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 Difficult Riddles

What goes through cities and fields, but never moves?

Asked by Neha on 10 Mar 2025


When Jack was six years old he hammered a nail into his favourite tree to mark his height. Ten years later at age sixteen, Jack returned to see how much higher the nail was. If the tree grew by five centimetres each year, how much higher would the nail be?

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021

A word I know has six letters it contains, remove one letter and 12 remain. What is it?

Asked by Neha on 23 Mar 2025


A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks who it is. The man replies, “Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who was in the photograph?

Asked by Neha on 04 Jul 2025

It is a six-letter word.
The first four letters are me.
The second and last letters are the same.
The fourth second and last letter is payment.

Who is it?

Asked by Neha on 07 Feb 2024

It has five wheels, though often think four, You cannot use it without that one more, You can put things in it, you can strap things on top, You can't find it in the market, but you can still go shop. What is it?

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021


What common phrase is represented by the below lines

Easy going:
Weak, 'I'm going.'
Tough, 'I'm staying.'

Medium going:
Weak, 'I'm going.'
Tough, 'I'm staying.'

Tough going:
Weak, 'I can't do it, I'm staying!'
Tough, 'Let's get going.'

Asked by Neha on 19 Nov 2024

I travel all around the world but always stay in the corner. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 09 Mar 2022

With pointed fangs I sit and wait; with piercing force I crunch out fate; grabbing victims, proclaiming might; physically joining with a single bite. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 13 Mar 2025


What work can one never finish?

Asked by Neha on 12 Jan 2024

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Out of the Box

The phrase “thinking outside the box” was popularised from the solution to a topographical puzzle involving 9 dots in a box shape.