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

In an interview, a boy was asked an unusual question 'How two persons sitting with a table in between them can't see each other?' He was unable to reply. Can you?

Asked by Neha on 03 Apr 2026


A man died, leaving $10,000,000 for his widow, 5 sons and 4 daughters. Each daughter received an equal amount, each son received twice as much as a daughter, and the widow received three times as much as a son.

How much did the widow receive?

Asked by Neha on 17 Jan 2026

One day, I thought of ways that can be used for creating a palindrome. So I decided that I will turn into a larger number by adding the reversed digits to the original number and keep doing it till I finally obtained a palindrome.

I am not sure if this process will always result in a palindrome eventually but I was able to produce a four-digit palindrome. Can you guess my starting number?

Asked by Neha on 17 Apr 2024


You are given 2 eggs.
You have access to a 100-storey building.
Eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100th floor, Both eggs are identical.
You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-storey building an egg can be dropped without breaking.
Now the question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process

Asked by Neha on 12 Dec 2025

Intelligence Agency need to break the vault but the problem is that they are not able to break the vault.

On the vault, a text is written as:

31 11 33 33 43 45
21 25
31 24 11 31 51 41

To Break the code Intelligence Agency brings a mathematician named Joseph.
Minutes later he deciphers the code.

Whats the code?

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021

Only one colour, but not one size,
Stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies.
Present in sun, but not in rain,
Doing no harm, and feeling no pain.
What is it?

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021


What does the following represent?

N N N N N N N

A A A A A A A

C C C C C C C

Teaser Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 04 Mar 2021

The first person saw the bridge step on it and crossed,
the second person saw the bridge did not step on it but crossed,
the third person did not see the bridge did not step on it but crossed.
Who are these people?

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021

A solo dice game is played. In this game, upon each turn, a normal pair of dice is rolled and the score is calculated not by adding the numbers but multiplying them.

In a particular game, the score for the second roll is five more than what was achieved in the first roll. The score for the third roll is six less than what was completed in the second roll. The score for the fourth roll is eleven more than what was achieved in the third. The score for the fifth roll is eight less than what was completed in the fourth.

Can you calculate the score for each of the five throws?

Asked by Neha on 04 Jun 2024


How many pluses should we put between the digits of 987654321 to get a total of 99, and where?

Asked by Neha on 25 Sep 2021

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Crossword puzzles

In the 1920s, people feared that crossword puzzles would contribute to illiteracy.