Life Riddles You Must Solve To Stay Alive

The world is unpredictable, and you never know when your life might come under threat. Can you defeat these ten riddles that you must solve to stay alive?

November 11, 2022・

10 min read

The world is unpredictable, and you never know when your life might come under threat. It pays to be prepared, but not everyone possesses in-built survival instincts. Can you defeat these ten riddles that you must solve to stay alive? Let’s find out.

10. Head Above Water

Imagine you’re trapped in a room and it’s slowly filling with water. You’ve checked everywhere and there’s no way to turn off the water or to make an escape, and you can feel the water level rising with every passing second.

It’s not only the coldness of the water making you squeal, but the knowledge that help is 5 minutes away and you only have 2 minutes or so until the entire room is flooded. There’s no way you can hold your breath for three minutes!

You do, however, have a straw, a rope, and a bucket, and one of them has the power to buy you time and save your life. Which item is it?

Now, maybe you could use the straw like a snorkel, but that won’t be helpful once the water reaches the ceiling. The rope would be useful in so many other life or death situations but it’s not helpful right now.

It’s actually the bucket that will buy you a little extra time until help arrives; turn it upside down, put it over your head, and you’ll have an air bubble that’ll give you the extra minutes you need until help arrives.

9. A Faulty Parachute

Now you decide to do a group skydive to celebrate not drowning. Because, why not? As you leap from the plane you feel like you’re truly flying and you’re more alive than ever. Not for long, though!

Your bad luck continues and your parachute doesn’t open! You’re plummeting from the sky at an alarming rate, and as you spin out of control you see the hard ground below rushing up at you.

How are you going to get out of this predicament? Are you going to curl into a ball to protect your head and your internal organs from the impact? Will you put your faith in the reserve parachute? Or, will you try and maneuver to another skydiver and cling onto them?

The answer to your problem is clear, the reserve parachute is the only thing guaranteed to save your life. Curling up into a ball might minimize damage, but it also might not. And as for clinging to another skydiver? You’ll get them killed too!

8. Paws of Death

Back on land; you’re out for a stroll in the great outdoors. It’s a beautiful sunny day and you’re whistling as you walk. You’re daydreaming about what you’ll have for lunch once you get back to your campsite, so much so that you don’t notice the huge brown bear standing a few meters in front of you.

A wave of panic washes over you as the bear looks into your eyes and growls. What will you do to escape the paws of death?

Should you stand your ground and try to scare it off? Maybe you can go the Dr. Dolittle route and befriend it? Should you run away as fast as you can? Or, should you drop to the ground and play dead? The bear is approaching, make your decision!

Standing your ground might work with a black bear, as they’re much less territorial or aggressive, but a brown bear won’t back down to a tiny human like you. Running away or befriending a bear is not a wise move, no matter the type.

With a brown bear attack, your only option is to drop to the ground with your knees to your chin and your hands protecting your neck. When it sees you’re not a threat it will walk away…hopefully.

7. Deadly Venom

Sadly, your animal troubles are far from over and on another one of your eventful strolls, you get bitten by a venomous snake. The bite is on your lower leg, and there’s nobody around to help. What are you going to do to get yourself out of this mess?

You could try to suck the venom out if you’re flexible enough? Or maybe it would be better to sit still and apply a tourniquet to the bitten leg? Perhaps washing the bite with clean water and applying a bandage will help you avoid certain death?

Think fast, the venom will kill you if you don’t find a way to stop it.

The first option might be tempting if you’ve been practicing yoga and are super bendy, but do you really want venom in your mouth when it could seep into your bloodstream from tiny cuts in your gums? I don’t think so.

Washing the wound is no good either, it won’t stop the venom that’s already inside you. Your only option is to sit still and keep calm to stop your blood pumping and to apply a tourniquet to block the venom from getting into the rest of your body.

6. Professor Evil’s Puzzle

Animals aren’t the only threat to your life, as you find out when you’re captured by Professor Evil. Luckily, the professor is feeling generous and gives you one opportunity to get free, don’t mess it up!

He gives you three doors to choose from. Two lead to freedom but the other leads to death, and you can only ask one yes or no question before making your choice. Professor Evil will answer the question honestly if you point to a ‘freedom door’, but might lie if you point to the ‘death door’. What’s your question going to be? You better decide quickly, Professor Evil isn’t known for his patience.

Your only hope is to point to door A and ask if door B leads to freedom. If he says yes, pick door B, but if the answer is no choose door C. Don’t get it? The scheme below shows you how this solution works.

5. Mother Nature’s Revenge

Yes, you’ve got yourself into more trouble, but this time it’s Mother Nature that’s after you! You’re taking a leisurely drive – presumably to avoid strolling after all your trouble with deadly animals – and you’ve stopped to relieve yourself in a field by the side of the road.

Just then, the weather turns dark and stormy and a tornado touches down scarily close to you. There’s no shelter, how are you going to get out of this tangle? Maybe you could climb a tree and take shelter under the leafy branches?

Should you find a ditch in the field and curl up in it? Or should you make a dash for your car and hope that you get to it before the tornado does? Be quick, you only have 10 seconds until it’s too late to save yourself.

Climbing a tree wouldn’t do you much good; how are you planning to hang on if the tornado hits it? Running for your car is too risky, and even if you make it, the tornado could still catch you and pick you up: vehicle and all.

Your best option is to get into the ditch and make yourself as small as possible. If the tornado passes over you, it might not be able to lift you from your hiding place. Honestly, though, it serves you right for relieving yourself outside in the first place!

4. Tunnels of Terror

It’s a quiet weekend so you’ve decided to go exploring in a local cave. Someone with as much bad luck as you really shouldn’t be doing that, but off you go anyway. Surprise surprise, the worst thing imaginable happens: there’s a landslide and your exit is blocked.

You manage to find four alternative tunnels, but conveniently they all have signs telling you which dangers lurk inside them. You’re going to have to choose from tunnels containing molten lava that will burn you alive, another huge landslide that will bury you, poisonous gas that kills all animals, or thousands of deadly spiders.

Which route will you choose? Make your decision, the cave could collapse at any second.

Three of the tunnels contain things that will certainly kill humans, but one of them is only dangerous to wild animals. So long as you’re actually a person, if you select the gas-filled tunnel you’ll escape unharmed.

3. Red and Blue Pills

Imagine this: You’re blind and sick, and you have nobody around to help you. To stay alive, you have to take two tablets every single day: a blue one and a red one. The pills feel, smell and taste identical, so there’s no way of knowing which is which.

The doctor always puts the pills in a daily pill box for you, but one day you slip and drop the box, mixing up two of the days.

You need to take the pills today and the doctor can’t get to you until tomorrow, how are you going to figure out which of the four dropped pills you should take?

The only way to do it is to break all four pills into halves, and then put half of each one into two separate piles. In the end, you’ll have two piles containing four halves, which guarantees that you’ll take the right dose.

2. Deadly inferno

Oh no, you’re trapped in another room, and this time it’s on fire. The fire is blazing between you and the door, and there’s no other way of escaping the inferno. Firefighters are on their way, but you’ll need to figure out how to stay safe until they arrive.

You consider your options – you could get on the ground and stay as low as possible, or you could stand on a chair to get close to the ceiling. You could take your clothes off to stay cool - and possibly give the firefighters a fright - or you could hide under a desk.

What will you do? Quick quick, the smoke will be getting thicker by the minute.

Firstly, getting on top of a chair is a terrible idea. Smoke and heat both rise, so you wouldn’t stand a chance up there. Taking your clothes off will expose your skin to the heat, which is not what you want for your delicate parts, and getting under a desk won’t really help you much.

Your only choice is to get as low to the floor as possible so you don’t suffocate from the smoke, and just wait until help comes.

1. Four Rooms of Fear

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the final conundrum. You’re condemned to death for crimes too terrible to speak of, and your cruel and unusual executioner gives you the choice between four tanks which you’ll enter from the top, in which you’ll meet your fate.

The first room contains a vat full of acid as deep as your chest, the second is full of blood-thirsty murderers ready to kill, the third is blazing with raging fires, and the fourth contains a pool full of bloodthirsty sharks that haven’t eaten in six months. Which horrifying fate do you choose?

Every room sounds terrifying beyond belief, but if I were you, I’d go for the shark-infested waters. After all, if the sharks haven’t eaten for six months, they’d all be dead and no danger to you at all!