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

Krish is 45 years old and his mother Crishtina is 73 years old.

Can you find out how many years ago, his mother was three times his age?

Asked by Neha on 18 Mar 2024


John and his team plan to rob a safe. They got just one chance to break the code else the local police will be informed. Below are clues:
A) Exactly one number is perfectly placed: 9 8 1
B) Everything is incorrect: 9 2 4
C) Two numbers are part of the code of the safe but are wrongly placed: 0 9 3
D) One number is part of the code of the safe but is wrongly placed: 1 4 7
E) One number is part of the code of the safe but is wrongly placed: 7 8 3

Asked by Neha on 27 Apr 2024

How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25?

Asked by Neha on 05 Oct 2021


A boy and his father are caught in a traffic accident, and the father dies. Immediately the boy is rushed to a hospital, suffering from injuries. But the attending surgeon at the hospital, upon seeing the boy, says 'I cannot operate. This boy is my son.' How is this situation explained?

Asked by Neha on 20 Dec 2024

At the local model boat club, four friends were talking about their boats.

There were a total of eight boats, two in each colour, red, green, blue and yellow. Each friend owned two boats. No friend had two boats of the same colour.

Alan didn't have a yellow boat. Brian didn't have a red boat but did have a green one. One of the friends had a yellow boat and a blue boat and another friend had a green boat and a blue boat. Charles had a yellow boat. Darren had a blue boat, but didn't have a green one.

Can you work out which friend had which coloured boats?

Asked by Neha on 15 Jan 2024

A family is trapped in a jungle. There is a bridge which can lead them to safety. But at one time, the bridge can only allow two people to pass through. Also, all of them are afraid of the dark and thus, they can't go alone.

Father takes 1 minute to cross, the mother takes 2 minutes, the son takes 4 and the daughter takes 5 minutes. While crossing the time taken will be according to the slower one. How can they all reach the other side in the minimum possible time?

Asked by Neha on 09 Aug 2024


Peter wakes up daily to pick up his cycle and crosses the border between Spain and France daily with a bag on his shoulder. He is investigated daily by the officials but they don't find anything suspicious.

If we tell you that he is smuggling something what would it be?

Asked by Neha on 25 Jun 2024

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 below rebus means ?

Break the Riddle

Asked by Neha on 15 Jan 2021


There is an exact a week gap between Christmas and New Year. Hence, It is obvious that the new year that comes right after Christmas comes on the same day of the week.

A Strange thing happened in the Year 1777. Christmas occurs on Wednesday and New Year on Monday. How is that possible?

Asked by Neha on 19 Dec 2025

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has crushed all human records in the puzzle game “2048,” achieving a high score of 839,732 and beating the game in only 973 moves without using any undo.