Prisoner to be freed

The warden meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.

"In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled 1 and 2, each of which can be in either up or the down position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.

"After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must flip one switch when he visits the switch room, and may only flip one of the switches. Then he'll be led back to his cell.

"No one else will be allowed to alter the switches until I lead the next prisoner into the switch room. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back. I will not touch the switches, if I wanted you dead you would already be dead.

"Given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room the same number of times as everyone else. At any time, anyone may declare to me, 'We have all visited the switch room.'

"If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will all die horribly. You will be carefully monitored, and any attempt to break any of these rules will result in instant death to all of you"

What is the strategy they come up with so that they can be free?




Similar Riddles

If you drop a 15 kg iron bar and a 5 kg bag of cotton from a height of 50 meters which will reach the ground first?

Asked by Neha on 08 Nov 2024


How high do you have to count before you use the letter “a” in the English spelling of the whole number?

Asked by Neha on 11 Sep 2025

Place a mathematical symbol between the numerals 5 and 9 in such a way that the resulting number is greater than 5 but smaller than 9.

Asked by Neha on 30 Jul 2021


John said, "If yesterday was tomorrow, today would be Friday."

When did John make this statement?

Asked by Neha on 09 Apr 2025

In this image, you can see three almost identical Doraemon images. Can you spot the odd one out from them?

Odd one out Doraemon picture riddle

Asked by Neha on 19 Apr 2021

A man has to get a fox, a chicken, and a sack of corn across a river.

He has a rowboat, and it can only carry him and one other thing.
If the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken.
If the chicken and the corn are left together, the chicken will eat the corn.

How does the man do it?

Asked by Neha on 04 May 2021


Most people think of me as money. But when they find me in the water, they won’t get any money out of me. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 26 Oct 2025

John was so frustrated to be the suspect of being a sleeper terrorist that he shoot himself right between the eyes with a revolver in his toilet. The revolver and the bullets were accurate. Minutes later John walks out of the toilet unharmed.
How can this be possible?

Asked by Neha on 15 Nov 2023

A boy was at a carnival and went to a booth where a man said to the boy, "If I write your exact weight on this piece of paper then you have to give me $50, but if I cannot, I will pay you $50." The boy looked around and saw no scale so he agrees, thinking no matter what the carny writes he'll just say he weighs more or less. In the end the boy ended up paying the man $50. How did the man win the bet?

Asked by Neha on 26 Jan 2023


If you’ve got me, you want to share me; if you share me, you haven’t kept me. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 18 Feb 2022

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Out of the Box

The phrase “thinking outside the box” was popularised from the solution to a topographical puzzle involving 9 dots in a box shape.