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

Count the number of triangles in the given picture.

Find out triangles

Asked by Neha on 28 Mar 2025


I am a word of 12 alphabets.

* Alphabets 12, 4, 7, 2, 5 : Eastern beast of burden
* Alphabets 1, 8, 10, 9 are street made famous by Sinclair Lewis.
* Alphabets 11, 3, 6 are past.

On whole it means a person suffering from delusions of greatness.

What Is it ?

Asked by Neha on 05 Jul 2021

What is 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat and 2/4 goat?

Asked by Neha on 20 Mar 2025


A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?

Asked by Neha on 05 Jul 2025

An office is divided into 8 cubicles. How many of the cubicles are painted if only 1/8 of the cubicles are painted?

Asked by Neha on 23 Feb 2022

Why do you find that most of the buildings are deprived of the 13th floor?

Asked by Neha on 11 Jan 2025


A man was gazing through the window of the 23rd floor of the building. He suddenly opened the window and jumped on the other side of the window. On landing on the floor, there was not a sheer mark of injury on him.

How can that be possible if he did not use any kind of parachute and did not land on a soft surface?

Asked by Neha on 12 Feb 2025

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

What is the next shape from answers A, B, C, and D figure?

Next Shape Riddle

Asked by Neha on 20 Jan 2024


Can you fill the blank with the correct number?

6 30 870 756030 _____

Asked by Neha on 20 Feb 2023

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Rubik’s Cube

The inventor of the Rubik’s Cube didn’t realize he’d built a puzzle until he scrambled it the first time and tried to restore it.