Everyone loves a good riddle, but if you really want to challenge yourself, then you need to try solving some of the hardest riddles in the world. These tricky riddles will test your knowledge and have your brain running around in circles trying to come up with the correct answer. We have gathered some real head-scratchers that will leave many of you puzzled and asking friends for help.
When it comes to riddles, there are two main types; enigmas and conundrums. As Literary Devices explains, “Enigmas are problems expressed in an allegorical or metaphorical language, requiring careful thinking and ingenuity to solve them and conundrums are questions that rely on punning for creating effects in a question.”
Both of these can be hard riddles concerning anything and everything, from a math riddle to a brain teaser. You will need to use lateral thinking and critical thinking to find the correct answer to solve these challenging riddles. So if you think you’ve got what it takes, read on and test your mind.
62 of the Hardest Riddles in the World
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1. Riddle: I have keys, but no locks and space, and no rooms. You can enter, but you can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
2. Riddle: What word in the English language does the following: the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify someone great, and the entire word signifies a woman?
Answer: Heroine.
3. Riddle: Three playing cards in a row. Can you name them with these clues? There is a two to the right of a king. A diamond will be found to the left of a spade. An ace is to the left of a heart. A heart is to the left of a spade. Now, identify all three cards.
Answer: Ace of diamonds, king of hearts, and two of spades.
4. Riddle: I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
5. Riddle: The famous crave me. Others protect themselves from me. No matter how you define me, I always end with certainty. What am I?
Answer: Exposure.
6. Riddle: What is seen in the middle of March and April that can’t be seen at the beginning or end of either month?
Answer: The letter “R.”
7. Riddle: I have cities but no houses; have mountains but no trees. I have water but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
8. Riddle: You measure my life in hours and I serve you by expiring. I’m quick when I’m thin and slow when I’m fat. The wind is my enemy.
Answer: A candle.
9. Riddle: I am taken from a mine, and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost everybody. What am I?
Answer: Pencil lead.
10. Riddle: I turn polar bears white and I will make you cry. I make guys have to pee and girls comb their hair. I make celebrities look stupid and normal people look like celebrities. I turn your pancakes brown, and I make your champagne bubble. If you squeeze me, I’ll pop. If you’ll look at me, you’ll pop. Can you guess the riddle?
Answer: No, because there is no answer.
11. Riddle: You see a boat filled with people. It has not sunk, but when you look again you don’t see a single person on the boat. Why?
Answer: All the people are married.
12. Riddle: What English word has three consecutive double letters?
Answer: Bookkeeper.
13. Riddle: Mr. Taylor has four daughters and each has a brother. In total, how many children does Mr. Taylor have?
Answer: Five children because all of his daughters have the same brother.
14. Riddle: If an electric train is moving north at 55 mph and the winds blowing east at 70 mph, which way does the smoke blow?
Answer: An electric train doesn’t emit smoke.
15. Riddle: Two cars were involved in an accident in the center of town. The man who was driving a little green car had overtaken a big black car. The driver had misjudged the distance between him and the on-coming traffic and had to swerve back in, causing the black car to swerve and crash into a shop window. When the occupants of the cars were examined everyone in the green car was okay, but in the black car was one dead man. However, the driver of the green car was not charged with manslaughter, why was this so?
Answer: The black car was a hearse and was on its way to a funeral.
16. Riddle: A woman shoots her husband, then holds him underwater for five minutes. Next, she hangs him. Right after, they enjoy a lovely dinner. Explain.
Answer: She took a picture of him and developed it in her darkroom.
17. Riddle: What can run but never walk, have a mouth but never talk, have a head that never weeps, and a bed that never sleeps
Answer: A river.
18. Riddle: What disappears as soon as you say its name?
Answer: Silence.
19. Riddle: First, think of the color of the clouds. Next, think of the color of snow. Now, think of the color of a bright full moon. Now answer quickly what do cows drink?
Answer: Water.
20. Riddle: How many letters are in the alphabet?
Answer: Eleven letters are in “the alphabet.”
21. Riddle: How can you throw a ball as hard as you can only to have it come back to you without it bouncing off of anything
Answer: Throw the ball straight into the air.
22. Riddle: A girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each brother has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are there in the family?
Answer: Four sisters and three brothers.
23. Riddle: Mike and Pat are in a desert. They both have packs on. Pat is dead. Mike, who is alive, has his pack open. Pat has his pack closed. What is in the packs?
Answer: Parachutes.
24. Riddle: What spends all the time on the floor but never gets dirty?
Answer: Your shadow.
25. Riddle: What has only two words, but thousands of letters?
Answer: A Post Office.
26. Riddle: There are six sisters. Each sister has one brother. How many brothers are in the sister’s family?
Answer: One brother.
27. Riddle: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, ends life, and kills laughter.
Answer: Darkness.
28. Riddle: What gets wet while drying?
Answer: A towel.
29. Riddle: What can fill an entire room without taking up any space?
Answer: Light.
30. Riddle: A man attending his mother’s funeral, sees a woman in another pew, and experiences love at first sight. He tries to find her but has no luck. A few weeks later, he kills his sister. Why does he kill his sister?
Answer: He kills his sister in hopes of seeing the woman at her funeral.
31. Riddle: I am something people love or hate. I change people’s appearances and thoughts. If a person takes care of themself, I will go up even higher. Some people might want to try and hide me, but I will show. No matter how hard people try, I will never go down. What am I?
Answer: Age.
32. Riddle: Which word in the dictionary is always spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly.
33. Riddle: What belongs to you but everyone else uses it?
Answer: Your name.
34. Riddle: There is a single-story blue house where everything is blue; the doors, windows, couch, television, kitchen, etc. are blue. What color is the carpet on the stairs in this house?
Answer: There are no stairs, it’s a one-story house.
35. Riddle: What are the next three letters in this combination? OTTFFSS.
Answer: ENT. Each represents the first letter of a number in a sequence beginning with “one.” So what comes after six and seven? Eight, nine, and ten.
36. Riddle: Two fathers and two sons come home from the mall. Yet when they arrive home, only three people get out of the car. How is this possible?
Answer: They are a grandfather, father, and son.
37. Riddle: You’re in a dark room with a candle, a wood stove, and a gas lamp. You only have one match, so what do you light first
Answer: The match.
38. Riddle: What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left hand.
39. Riddle: What can travel all around the world while remaining stuck in a corner?
Answer: A stamp.
40. Riddle: What English word retains the same pronunciation, even after you take away four of its five letters?
Answer: Queue.
41. Riddle: A murderer is condemned to death and he has the option to die in one of the following three rooms: a room full of raging fire, a room full of assassins with loaded guns, and a room full of lions who haven’t eaten in years. Which room should he choose?
Answer: The room with the lions because if they haven’t eaten in years then they’re already dead.
42. Riddle: What is able to go up a chimney when down but unable to go down a chimney when up?
Answer: An umbrella.
43. Riddle: What jumps when walking and sits when standing?
Answer: A kangaroo.
44. Riddle: How can you physically stand behind your father while he is standing behind you?
Answer: You are standing back-to-back with your father.
45. Riddle: It’s best to put this coat on wet.
Answer: A coat of paint.
46. Riddle: Steve was murdered on Saturday afternoon. His wife said she was reading. The doorman said he was in the shower. The chef said he was making breakfast. The gardener was pruning hedges. From the information given, who committed the murder?
Answer: The chef because Steve was murdered in the afternoon yet the chef’s alibi was that he was making breakfast.
47. Riddle: Three different doctors said that Paul is their brother yet Paul claims he has no brothers. Who is lying?
Answer: No one is lying because the three doctors are Paul’s sisters.
48. Riddle: What has four fingers and a thumb but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove.
49. Riddle: A bus driver goes the wrong way on a one-way street. He passes the cops, but they don’t stop him. Why?
Answer: He was walking.
50. Riddle: A man is trapped in a room that contains only two exits. The first exit is constructed of magnifying glasses that fry anything that walks through when the sun is out and blazing hot. The second exit includes a fire-breathing dragon that is bound and determined to kill. How does the man escape?
Answer: He waits until nighttime and then runs through the first exit.
51. Riddle: How much dirt is in a hole that measures four feet by four feet by five feet?
Answer: None.
52. Riddle: I can shave every day but still have a beard. What am I?
Answer: A barber.
53. Riddle: If a plane came crashing down on the border between Canada and America, where are the survivors buried?
Answer: You don’t bury the survivors.
54. Riddle: Take away the whole, and some remain. What is it?
Answer: The word wholesome.
55. Riddle: The person who makes it and the person who buys it have no use for it and the person who uses it never sees it or feels it. What is it?
Answer: Coffin.
56. Riddle: Two girls were born to the same mother, on the same day, at the same time, in the same month, and in the same year—but they’re not twins. How is this possible
Answer: The girls are triplets.
57. Riddle: The more these are taken, the more they are left behind. What are they?
Answer: Footsteps.
58. Riddle: A man goes out in heavy rain with nothing to protect him from it. His hair doesn’t get wet. How does he do that?
Answer: He is bald.
59. Riddle: How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
Answer: Concrete floors are very hard to crack.
60. Riddle: What can be given and can be accepted, is worth a great deal but costs nothing yet has no monetary value?
Answer: An apology.
61. Riddle: Humans purchase me to eat but then never eat me. What am I?
Answer: Plates and silverware.
62. Riddle: A man runs away from home, turns left three times, and ends up back at home facing a man in a mask. Who is wearing the mask?
Answer: The man in the mask is a catcher because this is a game of baseball.
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