18 Logic Puzzles for Kids Aged 6–12, With Answers and Solutions

The puzzles below are split into three age groups. Each comes with the answer and — more importantly — the reasoning. Explain the reasoning to your child rather than the answer: in logic, “how did you work it out” is worth more than “what did you get”.

One tip: after reading a puzzle out, stay quiet for at least 30 seconds. The thinking starts in that pause.

Puzzles for ages 6–8

1. Find the odd one out: apple, pear, carrot, banana.

   Answer: carrot. Why:the rest are fruit. If your child says “the carrot is orange”, accept it — that is still grouping, just by a different property.

2. Continue the row: 2, 4, 6, 8, …

   Answer: 10. Why: two is added each time.

3. Anvar is taller than Zuhra. Zuhra is taller than Kamol. Who is shortest?

   Answer: Kamol. Why: line all three up — this is chain reasoning.

4. A basket had 5 apples. Mum took 2, then added 3. How many now?

   Answer: 6. Why: 5 − 2 = 3, then 3 + 3 = 6. Watch the order of operations.

5. Which is heavier: a kilo of cotton or a kilo of iron?

   Answer: the same. Why:both are one kilo. This separates “looks heavy” from “weighs more”.

6. Do roosters lay eggs?

   Answer: no. Why: hens lay eggs. A lesson in reading the question carefully.

Puzzles for ages 9–10

1. Three friends — Ali, Bek and Dilnoza — do football, chess and swimming. Ali does not swim. Bek plays no chess and does not swim. What does Dilnoza do?

   Answer: swimming. Why: Bek can only do football. Ali does not swim and football is taken, so Ali does chess. Swimming is left for Dilnoza. Draw a grid and cross out — that is how every puzzle of this type is solved.

2. “If it rains, the road is wet.” The road is wet. Did it rain?

   Answer: unknown. Why: someone may have washed a car or a pipe burst. The condition only works one way.

3. Continue the row: 1, 4, 9, 16, …

   Answer: 25. Why: these are squares: 1×1, 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 5×5.

4. I picked a number, multiplied it by 3, added 4 and got 19. What was it?

   Answer: 5. Why: work backwards: 19 − 4 = 15, 15 ÷ 3 = 5.

5. You are on page 40 of a book. You read 15 pages, then go back 6. Which page are you on?

   Answer: 49. Why: 40 + 15 = 55, 55 − 6 = 49.

6. “All birds can fly” — true?

   Answer: false. Why:ostriches, penguins. One counterexample breaks any statement containing “all”.

Puzzles for ages 11–12

1. Five pupils each shake hands with each other once. How many handshakes?

   Answer: 10. Why: each pair counts once: (5 × 4) ÷ 2 = 10. Not 20 — that would count every pair twice.

2. In a class of 20, twelve play football, nine play chess, four do both. How many do neither?

   Answer: 3. Why: 12 + 9 − 4 = 17 play something, and 20 − 17 = 3.

3. Two dice are rolled. How many different outcomes are there?

   Answer: 36. Why: six faces each: 6 × 6 = 36.

4. A four-digit PIN allows any digit 0–9 in each position. How many are possible?

   Answer: 10,000. Why: 10 × 10 × 10 × 10. Each extra digit multiplies the options by ten.

5. A price drops by 20%, then rises by 20% of the new price. Is it back where it started?

   Answer: no, it is lower. Why: 100 → 80 → 96. The percentage is taken from a different number each time.

6. You have a 3-litre and a 5-litre jug. How do you measure exactly 4 litres?

   Answer: fill the 5, pour into the 3 — two litres remain. Empty the 3, pour those two litres in, refill the 5 and top up the 3 — only one litre fits. Exactly four litres remain in the 5-litre jug.

How to use these puzzles

• Take two or three a day, not the whole list at once.
• Even when the answer is wrong, ask “how did you reason?” first — the error is usually in how the question was read.
• After solving one, ask your child to invent a similar puzzle themselves. It is the strongest exercise on this page.
• Park a hard puzzle with “let us come back tomorrow” — the brain keeps working on it in the background.