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

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

Asked by Neha on 15 Mar 2025


Four men were in a boat on the lake. The boat turns over, and all four men sink to the bottom of the lake, yet not a single man got wet! Why?

Asked by Neha on 22 Oct 2024

A girl was sitting in her hotel room when she heard a knock on the door. She opened the door and found that a man was standing outside.
The man said, "Oh! I am really sorry, I thought this was my room."
He then walked through the corridor to the elevator. The girl did not know the man. She closed her door and called security asking them to apprehend the man.
What made her suspicious of that man? He might have been genuinely mistaken.

Asked by Neha on 28 Aug 2023


A Shopkeeper sold a few chickens to four different customers on a particular day. It was such that each customer purchased half of the remaining chickens and half the chicken more.

Can you find out how many chicken were sold by the shopkeeper on that day if we tell you that the fourth customer bought a single chicken ?

Asked by Neha on 01 Jul 2024

You are mixing a mixture of cement and Sand with five gallons of water. You have a garden hose giving you all the water you need. The problem is that you only have a four-gallon bucket and a seven-gallon bucket and neither has graduation marks. Find a method to measure five gallons.

Asked by Neha on 13 Aug 2024

A man died and leaves Rs.10,000 in his will. There are 6 beneficiaries- his 3 sons and their wives. The 3 wives receive Rs.3960 of which Priyanka gets Rs.100 more than Tanu and Neha gets Rs.100 more than Priyanka.
Pramod gets twice as much as his wife, Tushar gets the same as his wife, and Prashant gets 50% more than his wife.

Who is married to whom?

Asked by Neha on 25 Aug 2024


It is always ahead of me yet I can never see it. What is it?

Asked by Neha on 01 Apr 2023

using four eights (8) and a one (1) and one mathematical symbol , create the number 100

Asked by Neha on 31 Dec 2020

Find the hidden panda in the image below.

Find The Panda

Asked by Neha on 13 Jun 2024


How many people must be gathered together in a room, before you can be certain that there is a greater than 50/50 chance that at least two of them have the same birthday?

Asked by Neha on 16 Dec 2023

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.