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

Can you find the missing number in the third row?
35 20 14
27 12 18
5 2 ?

Asked by Neha on 26 Jun 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

Can you identify if it's a murder or a suicide ?


Murder or Suicide?

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021


Find the missing number in the image below.

Find the missing

Asked by Neha on 11 May 2025

In The 1st month of this year(the year 2013), I noticed that the date 13-1-13 (13 January 2013) is special.

This date is special as:

Date * Month = Year.

Can you figure out which year of this century has a maximum number of such dates?

Asked by Neha on 14 Aug 2024

What number comes next in the series?

5 15 5 18 5 24 14 20 _

Asked by Neha on 15 Jun 2023


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

Asked by Neha on 19 Dec 2024

Chocolate costs 6 rupees and a Toy costs 5 rupees. If you have 32 rupees in total, how many chocolates and how many Toys can be purchased with that amount?

Asked by Neha on 02 Mar 2025

I am working in a bus company. The company recently went under expansion and therefore there was not enough room for all the buses. As a result, twelve buses had to be stored outside.

If the company decides to expand the garage space by forty percent, enough space to accommodate the current buses will be created leaving enough space for twelve more buses if the need arises in future.

Can you calculate the number of buses that the company owns at present?

Asked by Neha on 18 Dec 2020


If six children and two dogs were under an umbrella, how come none of them got wet?

Asked by Neha on 07 Mar 2022

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.