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

Living above a star, I do not burn
Eleven friends and they do not turn
I can just be visited in a sequence, not once or repeatedly
PQRS are my initials
Can you tell my name accurately?

Asked by Neha on 11 Jul 2021


Suppose you are sitting in an interview and the interviewee asks you an aptitude question.

You have three buckets with a capacity of 4 litres, 8 litres and 10 litres and you have a large tank of water. Now you have to measure 3 litres of water precisely using those buckets. How will you do it?

Asked by Neha on 04 May 2025

You along with your friend are standing in front of two houses. Each of those houses inhabits a family with two children.

Your friend tells you the below two facts:
1) On your left is a family that has a boy who likes accounts but the other child loves science.
2) On the right is a family with a seven-year-old boy and a newborn baby.

You ask him, "Does either of the family have a girl?"

To this, he replies, "I am not quite sure. But can you guess that? If you are right, I will give you $500."

Which family do you think is likely to have a girl?

Asked by Neha on 30 Nov 2024


What numbers should go on the bottom line?
3 6 9 15
8 2 10 12
11 8 19 27
19 10 29 39
? ? ? ?

Asked by Neha on 29 Apr 2022

An infinite number of mathematicians are standing behind a bar. The first asks the barman for half a pint of beer, the second for a quarter pint, the third an eighth, and so on. How many pints of beer will the barman need to fulfill all mathematicians' wishes?

Asked by Neha on 26 Feb 2023

While going to your grandmother's house, you counted Twenty houses on the right side. While returning back to your home, you counted Twenty houses on the left side.

How many houses are there between your home and your grandmother's home?

Asked by Neha on 20 Feb 2024


A man was gazing through the window of the 23rd floor of the building. He suddenly opened the window and jumped on the other side of the window. On landing on the floor, there was not a sheer mark of injury on him.

How can that be possible if he did not use any kind of parachute and did not land on a soft surface?

Asked by Neha on 12 Feb 2025

Joseph buys three kinds of chocolates for 100 rupees. The first one is priced at 5 rupees, second one at 3 rupees and third one at 0.5 rupees.

If he bought 100 chocolates in total, how many pieces do you think he bought each chocolate?

Asked by Neha on 04 Jan 2021

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Asked by Neha on 29 Dec 2025


Before the start of the car race, John and Jacob have the same amount of fuel in their car. With this fuel, John can drive for 4 hours while Jacob can drive five hours.
After a time they realize that the amount of fuel left in John's car is 1/4th of the fuel in Jacob's.

For how long they are racing?

Asked by Neha on 30 Jan 2026

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.