50 Trivia Questions Only Geniuses Will Get Right
From tricky riddles to U.S. trivia to mind-boggling math puzzles, see how you fare against these challenging trivia questions.
Trivia question #6:
You’re trapped in a room with two doors. Only one door will lead you out of the room safely, but you don’t know which. A guard stands in front of each door. One guard always lies, the other always tells the truth, but you don’t know which is which. You can only ask one guard one question. What question do you ask, and what do you do once the guard has answered?
A. “Which is the safe door?” Go through the door the guard tells you.
B. “Which is the safe door?” Go through the other door.
C. “If I were to ask the other guard which was the safe door, which door would s/he say?” Go through that door.
D. “If I were to ask the other guard which was the safe door, which door would s/he say?” Go through the other door.
Answer: D. “If I were to ask the other guard which was the safe door, which door would s/he say?” Go through the other door.
If you chose the lying guard, the lying guard is telling you the door that the truthful guard would not say is safe. If you chose the truthful guard, the truthful guard is telling you the door that the lying guard would say is safe. Either way, the door the guard responds with is not the safe door. Go through the other door and you’re out! If you got that one right, you might be ready to try to solve 25 of the toughest riddles ever.
Answer: D. White
These majestic birds were named for their white feathers… not for their round, smooth heads that kind of make them look bald. Here’s some more fascinating trivia about America.
Trivia question #9:
Lizzie, Isaac, Justine, and Mike each bought a different dessert. One of them bought a cupcake; one bought a doughnut; one bought a brownie; one bought ice cream. One spent $1; one spent $2; one spent $3; and one spent $4. Using the set of clues below, who bought the ice cream?
- CLUE 1: Lizzie spent more money than Justine.
- CLUE 2: Justine bought the brownie.
- CLUE 3: Of the person who spent $1 and the person who spent $4, one of them was Lizzie and the other one bought the doughnut.
- CLUE 4: The person who bought the cupcake, the person who bought the brownie, the person who spent $2, and Isaac are all different people.
Who bought the ice cream?
A. Lizzie
B. Isaac
C. Justine
D. Mike
[Source: Buzzfeed]
Answer: D. Mike
- We know (because of Clue 3) that Lizzie spent either $1 or $4. Because of Clue 1, we also know Lizzie spent more money than Justine, which means Lizzie can’t have spent $1 (the lowest amount). So Lizzie spent $4. Because of Clue 3, this means that the person who did spend $1 bought the doughnut.
- Clue 2 says that Justine bought the brownie. Because of Clue 4, we then know that Justine didn’t spend $2, since the $2-spender and the brownie-buyer are not the same person. We also know that Isaac didn’t buy the cupcake (or the brownie) or spend $2.
- Therefore, since we already know Lizzie spent $4, Mike is the only one who could have spent $2.
- Since the $1-spender and the doughnut-buyer are the same person, this has to be Isaac—he’s now the only one who doesn’t have either dessert or money accounted for yet.
- That leaves Justine having spent $3.
- Clue 4 says that the person who spent $2 and the person who bought the cupcake are not the same. Since Mike spent the $2, Lizzie must have bought the cupcake.
- This leaves us with our answer: Mike bought the ice cream!
If you figured that out, reward yourself with your dessert of choice. Oh, and you might be ready to tackle this logic puzzle invented by Albert Einstein himself.
Trivia question #10:
Once you work out the answer, see if you can figure out which letter never appears in any U.S. state name.
