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30 Riddles for 10 Year Olds

Ten-year-olds want to be genuinely stumped, and they can tell when a riddle has been made easy for them. So this set includes real lateral-thinking puzzles and a few classics that adults get wrong too. Several have answers worth arguing about, which is half the point.

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From Emma: Let them argue with the answer. If a ten-year-old can explain why their answer also works, they have done the harder thing than solving it.

  1. A man looks at a painting and says, "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is in the painting?

  2. I am lighter than a feather, yet the strongest person alive cannot hold me for five minutes. What am I?

  3. What can you keep after giving it to somebody else?

  4. A woman shoots her husband, then holds him underwater for five minutes, then hangs him. Ten minutes later they go out to dinner. How?

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

  6. A boy pushes his car up to a hotel, then tells the owner he is bankrupt. What is going on?

  7. The more you take away from me, the larger I become. What am I?

  8. Two fathers and two sons go fishing. They catch three fish, and each takes exactly one home. How?

  9. I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?

  10. What English word contains three consecutive double letters?

  11. A plane crashes exactly on the border of two countries. Where do they bury the survivors?

  12. You are in a race and you overtake the person in second place. What position are you now in?

  13. How can a man go eight days without any sleep at all?

  14. What can travel around the world while staying stuck in a corner?

  15. A farmer has a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain, and a boat that fits only him and one other thing. Left alone, the fox eats the chicken and the chicken eats the grain. How does he get all three across?

  16. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?

  17. What has a head and a tail, but no body, and can be flipped to make a decision?

  18. What occurs twice in a week, once in a year, but never in a day?

  19. A father and son are in a car crash. The father dies and the son is rushed to hospital. The surgeon says, "I cannot operate — this boy is my son." How?

  20. What five-letter word stays the same even when you remove the first, third and last letter?

  21. You see a boat full of people, but there is not a single person on board. How?

  22. What goes up and down a staircase without ever moving?

  23. Which weighs more: a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?

  24. A man is found dead in a field with an unopened package beside him. What happened?

  25. What word looks the same upside down and backwards?

  26. Two babies are born at the exact same second, but they do not share a birthday. How?

  27. If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you no longer have me. What am I?

  28. How many times can you subtract five from twenty-five?

  29. What has thirteen hearts, thirteen spades and no body at all?

  30. A man builds a house where all four walls face south. A bear walks past the window. What color is the bear?

← 9 year olds

Want these on paper?

Riddles are free to print right here. If your 10-year-old would also like 50 gentle printable pages — tracing, matching, counting, little puzzles — I’ll send them over.

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