If you have a teen who loves to stump the room, outsmart their siblings, or challenge friends at the dinner table, these riddles are about to become a favorite. I started collecting riddles like these for car rides, quiet evenings, and those moments when screens needed a break but boredom hadn’t been invited.
This list includes 100 riddles for teens, a mix of clever, funny, logic-based, and brain-stretching riddles that are just challenging enough to spark laughs and thinking. Every riddle includes an answer, so you can use them for games, classrooms, family nights, or quick challenges anytime.
More riddle fun you’ll love:
Free Printable: Riddle Cards
Grab our free Riddles for Kids printable cards—perfect for car rides, brain breaks, family game night, or anytime kids want a challenge. Each card includes a kid-friendly riddle that gets kids thinking, laughing, and problem-solving together.
Top 10 Best Riddles for Teens
- I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo - What has keys but no locks, space but no room, and you can enter but never leave?
Answer: A keyboard - If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you don’t have me anymore. What am I?
Answer: A secret - I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A candle - What can travel around the world while staying in one corner?
Answer: A stamp - What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel - What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin - What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future - What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock - The more of this you take, the more you leave behind. What is it?
Answer: Footsteps
Easy Warm-Up Riddles for Teens
- What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle - What has an eye but cannot see?
Answer: A needle - What runs but never walks?
Answer: Water - What has one foot but many legs?
Answer: A ruler - What has teeth but cannot bite?
Answer: A comb - What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age - What has a thumb and four fingers but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove - What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold - What has words but never speaks?
Answer: A book - What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge
Logic & Thinking Riddles
- A man shaves every day but still has a beard. How?
Answer: He is a barber - What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter “M” - If you pass the person in second place, what place are you in?
Answer: Second place - How can someone go eight days without sleep?
Answer: They sleep at night - What question can you never answer “yes” to?
Answer: “Are you asleep?” - What has no beginning, end, or middle?
Answer: A doughnut - What can go through glass without breaking it?
Answer: Light - What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name - What breaks but never falls, and what falls but never breaks?
Answer: Day breaks, night falls - What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano
Math & Number Riddles
- I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What am I?
Answer: Seven - If there are three apples and you take two, how many do you have?
Answer: Two - What number stays the same when you turn it upside down?
Answer: 0 or 8 - What weighs more: a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?
Answer: They weigh the same - What comes after 1 but before 0?
Answer: The letter “O” - What has thirteen hearts but no organs?
Answer: A deck of cards - I am greater than 6 but less than 9, and the number of sides on two triangles. What am I?
Answer: 6 - What number is always spelled wrong?
Answer: Wrong - What has four fingers and a thumb but isn’t alive?
Answer: A glove - What number do you get when you multiply all the numbers on a phone keypad?
Answer: 0
Wordplay Riddles
- What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short - What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters?
Answer: Short - What has letters but isn’t mail?
Answer: The alphabet - What starts with “E,” ends with “E,” but contains only one letter?
Answer: An envelope - What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A phone - What word begins and ends with the same letter and has three letters total?
Answer: Eye - What English word has three consecutive double letters?
Answer: Bookkeeper - What word is pronounced the same even if you remove four letters?
Answer: Queue - What word looks the same upside down and backward?
Answer: Swims - What word contains all the vowels in order?
Answer: Facetious
Hard Teen Riddles (Make Them Think)
- I’m found in socks, scarves, and mittens, but not in gloves. What am I?
Answer: The letter “S” - I fly without wings and cry without eyes. What am I?
Answer: A cloud - What disappears the moment you say its name?
Answer: Silence - I have cities but no houses, rivers but no water, and forests but no trees. What am I?
Answer: A map - What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain - I shave every day, but my beard stays the same. Who am I?
Answer: A barber - What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light - What has an end but no beginning, a home but no family?
Answer: A road - What has legs but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A table - What can be cracked, made, told, and played?
Answer: A joke
Clever Trick Riddles for Teens
- Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest - How many months have 28 days?
Answer: All of them - What gets bigger the more you take away?
Answer: A hole - What can you hold without touching?
Answer: A conversation - What has a bottom at the top?
Answer: Your legs - What has one head, one foot, and four legs?
Answer: A bed - What runs around a backyard but never moves?
Answer: A fence - What can be lost but never stolen?
Answer: Time - What has ears but cannot hear?
Answer: Corn - What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A clock
More Hard Riddles for Teens
- I’m always hungry and must be fed, but if you give me water, I die. What am I?
Answer: Fire - What has a heart that doesn’t beat?
Answer: An artichoke - What has a bark but no bite?
Answer: A tree - What has an eye but can’t see, and cries but has no feelings?
Answer: A needle - What can go up a chimney down but not down a chimney up?
Answer: An umbrella - What has many needles but doesn’t sew?
Answer: A Christmas tree - What has a ring but isn’t a phone?
Answer: A bell - What can be measured but has no length, width, or height?
Answer: Time - What comes at the end of everything?
Answer: The letter “G” - What is easy to lift but hard to throw?
Answer: A feather
- What has an end but no beginning and no middle?
Answer: A circle - What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck - What has one horn but no music?
Answer: A rhinoceros - What has a spine but no bones?
Answer: A book - What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow - What has an end but no beginning?
Answer: A rope - What has stripes but no color?
Answer: A zebra crossing - What can be broken without being touched?
Answer: A promise - What has a head but no brain?
Answer: A lettuce - What goes up and down but doesn’t move?
Answer: Stairs - What has one eye and is always pointing north?
Answer: A compass - What has four eyes but can’t see?
Answer: Mississippi - What has a face but no eyes?
Answer: A clock - What has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river - What has a lock but no key?
Answer: Hair - What has a shell but no egg?
Answer: A turtle - What has a branch but no leaves?
Answer: A bank - What has a tongue but cannot taste?
Answer: A shoe - What comes once a year, twice a week, but never in a day?
Answer: The letter “E” - What has words but no voice?
Answer: A book
Riddles are one of my favorite low-effort ways to connect with teens — no prep, no supplies, just a good question and a little curiosity. Whether you’re using these for a classroom warm-up, family game night, youth group, or just to pass time in the car, I hope these riddles spark laughs, debates, and a few “wait… say that again” moments.
If your teen loved these, don’t stop here
Check out our other riddle collections and keep the fun (and thinking) going.
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Hard Teen Riddles FAQs
Michele Tripple is a renowned author and expert in the fields of parenting, relationships, and personal development. She is a certified Life Coach with her degree in marriage and family studies, her experience as a Family Life Educator, and over a decade of experience as a professional writer; Michele has authored books that provide practical advice and insights into improving family dynamics and personal growth. Her work is celebrated for its blend of research-driven information and relatable, real-world applications. Michele has been a keynote speaker at conferences and has contributed to numerous publications and media outlets, solidifying her reputation as an authoritative voice in her field and helping families build relationships.