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

All of you like to eat me. I am a five-lettered word. Remove the first two and I turn into an infamous animal. Remove just the first and I become a heinous crime. Remove the first and the last and you can groove on me.

Can you guess who am I?

Asked by Neha on 01 Apr 2026


A detective visits his friend John just to discover that John's neighbour Dr Jacob was murdered. Dr Jacob, who is a mathematician wrote the murderer's name in a code word "Hcqtfz". There were five suspects
1. Ajit
2. Pankaj
3. Ganpat
4. Deenu
5. Hariya

The Detective was instantly able to find the murderer.
Can you?

Asked by Neha on 06 Jan 2026

What 5-letter word typed in all capital letters can be read the same upside down?

Asked by Neha on 20 Oct 2025


A Scientist was fifty years old in the year 2000 but he was forty years old in the year 2010. How can this be possible?

PS: It has a logical answer.

Asked by Neha on 20 Dec 2023

A boy purchased a book from a bookkeeper and gave him $100.
The cost of the book is $50 but the bookkeeper has no change, so he gets the change from the next shop and returns the boy his $50.

After some time the next shopkeeper came with the $100 note and told the bookkeeper that the note was a fraud, so he took the money back.

How much loss did the bookkeeper face?

Asked by Neha on 25 Dec 2025

What does man love more than life, and hate more than death or mortal strife; that which satisfied men want; the poor have, and the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?

Asked by Neha on 23 Jun 2025


Solve below popular number sequence
314 159 265 358 979 323 846 ?

Asked by Neha on 09 Nov 2025

The captain of a ship was telling this interesting story: "We travelled the sea far and wide. At one time, two of my sailors were standing on opposite sides of the ship. One was looking west and the other one east. And at the same time, they could see each other clearly." How can that be possible?

Asked by Neha on 26 Mar 2024

In a rainy season, one day 3 huge ladies walked under a normal-sized umbrella.
The umbrella is not huge enough to accommodate all 3 ladies yet not a single lady got wet. Why?

Asked by Neha on 19 May 2024


When I got four, I have it none.
When I got two, I have it some.
When I got none, I have it all.

What is it?

Asked by Neha on 31 Aug 2024

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Gamers

In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks.