogether. How many are blue?
Hint
Make groups of four: three red and one blue.
Answer and why
Three. Three groups of four contain nine red blocks and three blue blocks.
- 18.Four children each shake hands with every other child exactly once. How many handshakes happen?
Hint
A handshake belongs to two people, but count it only once.
Answer and why
Six. The first child has three handshakes, the next has two new ones, and the next has one: 3 + 2 + 1.
- 19.Ava walks two blocks north, three east, two south and one west on a square street grid. How many blocks from her starting point is she now?
Hint
The north and south parts cancel.
Answer and why
Two blocks east. She has moved a total of three blocks east and one west, leaving two blocks east.
- 20.A square has a red dot at each corner. You draw two straight lines so every dot has a line through it. Must the lines cross?
Hint
Try using two opposite edges of the square.
Answer and why
No. A line along the top edge covers two dots, and a parallel line along the bottom covers the other two.
- 21.A prize is in one of three boxes. Red says, 'Not in red.' Blue says, 'Not in blue.' Green says, 'In blue.' Exactly one label is true. Where is the prize?
Hint
Try each possible prize location and count the true labels.
Answer and why
The red box. If the prize is in red, only the blue label is true. A prize in blue or green would make two labels true.
Tricky riddles: check the assumption
Read what the question actually says. It may never have promised a real race, a full-size house or a game where the highest score wins.
- 22.A baker puts six rolls on a tray. A customer buys all six, but none of the rolls leaves the bakery. How can that happen?
Hint
Buying something does not mean taking it away.
Answer and why
The customer eats them there. The question says the rolls were bought, not that the order was to go.
- 23.A child points to a photograph of a dog and says, 'That dog is bigger than our house.' The child is right. What kind of house might they mean?
Hint
The house does not have to be a building people live in.
Answer and why
A dollhouse. A real dog can be bigger than a dollhouse. Other small model houses also fit.
- 24.An artist draws a straight line across the middle of a square sheet of paper. How many corners does the sheet have now?
Hint
Drawing is not cutting.
Answer and why
Four. The ink divides the picture, but the sheet itself still has its original four corners.
- 25.A shop sells a bag for five dollars. An identical bag costs nothing if you buy a ten-dollar toy. Lee wants only the bag. What is the cheaper choice?
Hint
Free can come with an extra purchase.
Answer and why
Buy the five-dollar bag. Buying an unwanted ten-dollar toy to get a free bag costs five dollars more.
- 26.The sentence 'This sentence has five words' is true. Add one word, without removing or changing any other word, to make it false.
Hint
Try putting a word just before five.
Answer and why
This sentence has exactly five words. The new sentence has six words, so its claim of exactly five is false. Other added words can work too.
- 27.Nora is last in a line of five people. Nobody joins or leaves, and nobody steps past anyone. Then Nora is first. What changed?
Hint
People can face a different way without changing places.
Answer and why
Everyone turned around. Reversing the direction of the line makes the old back its new front.
- 28.Two children each have one whole cookie. One child breaks their cookie in half and says, 'Now I have more than you.' More of what?
Hint
Count something other than the amount of food.
Answer and why
Pieces. That child has two pieces, but still only one cookie's worth of food.
- 29.A painter paints every side of a small wooden cube blue. It is cut into eight equal smaller cubes. How many little cubes have three blue faces?
Hint
Imagine cutting the large cube in half in each direction.
Answer and why
All eight. Each little cube sits at a corner of the original cube, with three outer faces painted.
- 30.Ben has one sister. His sister has two brothers, including Ben. How many children are in their family?
Hint
Ben is already one of the two brothers.
Answer and why
Three. There are two boys and one girl. Counting Ben again would count the same child twice.
- 31.A game ends with Pat having fewer points than everyone else. Pat wins. How is that possible?
Hint
Who said the biggest score wins?
Answer and why
The game rewards the lowest score. Some games are won with the fewest points. The question never said this game rewards a high score.
For the painted cube, sketch a two-by-two-by-two block. Every small cube sits at a corner; there is no hidden center cube.
More puzzles and a daily laugh
Questions people ask
When does the riddle of the day change?
The daily selection uses the calendar date on your device. Reload the page or press Today after midnight. It cycles through this set of 31 riddles, so the same riddle returns after 31 days.
Can I see yesterday’s riddle?
Yes. Previous day moves back one day and Next day moves forward one day. Today returns to your device’s current date. Picking a difficulty shows an extra puzzle without changing the daily sequence.
Are these daily riddles suitable for kids?
The easy object riddles suit younger children with an adult reading. The number and logic riddles need skills such as place value, simple arithmetic and following several clues. Choose by the child’s familiarity, not just age.
Can a riddle have more than one right answer?
Yes. The three-card puzzle has two number answers, and some situation riddles admit other explanations. A different answer is worth accepting if it fits every detail without changing the question.
