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 started to town with a fox, a goose, and a sack of corn. He came to a stream which he had to cross in a tiny boat. He could only take one across at a time. He could not leave the fox alone with the goose or the goose alone with the corn. How did he get them all safely over the stream?

Asked by Neha on 05 Mar 2022


What comes
Once in a Year
Twice in a Month
4 times in a Week
6 times in a Day

Asked by Neha on 24 Feb 2022

What does the below rebus riddle means?

Wise Rebus Riddle

Asked by Neha on 04 Jul 2021


What does a man do only once in his lifetime, but women do once a year after they are 29?

Asked by Neha on 10 Aug 2025

Who can jump higher than a Mountain?

Asked by Neha on 18 Oct 2023

Alex opened 24 presents
Jonah opened 8 presents
Clara opened 1 present

Can you find out how many presents were opened by Candy?

Asked by Neha on 06 May 2024


A new Engineering building containing 100 offices had just been completed. John was hired to paint the numbers 1 to 100 on the doors. How many times will John have to paint the number nine (9)?

Asked by Neha on 24 Feb 2024

👉 I am a 7 letter word.
👉 I like mornings
👉 If you remove my 1st letter you can drink me
👉 If you remove my 1st & 2nd letters 👉 you may not like me
👉 If you remove my last letter, you will see me on television
👉Answer is really very interesting
Let us see who solves this....

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021

Two friends Smith and Andrew were talking about the bravery of their families. Smith told great stories about his courageous grandfather who fought for Britain in "World War I". Andrew told that his grandfather was so brave that in 1919 just after the war he was honoured with a bravery medal with the words "For our Courageous Soldiers In World War I" embedded into it. Smith knows that his friend is lying. How?

Asked by Neha on 09 Mar 2026


In a fruit store, there was a unique weighing machine that was made to weigh only cherries and strawberries as they were priced the same.

Other fruits like watermelons or mango had different machines as they were expensive.

A man successfully buys watermelons at the price of cherries. How?

Asked by Neha on 30 Apr 2023

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.