45 Math Brain Teasers for Kids

Improve problem-solving skills with these fun brain teasers

Author
Carla Greenwood

Expert Reviewer
Jill Padfield

Published: August 24, 2023

45 Math Brain Teasers for Kids

Improve problem-solving skills with these fun brain teasers

Author
Carla Greenwood

Expert Reviewer
Jill Padfield

Published: August 24, 2023

45 Math Brain Teasers for Kids

Improve problem-solving skills with these fun brain teasers

Author
Carla Greenwood

Expert Reviewer
Jill Padfield

Published: August 24, 2023

Key takeaways

Math brain teasers improve life skills – Consistently doing brain teasers has been shown to improve academic focus, critical thinking, and confidence.
Start with easy brain teasers – First introduce simple problems, and then work up to more complex problems once your kids have grasped the basics.
Brain teasers encourage a love of learning – Brain teasers are a lot like games, which makes them fun for young children and adults alike.

Table of contents

Have you ever heard your kids say any of the following? :

Math is boring.

Math is too difficult, I don’t get it!

I don’t like math.

Though this reaction is fairly common, there is a solution! Math brain teasers encourage out-of-the-box thinking in a fun and engaging way. They often require logical thinking rather than needing a child to be a math expert. So, many kids don’t even realize they’re learning.

Math brain teasers are a great way to relax students at the beginning of a class and to inspire a love of learning at home.

Why are math brain teasers valuable?

Math brain teasers are a form of game-based learning that have many benefits for young minds if practiced regularly.

Here are some of the ways that math brain teasers can aid child development:

Math brain teasers improve critical thinking skills. Math brain teasers require children to pay attention to small details to solve a problem. This encourages them to analyze information and consider different perspectives.
They foster problem-solving skills. Math brain teasers teach children how to break a challenge down into smaller chunks and look at a problem from all angles. This improves their troubleshooting ability and logical reasoning skills.
They boost confidence and resilience. Finally finding the correct answer to a puzzle is exciting! Children feel accomplished and ready to try another puzzle. Kids are also more likely to persist with something they enjoy. If you’ve ever tried to get your child to stop playing a video game, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about!
Math brain teasers build teamwork skills. Children will often work together to solve a problem. It’s also a great way to improve family or friendship bonds.
Math problems boost creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Children are naturally curious and love to explore novel ideas. Since math brain teasers have unconventional solutions, they allow children to explore their creativity and expand their imagination.

Whether children are tackling math riddles or visual puzzles, brain teasers develop cognitive skills which can improve academic performance and general life skills.

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45 Fun, engaging brain teasers for kids

Now, let’s dive into some of the different brain teasers you can try out with your children:

1. There are seven apples and you take away three of them. How many apples do you have?

The answer is three because that’s how many apples you took.

2. When does 9+5=2?

This equation is correct when we think in terms of time: 9 a.m. + 5 hours = 2 p.m.

3. People can feel me but never touch me, I can fly your kite or sail your ship. What am I?

The answer is wind.

4. A merchant can fit 10 large boxes or 8 small boxes into a container for shipping. In one shipment, he sent 96 boxes. If there were more large boxes than small boxes, how many full containers did he ship?

The answer is 11 containers:

7 large boxes (7×8=56 boxes)

4 small boxes (4×10=40 boxes)

Therefore the merchant shipped 96 boxes in 11 containers.

5. Multiply this number with any other number and you will always get the same answer. What’s the number?

The answer is zero.

6. How many sides does a circle have?

The answer is two: inside and outside.

7. How many squares do you see in the image below:

Hint: It’s not nine!

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8. One grandmother, two mothers, and two daughters went on a trip to the zoo together and bought one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy?

The answer is three. The grandmother is also a mother and the mother is also a daughter. So, there were only three people.

9. What is the maximum number of times you can subtract five from 25?

The answer is once. This is because when you subtract five from 25 it becomes 20. So, from here on, you are no longer subtracting from 25.

10. If you toss a coin 50 times and it always lands on heads. What is the chance that it will land on heads with your next throw?

The answer is a 50/50 chance. There are two sides to a coin, so every throw has a 50% chance of landing on heads. The number of throws doesn’t make a difference in the chance of each throw.

11. I appear twice in the morning and twice in the evening. But I only appear once at night. What am I?

The answer is the letter N.

12. The river crossing problem:

A farmer is traveling with a fox, a goose, and a sack of beans. He comes across a river with a boat, but he can only take one item with him at a time.

If he leaves the goose with the fox, the fox will eat it. If he leaves the goose with the beans, the goose will eat them. How does he get everyone across safely?

Here’s the step by step solution to the problem:

The farmer brings the goose across the river first.
The farmer then brings the fox across and takes the goose back with him.
He then takes the beans across, leaving the goose alone.
The fox and the beans are now on the other side of the river.
He goes back for the goose and brings it to the other side.
He now has all three on the same side of the river.

13. Using only addition, how can you get to 1000 by using only 8’s?

The answer is 888+88+8+8+8=1000. The trick to this riddle is to find the closest number to 1000 using only 8s (888). From there it’s easier to work out the rest.

14: Which glass contains the most water?

The answer is the glass with the paperclip inside. All of the glasses look like they have the same amount of water in them. But, this doesn’t take into account the weight of the objects inside the glasses. If you remove the larger objects, the water will go down more than if you remove smaller objects. We don’t know the exact size of each item but we can work out that the paperclip is definitely the smallest.

15. What is the value of a yellow triangle? Solve this equation by working out the value of each shape:

The first equation has three red circles. 12➗3 = 4, which means the value of each circle must be 4.
We now know that the red circle is 4. So, the diamond in the second equation must have a value of 2 because 6 – 4 = 2
In the third equation, the diamond represents the number 2. Therefore, 12 – 2 = 10. Since we have two triangles, we need to divide 10 by 2 which is 5. So, each triangle has a value of 5.

16. Which single digit appears most frequently between (and including) numbers 1-1000?

The answer is 1.

17. Work out the answer that should replace the ? in this diagram.

Hint: This math brain teaser uses addition.

The answer is 17 because each circle is the total of the two digits in the opposite quadrants:

18. Mr. Blue lives in the blue house. Mrs. Pink lives in the pink house and Mr. Purple lives in the purple house. So, who lives in the white house?

The answer is the president. This is a bit of a tricky riddle because you would automatically think it’s Mr. White.

19. Your sock drawer contains 26 white socks and 30 black socks. The light is off so you can’t see the color of the socks. How many socks do you need to grab to ensure you have a matching pair?

The answer is three. Even in the worst case scenario, you will pick out one black sock and one white sock. So the third one you pick is bound to match one of them.

20. Which weighs more, 16 ounces of feathers or a pound of solid gold?

The answer is they both weigh the same because 16 ounces equals one pound.

21. What 5-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

The answer is short. When you add the letters e and r, the word becomes “shorter.”

22. I am as light as a feather but even the world’s strongest man can’t hold me for more than 5 minutes. What am I?

The answer is breath. No one can hold their breath for longer than a few minutes, not even the strongest person in the world.

23. The butcher is 5ft 11 inches tall and he has size 9 feet. What does he weigh?

The answer is meat because he works in a butcher shop. So, he weighs meat for a living.

24. A hotel has eight floors. Four people live on the ground floor, and each floor has two more people living on it than the previous level. Which floor calls the elevator the most?

The answer is the ground floor. Everyone living on the other floors will still need to call the elevator there to then get to their own floors.

25. You are a bus driver on your daily route. At the first stop, five people get on and no one gets off. You drive eight miles until you get to the second stop where four people get on and three get off. After another ten miles, you reach the third stop where six people get on and five get off. What color are the bus driver’s eyes?

You are the bus driver, so the bus driver’s eyes are the color of your eyes!

26. There is 900 ml of water in a jug and each cup can only hold 100 ml. How many cups would you need to pour out all the water equally, filling only 75% of each cup?

The answer is 12 cups. First, you need to work out what 75% of 100 ml is, which is the same as ¾. This would be 75 ml. Then, simply divide 900 by 75 or work out how many times 75 fits into 900:

75+75+75+75+75+75+75+75+75+75+75+75 = 900

900 ÷ 75 = 12

27. Divide 30 by ½ and then add 5, what’s the answer?

The answer is 65. When you divide by a fraction it actually turns into a multiplication. So you need to multiply 30 by 2, which gives you 60. Then, add 5 and you end up with 65.

28. There is a clothing store where the owner has come up with his own method of pricing his items. A tie costs $15, a shirt costs $25, a skirt costs $25, and trousers costs $40. Using this method, how much would a coat cost?

The answer is $20. The method is adding $5 for each letter in the name of the item. The word coat has four letters which means the equation would be 4×5=20.

29. What can you put between a 6 and a 7 to make the result greater than a 6 but less than a 7?

The answer is a decimal. 6.7 is greater than 6 but less than 7.

30. What number should go in the space where the car is parked?

The answer is 87. Turn the image upside down and you will see that the parking lot numbers run in sequence: 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91.

31. A farmer explains the animals he keeps on his farm to a neighbor. He says “I only keep sheep, goats, and horses. At the minute, I have all sheep except three, all goats bar four, and all horses bar five.”. How many does he have of each animal?

The answer is three sheep, two goats, and one horse. He says that he has all sheep except three. So, we know that these three animals must be goats and horses. He also says that he has all goats bar four and all horses bar five.

goats + horses = 3

horses + sheep = 4

sheep + goats = 5

Use guess and check to figure out what combination of numbers satisfy these equations. Through this process, we find that he has one horse, two goats, and three sheep.

32. Mr. Bower has four daughters and each of those daughters has one brother. How many children does Mr. Bower have?

The answer is five children. The daughters all have the same brother.

33. Mrs. Howell died at a very old age. But she only had 26 birthdays. How is this possible?

The answer is that she was born on February 29th in a leap year. This only happens every four years.

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

The answer is 22+(2➗2) = 23. This may look like a complex problem but remember, in math, we always start by answering the equation in the brackets. So, 2➗2 = 1. Now we can finish the equation:

22+1 = 23

35. Can you create a true math equation using only the numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 and the symbols + and =?

The answer is 2+5 = 3+4. Both 2+5 and 3+4 equal 7.

36. Two mothers and two daughters each had one egg for breakfast, but they only ate three eggs in total. How is this possible?

The answer is that there are only three family members eating breakfast: a grandmother (also a mother), a mother (also a daughter), and a daughter.

37. I am a three-digit number. My first digit is three less than my second digit. My second digit is four times greater than my third digit. What number am I? (bonus if you can find two answers!)

There are two possible answers: 141 and 582. For 141, the number 1 is 3 less than 4, and the number 4 is four times greater than the number 1. For 582, 5 is 4 less than 8 and 8 is four times greater than 2.

38. Amy planted sunflower seeds in her back garden. Every day, the number of flowers doubles. If it takes 56 days for the flowers to fill the whole garden, how long would it take for the flowers to fill half the garden?

The answer is 55. If the number of flowers doubles every day, then half of the garden filled on the 55th day would result in the whole garden filled with flowers the next day because ½ + ½ = 1 whole.

39. Solve this pattern equation. If:

2+2 = 44

3+3 = 96

4+4 = 168

5+5 = 2510

Then what is 6+6?

The answer is 3612. The answer is the number multiplied by itself (6×6=36) combined with the number added to itself (6+6=12).

40. A farmer has 23 sheep in his field. One day, a massive storm hits and all but eight of his sheep ran away. How many sheep does he have left?

The answer is eight because the rest of them ran away.

41. Aidan works at an aquarium. When he tries to put each turtle into a separate tank, he has one turtle too many. When he tries to put two turtles into each tank, he has one tank too many. How many turtles and tanks does Aidan have?

The answer is four turtles and three tanks. One turtle in each tank would result in an additional turtle with no tank. Two turtles in each tank would leave the third tank spare.

42. This shape looks like a door and a chocolate bar. It has four sides with two sets of equal opposites. What is the shape?

The answer is a rectangle. It has two sets of equal opposite sides.

43. Freddie was given the task of painting number plates for 100 apartments. So, he had to paint all the numbers from 1 to 100. How many times did he have to paint the number 8?

The answer is 20 times (8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88(2), 89, 98).

44. If two is company and three is a crowd, what are four and five?

The answer is nine. Simply add four and five together.

45. This one-digit number is less than nine and more than two. It is also one more than the number of sides on a hexagon. What’s the number?

The answer is seven because a hexagon has six sides.

FAQs about brain teasers for kids

How do brain teasers help children?

Brain teasers help children to develop a range of important life skills including problem-solving, critical thinking, and memory retention. Fun brain teasers also encourage children to persist with a problem and increase confidence.

Can brain teasers help with critical thinking skills?

Brain teasers require children to look at a problem from all angles and consider an alternative perspective. By regularly practicing brain teasers, children learn how to analyze small details and use logic to solve an issue they’re facing.

Are there any disadvantages to brain teasers for kids?

Brain teasers have many benefits for children. However, it’s important to start slow to prevent your child from getting frustrated. Once your child has mastered the basics, then they can move on to more complicated brain teasers.

Can brain teasers help with getting into college?

Brain teasers are a great way for children to develop essential life skills that will improve academic performance as well as persistence and dedication. Moreover, brain teasers are beneficial for people of all ages, including college-age students and adults, since they improve memory and encourage critical thinking.

Lesson credits

Carla Greenwood

Carla has been a freelance writer and editor for over 15 years. She started out writing pet behavior articles for a national magazine in the UK and holds a BSc in Animal Behavior from the University of Cambridge. She also launched her own parent and child magazine in her local community, with a focus on education and development. Carla truly believes that creative learning methods and understanding the needs of each individual child are the keys to successfully engaging children in education. In fact, she regularly comes up with innovative games and projects to further her own 9-year-old daughter’s passion for math.

Carla Greenwood

Parents, sign up for a DoodleMath subscription and see your child become a math wizard!

45 Math Brain Teasers for Kids

45 Math Brain Teasers for Kids

45 Math Brain Teasers for Kids

Why are math brain teasers valuable?

Counting

Operations

Base ten

Measurement and data

Geometry

Fractions

45 Fun, engaging brain teasers for kids

1. There are seven apples and you take away three of them. How many apples do you have?

2. When does 9+5=2?

3. People can feel me but never touch me, I can fly your kite or sail your ship. What am I?

4. A merchant can fit 10 large boxes or 8 small boxes into a container for shipping. In one shipment, he sent 96 boxes. If there were more large boxes than small boxes, how many full containers did he ship?

5. Multiply this number with any other number and you will always get the same answer. What’s the number?

6. How many sides does a circle have?

7. How many squares do you see in the image below:

8. One grandmother, two mothers, and two daughters went on a trip to the zoo together and bought one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy?

9. What is the maximum number of times you can subtract five from 25?

10. If you toss a coin 50 times and it always lands on heads. What is the chance that it will land on heads with your next throw?

11. I appear twice in the morning and twice in the evening. But I only appear once at night. What am I?

12. The river crossing problem:

13. Using only addition, how can you get to 1000 by using only 8’s?

14: Which glass contains the most water?

15. What is the value of a yellow triangle? Solve this equation by working out the value of each shape:

16. Which single digit appears most frequently between (and including) numbers 1-1000?

17. Work out the answer that should replace the ? in this diagram.

18. Mr. Blue lives in the blue house. Mrs. Pink lives in the pink house and Mr. Purple lives in the purple house. So, who lives in the white house?

19. Your sock drawer contains 26 white socks and 30 black socks. The light is off so you can’t see the color of the socks. How many socks do you need to grab to ensure you have a matching pair?

20. Which weighs more, 16 ounces of feathers or a pound of solid gold?

21. What 5-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

22. I am as light as a feather but even the world’s strongest man can’t hold me for more than 5 minutes. What am I?

23. The butcher is 5ft 11 inches tall and he has size 9 feet. What does he weigh?

24. A hotel has eight floors. Four people live on the ground floor, and each floor has two more people living on it than the previous level. Which floor calls the elevator the most?

26. There is 900 ml of water in a jug and each cup can only hold 100 ml. How many cups would you need to pour out all the water equally, filling only 75% of each cup?

27. Divide 30 by ½ and then add 5, what’s the answer?

28. There is a clothing store where the owner has come up with his own method of pricing his items. A tie costs $15, a shirt costs $25, a skirt costs $25, and trousers costs $40. Using this method, how much would a coat cost?

29. What can you put between a 6 and a 7 to make the result greater than a 6 but less than a 7?

30. What number should go in the space where the car is parked?

31. A farmer explains the animals he keeps on his farm to a neighbor. He says “I only keep sheep, goats, and horses. At the minute, I have all sheep except three, all goats bar four, and all horses bar five.”. How many does he have of each animal?

32. Mr. Bower has four daughters and each of those daughters has one brother. How many children does Mr. Bower have?

33. Mrs. Howell died at a very old age. But she only had 26 birthdays. How is this possible?

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

35. Can you create a true math equation using only the numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 and the symbols + and =?

36. Two mothers and two daughters each had one egg for breakfast, but they only ate three eggs in total. How is this possible?

37. I am a three-digit number. My first digit is three less than my second digit. My second digit is four times greater than my third digit. What number am I? (bonus if you can find two answers!)

38. Amy planted sunflower seeds in her back garden. Every day, the number of flowers doubles. If it takes 56 days for the flowers to fill the whole garden, how long would it take for the flowers to fill half the garden?

39. Solve this pattern equation. If:

40. A farmer has 23 sheep in his field. One day, a massive storm hits and all but eight of his sheep ran away. How many sheep does he have left?

41. Aidan works at an aquarium. When he tries to put each turtle into a separate tank, he has one turtle too many. When he tries to put two turtles into each tank, he has one tank too many. How many turtles and tanks does Aidan have?

42. This shape looks like a door and a chocolate bar. It has four sides with two sets of equal opposites. What is the shape?

43. Freddie was given the task of painting number plates for 100 apartments. So, he had to paint all the numbers from 1 to 100. How many times did he have to paint the number 8?

44. If two is company and three is a crowd, what are four and five?

45. This one-digit number is less than nine and more than two. It is also one more than the number of sides on a hexagon. What’s the number?

FAQs about brain teasers for kids

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