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

Jack and Joseph are well-known golf rivals. One Day during a match, they were level at a score of 30. Jack hit a bad shot and Joseph added 10 to his score. Joseph then hit an awesome shot and he won the game.

How ?

Asked by Neha on 02 Jan 2021


Solve The below Equation:

ALFA + BETA + GAMA = DELTA

Asked by Neha on 20 Jul 2023

Three cars are driving on a track that forms a perfect circle and is wide enough that multiple cars can pass anytime. The car that is leading in the race right now is driving at 55 MPH and the car that is trailing at the last is going at 45 MPH. The car that is in the middle is somewhere between these two speeds.
Right now, you can assume that there is a distance of x miles between the leading car and the middle car and x miles between the middle car and the last car and also, x is not equal to 0 or 1.
The cars maintain their speed till the leading car catches up with the last car and then every car stops. In this scenario, do you think of any point when the distance between any two pairs will again be x miles i.e. the pairs will be x distance apart at the same time ?

Asked by Neha on 08 May 2021


A sea diver is a real show-off. He showed everyone that he can hold his breath underwater for 15 minutes.

I went to the diver and told him that I can be underwater for double the time i.e 30 minutes.
He responded that he will give me 100$ if I would be able to do it. I won 100$.

What did I do?

Asked by Neha on 06 Mar 2025

What is the word or phrase?


HOROBOD Rebus riddle

Asked by Neha on 10 May 2021

Rumel, A detective who was mere days from cracking an international smuggling ring has suddenly gone missing. While inspecting his last-known location, you find a note:

710 57735 34 5508 51 7718

Currently, there are 3 suspects: Bill, John, and Todd. Can you break the detective's code and find the criminal's name?

Crack the Detective Code

Asked by Neha on 15 Mar 2021


A fresh card pile is taken out of a box (the pile has 54 cards including 2 jokers). One joker is taken out and then the cards are shuffled for a good amount of times. After shuffling, two piles are made by dividing that one pile.



What is the possibility that one of the piles will have a card sequence from A to K in order?

Card Mixing Riddle

Asked by Neha on 04 Apr 2021

Kareena is older than Katrina and younger than Karishma. Isabelle is younger than Bipasha and Karishma. Bipasha is older than Karishma. If Kareena and Isabelle are the same age, who's the youngest?

Asked by Neha on 31 Mar 2025

What does an Island and the letter T have in common?

Asked by Neha on 18 Feb 2023


I sleep during the day and fly at night, but I have no feathers to aid my flight. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 28 Oct 2025

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Challenging

There is a cryptic organization called Cicada 3301 that posts challenging puzzles online, possibly to recruit codebreakers and linguists.