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

A man and a dog were going down the street. The man rode, yet walked. What was the dog’s name?

Asked by Neha on 10 Mar 2022


In the given picture, you can find two letters missing. When two particular letters are placed in the missing spots, you get an eight-letter word while reading in the anti-clockwise direction. Can you find out the missing letters and the missing word eventually?

Picture Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 23 Dec 2024

Solve the rebus riddle in the picture below.

Millionaire Riddle

Asked by Neha on 14 Feb 2026


What does the following represent?

N N N N N N N

A A A A A A A

C C C C C C C

Teaser Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 04 Mar 2021

What is in seasons, seconds, centuries and minutes but not in decades, years or days?

Asked by Neha on 25 Dec 2024

My location can be determined by the below rebus.
So where am i ?

Find my Location

Asked by Neha on 15 Aug 2021


Can you start the fire using two pieces of wood?

Asked by Neha on 04 Sep 2024

The more you take me, the more you leave me behind.
Who Am I?

Asked by Neha on 15 Jan 2025

If we add four times the age of John four years from now to five times his age five years from now we get ten times his current age.

How old will John be two years from now?

Asked by Neha on 19 Jan 2025


The doctor prescribed you to take one pill from the bottle every half an hour. The bottle is now left with only three pills.

How long do you think you have before you run out of pills?

Asked by Neha on 21 Dec 2024

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.