These 40 math riddles start with counting and shapes for ages 4 to 6, move on to adding, subtracting and times tables for ages 7 to 9, and finish with multi-step number puzzles for ages 10 to 12. Tap a riddle to reveal two hints, then the answer with the working shown. Print them as cards for class, car trips or homework breaks.
Counting, shapes and tiny sums that a young child can work out on their fingers.
I have three straight sides and three corners. A slice of pizza often looks like me. What shape am I?
Count my sides on your fingers.
My name starts with tri, which means three.
A triangle
Why it works: Three sides and three corners make a triangle, and tri means three.
Did you guess it?
I am perfectly round. I have no corners and no straight sides. What flat shape am I?
Think of a plate or a wheel.
A clock face and a whole pizza are this shape.
A circle
Why it works: A circle is round with no corners and no straight sides.
Did you guess it?
I have four sides that are all exactly the same length. My corners all look like the corner of a book. What shape am I?
I have four sides and four corners.
A slice of sandwich bread is shaped a lot like me.
A square
Why it works: Four equal sides with book-corner angles make a square.
Did you guess it?
I have four corners and four sides. Two of my sides are long and two are short. A door is shaped like me. What shape am I?
Look at a door or the cover of a book.
I am like a square that has been stretched.
A rectangle
Why it works: Two long sides, two short sides and four square corners make a rectangle.
Did you guess it?
You have 3 red balloons and 2 blue balloons. How many balloons do you have altogether?
Hold up 3 fingers on one hand.
Now hold up 2 fingers on the other hand and count them all.
Five
Why it works: 3 + 2 = 5.
Did you guess it?
I am the number of ears on your head. I am also the number of shoes in one pair. What number am I?
Touch your ears and count them.
You wear this many shoes at the same time, one on each foot.
Two
Why it works: You have 2 ears and a pair of shoes has 2 shoes.
Did you guess it?
I come right after 3 and right before 5. What number am I?
Count out loud: 1, 2, 3 and keep going.
Most tables have this many legs, and so does a dog.
Four
Why it works: Counting goes 3, 4, 5, so 4 sits between 3 and 5.
Did you guess it?
Five ducks are swimming in a pond. Two swim away. How many ducks are left?
Start with 5 and take some away.
Hold up 5 fingers and fold down 2.
Three
Why it works: 5 take away 2 leaves 3.
Did you guess it?
I am the number that comes between 6 and 8. What number am I?
Count up from 6 and stop before 8.
A week has this many days.
Seven
Why it works: Counting goes 6, 7, 8, so 7 is in the middle.
Did you guess it?
A dog has 4 legs and a bird has 2 legs. How many legs do one dog and one bird have together?
Count the dog's legs first.
Now keep counting with the bird's legs.
Six
Why it works: 4 + 2 = 6.
Did you guess it?
I mean none at all. If I am the number of cookies on your plate, the plate is empty. What number am I?
I am the number that comes before 1.
I look like a circle.
Zero
Why it works: Zero is the number that means there is nothing there.
Did you guess it?
You have 2 hands, and each hand has 5 fingers. How many fingers do you have altogether?
Count the fingers on one hand first.
Count on from 5 for the other hand.
Ten
Why it works: 5 + 5 = 10.
Did you guess it?
Adding, subtracting, doubling and simple multiplication, with two shape puzzles and a couple of number jokes.
A cat has 4 legs. Two cats walk past. How many legs do they have altogether?
Think about one cat's legs first.
Add that number to itself.
Eight
Why it works: 4 + 4 = 8, or 2 cats x 4 legs = 8.
Did you guess it?
How many days are there in two weeks?
Start by remembering how many days make one week.
Double that number.
Fourteen
Why it works: One week has 7 days, so 7 + 7 = 14.
Did you guess it?
A bowl holds 18 grapes. You eat half of them. How many grapes are left in the bowl?
Half means split into two equal groups.
The part you eat and the part left over are the same size.
Nine
Why it works: Half of 18 is 9, so 9 are eaten and 9 are left.
Did you guess it?
I am an even number. I am bigger than 10 and smaller than 13. What number am I?
List the numbers between 10 and 13.
Even numbers can be split into two equal groups with none left over.
Twelve
Why it works: Only 11 and 12 fit, and 12 is the even one.
Did you guess it?
I have 6 flat faces, and every face is a square. A game die is shaped like me. What 3D shape am I?
I am not flat. You can hold me in your hand.
I am like a box where every side is the same size.
A cube
Why it works: A cube has 6 square faces, and an ordinary game die is a cube.
Did you guess it?
A square sheet is folded exactly in half, edge to opposite edge. What shape is the folded sheet?
Picture the fold halfway between two opposite edges.
The result has two shorter sides and two longer sides.
A rectangle
Why it works: Halving a square parallel to one side makes a rectangle twice as long as it is wide.
Did you guess it?
A spider has 8 legs. How many legs do 3 spiders have altogether?
You need 3 groups of 8.
Try 8 + 8 first, then add 8 more.
Twenty-four
Why it works: 3 x 8 = 24, which is 8 + 8 + 8.
Did you guess it?
There are 4 bags. Each bag has 5 oranges inside. How many oranges are there in all?
This is 4 groups of 5.
Count by fives: 5, 10, 15 and keep going.
Twenty
Why it works: 4 x 5 = 20.
Did you guess it?
A ribbon is cut into 6 equal pieces. Each piece is 4 units long. How long was the ribbon before cutting?
Join the six equal lengths in your imagination.
Multiply the length of one piece by the number of pieces.
24 units
Why it works: 6 x 4 = 24 units of ribbon.
Did you guess it?
What number comes next? 5, 10, 15, 20, ...
Look at how much the numbers grow each step.
You are counting by fives.
Twenty-five
Why it works: Each number is 5 more than the one before, and 20 + 5 = 25.
Did you guess it?
Double 6, then add 3. What number do you get?
Double means add the number to itself.
Do the doubling first, then the adding.
Fifteen
Why it works: Double 6 is 12, and 12 + 3 = 15.
Did you guess it?
I have 6 marbles. You have 5 more than I do. How many marbles do we have together?
First work out how many marbles you have.
Then add your marbles to my 6.
Seventeen
Why it works: You have 6 + 5 = 11, so together 6 + 11 = 17.
Did you guess it?
You have 25 stickers. You give 8 to a friend and 6 to your sister. How many stickers do you have left?
Work out how many you give away in total.
Take that total away from 25.
Eleven
Why it works: 8 + 6 = 14 given away, and 25 - 14 = 11.
Did you guess it?
I am a number. If you double me, you get 26. What number am I?
Doubling is the same as adding a number to itself.
Split 26 into two equal halves.
Thirteen
Why it works: Half of 26 is 13, and 13 + 13 = 26.
Did you guess it?
What do you call a number that keeps wandering from place to place?
It sounds like a kind of number from ancient times.
The first word sounds like the people who built a huge empire long ago.
A roaming numeral
Why it works: Roaming means wandering, and roaming numeral sounds like Roman numeral, the old way of writing numbers such as I, V and X.
Did you guess it?
Which number sounds as if it has already finished dinner?
Think of a word meaning had a meal.
The number comes just before nine.
Eight
Why it works: Eight sounds like ate, which means had a meal.
Did you guess it?
Multi-step problems and number logic where reading the question carefully is half the puzzle.
A bag of feathers and a bag of bricks each weigh exactly 1 kilogram. Which bag weighs more?
Read the weights in the question again.
Bricks are heavy, but the bag of feathers is much bigger.
Neither, they weigh the same
Why it works: Both bags are stated to weigh 1 kilogram, so the weights are equal.
Did you guess it?
What comes next? 1, 2, 4, 8, ... (Each number is double the one before.)
Look at the last number in the list.
Apply the doubling rule once more.
Sixteen
Why it works: Double 8 is 16, so 16 follows 8.
Did you guess it?
A floor is covered with square tiles in 9 rows. Each row has 7 tiles. How many tiles are on the floor?
This is 9 groups of 7.
Try 10 groups of 7 and take one group away.
Sixty-three
Why it works: 9 x 7 = 63, since 10 x 7 = 70 and 70 - 7 = 63.
Did you guess it?
How many minutes are there in 3 hours?
Remember how many minutes make one hour.
Count in groups of 60.
One hundred eighty
Why it works: 3 x 60 = 180 minutes.
Did you guess it?
What is three fifths of 50?
First find one fifth by splitting 50 into 5 equal parts.
Then take 3 of those parts.
Thirty
Why it works: One fifth of 50 is 10, and 3 x 10 = 30.
Did you guess it?
I am a number between 30 and 40. If you multiply a whole number by itself, you can get me. What number am I?
Multiply small numbers by themselves, such as 4 x 4 = 16, and keep going up.
5 x 5 = 25 is too small and 7 x 7 = 49 is too big.
Thirty-six
Why it works: 6 x 6 = 36, while 5 x 5 = 25 and 7 x 7 = 49 are outside the range.
Did you guess it?
I think of a number and double it. Then I add 12 and get 50. What was my number?
Work backwards from 50.
Take away 12, then split what is left into two equal halves.
Nineteen
Why it works: Working backwards, 50 - 12 = 38 and half of 38 is 19 (check: 19 x 2 + 12 = 50).
Did you guess it?
Three counting numbers in a row add up to 69. What is the smallest of the three?
The middle number is the average of the three.
Divide 69 by 3 to find the middle number.
Twenty-two
Why it works: 69 divided by 3 is 23, so the numbers are 22, 23 and 24, and 22 + 23 + 24 = 69.
Did you guess it?
I am a two-digit number. My digits add up to 10, and my tens digit is 4 more than my ones digit. What number am I?
List the pairs of digits that add up to 10, such as 9 and 1, or 8 and 2.
Find the pair whose two digits are 4 apart, and put the bigger digit in the tens place.
Seventy-three
Why it works: For 73, 7 + 3 = 10 and 7 is 4 more than 3.
Did you guess it?
Find three different counting numbers that give the same answer when you add them as when you multiply them.
One of the numbers has to be 1.
Try 1, 2 and then a third number that works.
1, 2 and 3
Why it works: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 and 1 x 2 x 3 = 6.
Did you guess it?
Which number's name has all its letters in alphabetical order, from A towards Z?
It is a multiple of ten and has five letters.
Spell it and check each letter comes after the one before.
Forty
Why it works: F, O, R, T, Y goes up the alphabet with no letter out of order.
Did you guess it?
Why does the equal sign never brag?
Think about the two other comparison signs, the pointy ones.
Equal means the same on both sides.
It knows it is no greater and no less than anyone else
Why it works: The less-than and greater-than signs rank two values, while the equal sign says both sides are the same.
Did you guess it?
No riddles match both filters. Try another age or difficulty.
Let children use fingers, counters or a pencil and paper, and give them time to work each riddle out.
Ask 'How did you get that?' after every answer, right or wrong. Hearing the steps shows you where a wrong answer went off track.
For ages 4 to 6, act the riddle out with real objects such as blocks, socks or snacks before you say the answer.
Use the number jokes and word puzzles as a short break between harder problems.
Print the cards with the answers on a separate key, keep the key page yourself and let pairs work through a stack. Go over their steps together afterwards.
They cover ages 4 to 12. The first group uses counting and shapes for ages 4 to 6, the second adds subtraction and times tables for ages 7 to 9, and the last needs multi-step thinking for ages 10 to 12.
Yes. Every number riddle shows its working under the answer, so you can check the sum yourself or walk a child through the steps. The wordplay riddles explain the joke.
Use one as a warm-up at the start of a lesson, or print the cards and let small groups solve a set. Ask each group to explain their method to the class before you reveal the answer.
Give the first hint, then wait. If they still cannot start, draw the problem or use objects. Show the second hint last, and only say the answer once they have tried a method.
Yes. Use the print option to make cards for the riddles and a separate answer key, so children can work without seeing the answers.