Logic puzzles for kids are short questions that make them think before they answer: sequences, thinking traps, “who is who” puzzles and river crossings. Below are 30 logic puzzles with the answer and a quick explanation right after each one, sorted by age: easy ones for 5 and 6, medium for 7 and 8, hard for 9 and 10, plus a few for the whole family. They all work out loud, with no paper and no drawings.

If your child loves the “what am I” kind of riddle, try our riddles for kids with answers. This list is different: it’s about reasoning step by step.

How to use these puzzles

Read the puzzle slowly, just once, and wait. The silence is part of it: that’s when your child is thinking. If they get stuck, repeat the question instead of giving the answer. Once they answer, ask “how did you figure it out?”. Explaining the path counts as much as getting it right.

Easy logic puzzles (ages 5 and 6)

Concrete clues and one trick at a time. If needed, read the question again more slowly.

If yesterday was Sunday, what day is today? Answer: Monday. Monday always comes right after Sunday.
Red, blue, red, blue, red... which color comes next? Answer: blue. The two colors take turns.
Which one doesn’t belong: cat, dog, apple, horse? Answer: the apple. It’s a fruit, and the others are animals.
There are 3 apples on the table. You take 2. How many apples do you have? Answer: 2. Those are the ones you took. One is left on the table, but the question was about you.
Pigúiça is taller than Fofuxo. Fofuxo is taller than the little bird. Who is the shortest of the three? Answer: the little bird. It’s smaller than Fofuxo, and Fofuxo is smaller than Pigúiça.
2, 4, 6, 8... what number comes next? Answer: 10. The numbers jump by 2 each time.
A rooster lays an egg on the very top of a roof. Which way does the egg roll? Answer: no way at all. Roosters don’t lay eggs, hens do.
There are 6 eggs in the fridge. You crack 2, fry 2 and eat 2. How many eggs are left in the fridge? Answer: 4. The eggs you cracked, fried and ate are the same 2 eggs.

Medium puzzles (ages 7 and 8)

These are the traps that need close attention to every word.

How many months of the year have 28 days? Answer: all 12. Every month has at least 28 days. February is simply the only one with just 28, or 29 in a leap year.
In a race, you pass the person in second place. What place are you in now? Answer: second. You took their spot, and the leader is still ahead of you.
1, 2, 4, 8, 16... what number comes next? Answer: 32. Each number is double the one before.
Amy, Ben and Carl each like a different color: blue, green or yellow. Amy doesn’t like blue or green. Ben doesn’t like blue. Who likes which color? Answer: Amy likes yellow, Ben likes green and Carl likes blue. Once Amy has yellow, green is the only one left for Ben, and blue goes to Carl.
Mary’s father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini and Nono. What is the fifth daughter’s name? Answer: Mary. She was named at the very start of the question.
An electric train is heading north and the wind is blowing south. Which way does the smoke go? Answer: nowhere. Electric trains don’t make smoke.
Which is heavier: a kilo of rocks or a kilo of feathers? Answer: they weigh the same, one kilo each. The feathers just take up much more space.
A mother has 3 sons, and each son has one sister. How many children does she have in total? Answer: 4. Three boys and one girl, and she is the sister of all of them.

Hard puzzles (ages 9 and 10)

These ask kids to hold several facts in their head at once. Thinking out loud helps.

A farmer has to cross a river with a wolf, a goat and a cabbage. The boat holds only him and one more thing. Left alone, the wolf eats the goat and the goat eats the cabbage. How does he do it? Answer: he takes the goat across and comes back alone. He takes the wolf and comes back with the goat. He leaves the goat, takes the cabbage and comes back alone. Finally, he takes the goat. The trick is bringing the goat back once.
A snail is at the bottom of a well 10 meters deep. Each day it climbs 3 meters, and each night it slides back 2. How many days until it gets out? Answer: 8 days. It gains 1 meter a day, so it starts day 8 at 7 meters. That day it climbs 3, reaches 10 and gets out before it can slide back.
If 5 cats catch 5 balls of yarn in 5 minutes, how many cats are needed to catch 100 balls of yarn in 100 minutes? Answer: 5 cats. Each cat catches 1 ball every 5 minutes, which is 20 balls in 100 minutes. Five cats catch 100.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8... what number comes next? Answer: 13. Each number is the sum of the two before it: 5 plus 8 is 13.
A brick weighs 1 kilo plus half a brick. How much does the whole brick weigh? Answer: 2 kilos. If the brick is half a brick plus 1 kilo, then the other half weighs 1 kilo. Two halves of 1 kilo make 2.
Someone ate the cookie. Fofuxo says: “It wasn’t me.” Pigúiça says: “The owl did it.” The owl says: “Pigúiça is lying.” Only one of the three is telling the truth. Who ate the cookie? Answer: Fofuxo. Pigúiça and the owl say the exact opposite of each other, so one of them is telling the truth. Since there is only one true statement, Fofuxo lied, and he ate it.
There are three boxes: one with only apples, one with only oranges and one with both. Every label is wrong. You may pull out a single fruit from one box without looking inside. Which box do you pick from to fix all the labels? Answer: the box labeled “mixed”. Its label is wrong, so it holds only one kind of fruit. If you pull out an apple, it’s the apple box. The box labeled “oranges” can’t be oranges, so it’s the mixed one. And the box labeled “apples” is the oranges.
I am 10, which is twice my brother’s age. When I am 20, how old will he be? Answer: 15. He is 5 now, and we are always 5 years apart. Lots of people say 10, and that’s the trap.

Challenges for the whole family

Great for the dinner table or a long winter evening. Grown ups get these wrong too, and that’s half the fun.

Four friends must cross a bridge at night with just one flashlight. At most two can cross at a time, always with the flashlight, and a pair walks at the slower one’s pace. One takes 1 minute, one 2, one 5 and one 10. How do they all cross in 17 minutes? Answer: 1 and 2 cross (2 minutes). 1 walks back with the flashlight (1). 5 and 10 cross together (10). 2 walks back (2). 1 and 2 cross again (2). Total: 17. The secret is sending the two slowest together.
You have a 3 liter bucket and a 5 liter bucket, with no markings. How do you get exactly 4 liters of water? Answer: fill the 5 and pour it into the 3, leaving 2 in the 5. Empty the 3 and pour those 2 liters into it. Fill the 5 again and top up the 3, which only takes 1 more liter. That leaves 4 liters in the 5 liter bucket.
Outside a closed room there are three switches. Only one turns on the light inside, an old bulb, the kind that gets hot. You can go into the room only once. How do you find the right switch? Answer: turn on the first switch, wait a few minutes and turn it off. Turn on the second and walk in. If the bulb is on, it’s the second. If it’s off but warm, it’s the first. If it’s off and cold, it’s the third. In real life, a grown up is the one who checks if a bulb is hot.
A man looks at a portrait and says: “Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the portrait? Answer: his son. Since he has no brothers, “my father’s son” is himself. So he is the father of the man in the portrait.
1, 4, 9, 16, 25... what number comes next? Answer: 36. They are 1 times 1, 2 times 2, 3 times 3, and so on. Next is 6 times 6.
A duck in front of two ducks, a duck behind two ducks and a duck between two ducks. How many ducks are there? Answer: 3 ducks in a row. The first is in front of the other two, the last is behind two, and the middle one is between two.

Tips to get more out of each puzzle

Let them be wrong. A wrong answer shows where the reasoning took a turn, and that makes for a great conversation.

Swap roles. After a few puzzles, ask your child to make one up for you. Inventing a trick question means understanding how it works.

One a day is enough. A puzzle at breakfast or on the way to school becomes an easy habit that never feels like homework.

For more thinking questions, see our brain teasers with answers. And if the problem solving mood keeps going, Pigúiça’s free game runs in the browser, with no sign up and no ads. Families who love stories can also meet the Dogavios book, with Pigúiça and Fofuxo in the Magic Garden.

Frequently asked questions

At what age can kids start solving logic puzzles?

Simple sequences and “which one doesn’t belong” questions usually work well from about age 5. Trick questions that depend on every word tend to get easier a little later. Every child has their own pace, so treat the ages in each section as a starting point only.

What if my child can’t get the answer?

Repeat the puzzle and give a small hint, like “listen to the first sentence again”. If it still doesn’t click, share the answer and walk through the reasoning. The next day, ask the same puzzle: getting it right the second time is learning too.

Is a logic puzzle the same as a riddle?

Not quite. A riddle describes something so the child can guess what it is. A logic puzzle asks them to follow rules and reach a conclusion, like the river crossing or the boxes with the wrong labels. The two go really well together.

Logic puzzles for kids: 30 with answers

Your next adventure could be a moment together.