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 count the number of triangles in the picture below?

Count the Triangle

Asked by Neha on 11 Apr 2024


John is on an island and there are three crates of fruit that have washed up in front of him. One crate contains only apples. One crate contains only oranges. The other crate contains both apples and oranges.

Each crate is labelled. One reads 'apples', one reads 'oranges', and one reads 'apples and oranges'. He know that NONE of the crates have been labeled correctly - they are all wrong.

If he can only take out and look at just one of the pieces of fruit from just one of the crates, how can he label all of the crates correctly?

Asked by Neha on 07 Jan 2024

The chance of Mr John winning the lottery is 10%. All participants lined up and Mr John is 4th in the row. The first three participants lose the lottery.

What is the chance of Mr John now?

Asked by Neha on 09 Aug 2023


Whats the next number in the below number sequence pattern.

Picture Pattern Riddle

Asked by Neha on 12 Nov 2025

The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The greenhouse is on the immediate left of the white house.
5. The greenhouse’s owner drinks coffee.
6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The owner living in the centre house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
12. The owner who smokes blue masters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water.
Now, the question is…Who owns the fish?

Asked by Neha on 12 Sep 2025

What does this rebus riddle means ?

All Again Rebus

Asked by Neha on 15 Jul 2021


A King wants to send the diamond ring to his girlfriend securely. He got multiple locks and their corresponding keys. His girlfriend does not have any keys to these locks and if he sends the key without a lock, the key can be copied in the way. How can King send the ring to his girlfriend securely?

Asked by Neha on 03 Oct 2025

Find the next number in the series

12, 20, 40, 72, 116, 172 ?

Asked by Neha on 19 Oct 2025

A man was just doing his job when his suit was torn. Why did he die three minutes later?

Asked by Neha on 15 Sep 2021


A Shopkeeper collects 71 rupees in the form of 20 paisa and 25 paisa.
He collects a total of 324 coins.

Can you tell me how many number of 20-paisa and 25-paisa he got?

Asked by Neha on 31 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.