Five Brilliant Brain Teasers For The Week (23/06/25)

This week’s brain teasers range from light warm-ups to a real head-scratcher. We’ve included two easy riddles to get you going, two medium puzzles to flex your logic, and one difficult teaser to really test your problem-solving powers.

Scroll slowly — the answers are at the end!

🧠 1. The Family Riddle (Easy)

A man is looking at a photograph of someone.

His friend asks, “Who is it you’re looking at?”

He replies:

“Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man’s father is my father’s son.”

Who is in the photograph?

🧠 2. The Letter Trick (Easy)

What comes once in a minute,

Twice in a moment,

But never in a thousand years?

🧩 3. The Digit Dilemma (Medium)

I am a three-digit number.

My tens digit is five more than my ones digit.

My hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit.

What number am I?

🧩 4. The Torch Puzzle (Medium)

Four people need to cross a narrow bridge at night.

They have only one torch, and no more than two people can cross at a time.

Each person walks at a different speed:

One takes 1 minute

One takes 2 minutes

One takes 5 minutes

One takes 10 minutes

When two people cross, they must go at the slower person’s pace.

What is the fastest time they can all cross?

🧠💥 5. The Painted Cube (Hard)

A large cube is painted on all six sides and then cut into 1,000 smaller, equally sized cubes (10×10×10).

How many of the small cubes have exactly two painted faces?

✅ Answers Below (Don’t peek early!)

1. The Family Riddle

His son.

“My father’s son” = himself (since he has no brothers), so the man in the photo is his son.

2. The Letter Trick

The answer is the letter ‘M’.

Once in minute

Twice in moment

Never in a thousand years

3. The Digit Dilemma

Let’s solve it step by step:

Tens digit = ones digit + 5

Hundreds digit = tens digit - 8

Try ones digit = 1

→ tens = 6

→ hundreds = 6 - 8 = -2 (not valid)

Try ones = 2

→ tens = 7

→ hundreds = -1 (invalid)

Try ones = 3

→ tens = 8

→ hundreds = 0 ✅

Answer: 083 (which is just 83, but since it’s a three-digit number, we write 083)

4. The Torch Puzzle

Fastest time: 17 minutes

Strategy:

1 & 2 cross → 2 minutes

1 returns → +1 min (3 total)

5 & 10 cross → +10 min (13 total)

2 returns → +2 min (15 total)

1 & 2 cross again → +2 min (17 total)

5. The Painted Cube

Cubes with exactly two painted faces occur only on the edges (excluding corners).

Each edge has 10 cubes

The 2 end cubes on each edge are corners (which have 3 faces painted)

That leaves 8 cubes per edge with 2 painted faces

A cube has 12 edges

8 cubes × 12 edges = 96 small cubes with exactly two painted faces ✅