Some riddles are designed to be solved, but others are meant to make your brain spin in circles. These are the impossible riddles with no answers — questions that tease your logic, stretch your imagination, and sometimes make absolutely no sense at all.
These riddles may not have real answers, but that’s what makes them so entertaining. They’re meant to spark curiosity, start conversations, and challenge the way we think.
Below are 33 impossible riddles that might leave you guessing forever — followed by explanations to help you understand their tricky or unanswerable nature.
1. Riddle:
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
- Answer: Impossible to know
- Explanation: This classic paradox has no logical solution. Both conditions can’t exist together.
2. Riddle:
If you try to fail and succeed, which one did you do?
- Answer: Both and neither
- Explanation: This riddle is a contradiction that cancels itself out — it’s both success and failure.
3. Riddle:
What came first, the chicken or the egg?
- Answer: No definite answer
- Explanation: A timeless debate between evolution and creation — both could technically be first.
4. Riddle:
Can you cry underwater?
- Answer: Impossible to tell
- Explanation: Tears would mix with water instantly, making it impossible to see.
5. Riddle:
If you ate yourself, would you double in size or disappear?
- Answer: Paradox
- Explanation: It’s physically and logically impossible — you can’t eat all of yourself.
6. Riddle:
Can God create a stone so heavy that He cannot lift it?
- Answer: Philosophical paradox
- Explanation: It’s an ancient question used to illustrate the limits of omnipotence.
7. Riddle:
If you could travel back in time and prevent your birth, what happens to you?
- Answer: Paradox
- Explanation: The “grandfather paradox” — if you prevent your birth, you couldn’t go back in time.
8. Riddle:
What color is a mirror?
- Answer: Undefined
- Explanation: Technically, mirrors reflect all colors — they appear colorless but reflect greenish hues under light.
9. Riddle:
Can you ever truly be in two places at once?
- Answer: Not physically
- Explanation: Unless quantum mechanics proves otherwise, you can’t occupy two spaces at once.
10. Riddle:
How do you know you’re not dreaming right now?
- Answer: No certain answer
- Explanation: A philosophical question about consciousness — perception can deceive us.
11. Riddle:
What happens when you divide zero by zero?
- Answer: Undefined
- Explanation: Mathematics breaks down — the result is not possible to determine.
12. Riddle:
If nothing is impossible, is it possible for something to be impossible?
- Answer: Logical loop
- Explanation: The phrase contradicts itself — a pure paradox.
13. Riddle:
If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
- Answer: Depends on how you define “sound”
- Explanation: Physically, yes — philosophically, not if no one perceives it.
14. Riddle:
Can infinity ever end?
- Answer: No
- Explanation: Infinity by definition has no end — the riddle loops on itself.
15. Riddle:
If you define something as indescribable, haven’t you just described it?
- Answer: Yes and no
- Explanation: Calling something “indescribable” ironically describes it as such.
16. Riddle:
What’s the sound of one hand clapping?
- Answer: None
- Explanation: A Zen koan meant to provoke meditation, not logic.
17. Riddle:
If you could meet your past self, what would happen?
- Answer: Paradox
- Explanation: Meeting your past self could disrupt the timeline — an impossible situation.
18. Riddle:
Can you touch the same river twice?
- Answer: No
- Explanation: The water keeps flowing — you can’t step into the same stream again.
19. Riddle:
Can you ever reach the end of a circle?
- Answer: No
- Explanation: Circles have no beginning or end, making the question impossible.
20. Riddle:
What happens if you save time? Where do you keep it?
- Answer: Nowhere
- Explanation: “Saving time” is metaphorical — it can’t literally be stored.
21. Riddle:
If practice makes perfect, but nobody’s perfect, why practice?
- Answer: Irony
- Explanation: It plays with motivation and the idea of perfection being unreachable.
22. Riddle:
If money doesn’t grow on trees, why do banks have branches?
- Answer: Wordplay
- Explanation: A play on the double meaning of “branches.”
23. Riddle:
If two mind readers read each other’s minds, whose mind are they reading?
- Answer: Infinite loop
- Explanation: It creates a logical loop that can’t be resolved.
24. Riddle:
Can you ever truly know everything?
- Answer: No
- Explanation: Knowledge is infinite and constantly expanding.
25. Riddle:
If you erase all the mistakes of your past, would you still be you?
- Answer: Uncertain
- Explanation: Our mistakes shape identity — removing them changes who we are.
26. Riddle:
If you know the future, can you change it?
- Answer: Paradox
- Explanation: Changing the future alters the knowledge you had of it.
27. Riddle:
Can you draw a square circle?
- Answer: No
- Explanation: Geometrically impossible — it breaks definitions of both shapes.
28. Riddle:
If the universe is infinite, where is it expanding?
- Answer: Unknown
- Explanation: Scientists say it expands into itself — an unanswerable concept.
29. Riddle:
If you describe something as “new and improved,” what was wrong with the old one?
- Answer: Irony
- Explanation: “Improved” implies the old version wasn’t perfect — marketing contradiction.
30. Riddle:
If you know you’re lying, are you telling the truth?
- Answer: Paradox
- Explanation: This creates a “liar’s paradox” — both true and false at once.
31. Riddle:
If you lose the game by winning, who really won?
- Answer: Undefined
- Explanation: A contradiction — both winning and losing simultaneously.
32. Riddle:
If time had a beginning, what came before it?
- Answer: Unknown
- Explanation: “Before time” can’t exist because “before” is a concept within time.
33. Riddle:
Can you prove that reality isn’t just a dream?
- Answer: Impossible
- Explanation: Philosophers argue there’s no absolute way to prove existence is real.
Conclusion
The impossible riddles with no answers remind us that not every question needs a solution. Sometimes the purpose is to make us think — or realize how limited our logic can be. These riddles blur the line between sense and nonsense, inviting us to look at life’s mysteries with curiosity and humor.
Which of these riddles made you stop and think the longest? Share your thoughts, or add your own impossible riddle in the comments below.