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

Which part of London exists in France as well ?

Asked by Neha on 17 Feb 2021


On rolling two dices (six-sided normal dice) together, what is the probability that the first one comes up with a 2 and the second one comes up with a 5?

Asked by Neha on 08 Oct 2023

Alpha is Beta's sister.

Gamma is a Beta mother.

Delta is Gamma's father.

Tango is Delta's mother.

Then,

How is Alpha related to Delta?

Asked by Neha on 17 Jun 2024


If you had an infinite supply of water and 5-quart and 3-quart pails, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts? What is the least number of steps you need?

Asked by Neha on 09 Apr 2026

A Club organizes a Running Race, and John, Jacob, Minda, and Tony participated.

The results are as follows

John beats Jacob
Minda beats Toni
Toni beats John

Who came first in the race?

Asked by Neha on 23 May 2024

You need to pick one entry from pot A and one from pot B to have a perfect match. Can you do it?

Football World Cup 2014

Asked by Neha on 22 Aug 2021


Take away the whole and some still remain. What is it?

Asked by Neha on 19 Dec 2024

Prove that twice of ten is the same as twice of eleven.

Asked by Neha on 26 Feb 2025

A deaf and mute man goes to the train station. Tickets for the train are 50 cents each. The man goes to the ticket booth and hands the man inside just a dollar. The man in the booth hands him two tickets.

How did the man in the booth know to give him two tickets without even looking at him?

deaf and mute man at train station riddle

Asked by Neha on 14 Mar 2021


A thief is convicted in Mexico. He gets the death penalty. The judge allows him to say the last sentence to determine how the penalty will be carried out. If the thief lies, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth he will be beheaded. The thief tells the last sentence and to everybody's surprise some minutes later he is set free because the judge cannot determine his penalty. What did the thief say?

Asked by Neha on 07 Sep 2024

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.