85 brain teasers for kids that make learning fun (with answers)

Need an entertaining and educational way to keep your kids engaged? Brain teasers challenge young minds and provide loads of fun along the way. Whether you want to boost their problem-solving skills or share a few laughs as a family, brain teasers are always a hit. 

We've created a collection of brain teasers for kids, including riddles, logic puzzles, and math challenges to test your child’s curious mind. 

What are brain teasers? 

Brain teasers are puzzles, questions, or problems that challenge your mind to think outside the box. They often require lateral thinking, creativity, or logical reasoning. While they're designed to be fun, they're also an excellent way to exercise the brain. 

For kids, brain teasers are a fun mix of education and entertainment that can help them develop problem-solving skills, improve memory, and even boost their confidence when they find a solution. 

Benefits of brainteasers for kids 

Why should you add brain teasers to your routine? Here's what they can do for your child's development: 

• Strengthen problem-solving skills: Brain teasers encourage kids to think critically and explore different approaches to solve problems. 

• Boost memory: Many puzzles test memory recall, training children to store and access information more effectively. 

• Encourage creativity: Abstract or lateral-thinking teasers help kids explore creative solutions. 

• Boost family bonding time: Sitting down together to solve puzzles fosters connection and creates lifelong memories. 

Language-based brainteasers for kids 

Riddles and word games spark creativity while expanding kids' vocabulary and comprehension. Here are some fun ones to challenge your child’s mind: 

1. What has to be broken before you can use it? 

  Answer: An egg 

2. What gets wetter as it dries? 

  Answer: A towel

3. I follow you all the time and copy your every move, but you can’t touch me or catch me. What am I? 

  Answer: Your shadow

4. What word contains 26 letters but only 3 syllables? 

  Answer: Alphabet

5. What begins with an E, ends with an E, and contains only one letter? 

  Answer: An envelope

6. I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I? 

  Answer: A candle

7. What has one eye but can’t see? 

  Answer: A needle 

8. What has hands but can’t clap? 

  Answer: A clock

9. What runs all around a backyard but never moves? 

  Answer: A fence 

10. What has a neck but no head? 

   Answer: A bottle 

11. The more of this you take, the more you leave behind. What is it? 

   Answer: Footsteps 

12. What can you catch but not throw? 

   Answer: A cold 

13. What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and rivers, but no water? 

   Answer: A map 

14. What comes down but never goes up? 

   Answer: Rain 

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15. What starts with a P, ends with an E, and has thousands of letters? 

   Answer: A post office 

16. What has a heart but no other organs? 

   Answer: A deck of cards 

17. What has four wheels and flies? 

   Answer: A garbage truck 

18. What is full of holes but still holds water? 

   Answer: A sponge 

19. What can you keep after giving it to someone? 

   Answer: Your word 

20. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five? 

   Answer: Nine 

21. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock? 

   Answer: A piano 

22. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen? 

   Answer: The future 

23. What flies without wings? 

   Answer: Time 

24. What can travel around the world while staying in the same corner? 

   Answer: A stamp 

25. The more you take out of me, the bigger I get. What am I? 

   Answer: A hole 

26. What has an end but no beginning, a home but no family, and a space but no room? 

   Answer: A keyboard 

27. What has no body and no wings but can fly? 

   Answer: A kite 

28. A cowboy arrived in town on Monday, stayed three days, and left on Monday. How is this possible? 

Answer: His horse's name is Monday. 

29. What has a head, a tail, but no body? 

Answer: A coin 

30. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it? 

Answer: Silence 

31. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years? 

Answer: The letter “M” 

32. I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest person can’t hold me for long. What am I? 

Answer: Your breath 

33. The more you have of me, the less you see. What am I? 

Answer: Darkness 

34. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I? 

Answer: An echo 

35. What can run but never walks, has a bed but never sleeps, and has a mouth but never talks? 

Answer: A river 

36. What has a bottom at the top? 

Answer: Your legs 

37. What belongs to you but is used by others more than yourself? 

Answer: Your name 

38. What’s full of holes but still holds a lot of weight? 

Answer: A net 

39. I have branches, but no trunk, leaves, or fruit. What am I? 

Answer: A bank 

40. I’m not alive, but I can grow. I don’t have lungs, but I need air. What am I? 

Answer: Fire 

41. What has no life but can die? 

Answer: A battery 

42. What has feet but no legs? 

Answer: A ruler

43. What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

Answer: Short (it becomes "shorter").

44. What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it?

Answer: A teapot

45. What word is spelled wrong in every dictionary?

Answer: Wrong

46. If you have three, you have three. If you have two, you have two. But if you have one, you have none.

Answer: Choices

47. What loses its head in the morning and gets it back at night?

Answer: A pillow

48. What has arms and legs but no head?

Answer: A chair

49. What's black, white, and red all over? 

Answer: A newspaper

50. A blue house is made out of blue bricks and a red house is made out of red bricks. What is a greenhouse made out of?

Answer: Glass

51. The more there is, the less you see. What is it?

Answer: Fog 

52. This is always hungry and will die if you do not feed it, but if you water it, it will die. What is it? 

Answer: A fire

53. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?

Answer: Mount Everest

Math brainteasers for kids 

It can help to work other parts of your brain, so here are some math-based brainteasers to test your child’s arithmetic skills.

54. A triangle has one angle of 90° and another of 45°. What is the measure of the third angle?

Answer: 45°

55. How do you write 23 using only the number 2? 

Answer: 22 + 2/2 = 23

56. What is half of two plus two? 

Answer: 3 (half of 2 is 1, and 1 + 2 = 3) 

57. A train travels 60 miles per hour for 3 hours. If it reverses at half the speed for 1 hour, how far is it from its starting point?

Answer: 150 miles

58. What can you put between 2 and 3 so that the result is more than 2, but less than 3? 

Answer: A decimal

59. A room is 15 feet long and 10 feet wide. If you double its width, what will its new area be?

Answer: 300 square feet

60. Which weighs more: 16 ounces of feathers or a pound of coins? 

Answer: They weigh the same. 16 ounces is always 1 pound.

61. How do you make the number 7 even without adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing? 

Answer: Take out the ‘s.’ (‘Seven’ without the ‘s’ is ‘even.’)

62. When are 1300 plus 20 and 1400 minus 40 the same thing? 

Answer: When it’s military time.

63. What is the next number in this sequence? 3, 6, 12, 24, ___ 

Answer: 48 (the numbers double each time). 

64. If 5 cats catch 5 mice in 5 minutes, how many cats are needed to catch 100 mice in 100 minutes? 

Answer: Still 5. The rate stays the same. 

65. If you have a pizza cut into 8 slices and eat 3, how many slices do you have left if another pizza arrives?

Answer: 13 slices (5 + 8)

66. You spend $20 on lunch and leave a 15% tip. If you also pay $2 for parking, what’s your total expense?

Answer: $25 ($20 + $3 + $2)

67. A car travels at 50 miles per hour for 2.5 hours. If it then slows to 25 mph for 1 hour, what is the total distance traveled?

Answer: 150 miles

68. What is the next number in the pattern? 1, 4, 9, 16, ___ 

Answer: 25 (the pattern is square numbers: 1^2, 2^2, 3^2, etc.). 

69. A baker bakes 12 loaves of bread, sells half, and then bakes 4 more. How many loaves does he have now?

Answer: 10

70. If you flip a coin 3 times, what is the probability of getting heads every time? 

Answer: 1 in 8 (1/2 × 1/2 × 1/2) 

71. Mia bought 15 candies. She gave 3 to her brother, 4 to her friend, and ate 2. How many does she have left?

Answer: 6 candies

72. I am a number. Multiply me by 4, subtract 6, and then divide by 2, and you get 7. What number am I?

Answer: 5

73. I have 5 apples. You take 2 apples away. How many apples do you have?

Answer: 2 apples (because you took them)

74. A father is 42 years old, and his son is 14. In how many years will the father’s age be exactly double the son’s?

Answer: 14 years (when the father is 56, the son will be 28).

75. What time is it when the minute hand is on the 6, and the hour hand is 5 hours ahead of it?

Answer: 11:30

76. I am a two-digit number. My tens digit is 3 more than my ones digit, and the sum of my digits is 7. What number am I?

Answer: 52

77. Three years ago, I was three times as old as my sister. Now I am twice as old as she is. How old am I?

Answer: 12 years old (three years ago, the older sibling was 9 and the younger sister was 3, and now they are 12 and 6).

78. Add me to myself, then multiply by 4. Divide by 8, and you get 4. What number am I?

Answer: 4

79. You order a pizza cut into 8 slices. Your friend says they’re very hungry and want more, so you cut the pizza into 16 slices instead. Did the amount of pizza change?

Answer: No, it’s still the same pizza (just smaller slices).

80. You have 3 coins. One is a fake and weighs less. How can you find the fake coin using a balance scale only once?

Answer: Weigh two coins. If one is lighter, it’s the fake. If they’re equal, the third is the fake.

81. A farmer has 17 sheep and all but 9 run away. How many sheep does the farmer have left?

Answer: 9 sheep

82. Four people need to cross a narrow bridge at night with one flashlight. Only two can cross at a time, and they all walk at different speeds: 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes. How can they all cross in 17 minutes?

Answer: 1 and 2 cross (2 minutes), 1 returns (1 minute), 5 and 10 cross (10 minutes), 2 returns (2 minutes), 1 and 2 cross again (2 minutes). Total: 17 minutes.

83. Four friends order a pizza. If the first friend eats 1/2, the second eats 1/4, and the third eats 1/8, how much is left for the fourth friend?

Answer: 1/8 of the pizza

84. I am a two-digit number. If you reverse my digits and add them to my original number, the result is 99. What number am I?

Answer: 45 (45 + 54 = 99)

85. You are running in a race. You overtake the person in second place. What place are you in the race now?

Answer: Second (to get to first place, you need to pass the person currently in first place).

How to integrate brainteasers into your routine 

• Place a "brainteaser of the day" on your fridge. 

• Use them as a family dinner table activity to spark discussions. 

• Share them during road trips to keep kids entertained on the go. 

• Set up a mini-competition with small rewards for solving puzzles. 

Want more ways to stretch your brain?

See if you’re smarter than a fifth grader with these fun multiple-choice questions.

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