Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Can you cover the camel with these pieces?
Use the clues to colour each square.
Ben and his mum are planting garlic. Use the interactivity to help you find out how many cloves of garlic they might have had.
Make your own double-sided magic square. But can you complete both sides once you've made the pieces?
What happens when you try and fit the triomino pieces into these two grids?
Solve this Sudoku puzzle whose clues are in the form of sums of the numbers which should appear in diagonal opposite cells.
What is the least number of moves you can take to rearrange the bears so that no bear is next to a bear of the same colour?
If you split the square into these two pieces, it is possible to fit the pieces together again to make a new shape. How many new shapes can you make?
Place six toy ladybirds into the box so that there are two ladybirds in every column and every row.
Take a rectangle of paper and fold it in half, and half again, to make four smaller rectangles. How many different ways can you fold it up?
This problem focuses on Dienes' Logiblocs. What is the same and what is different about these pairs of shapes? Can you describe the shapes in the picture?
How many different ways can you find to join three equilateral triangles together? Can you convince us that you have found them all?
This article for teachers describes several games, found on the site, all of which have a related structure that can be used to develop the skills of strategic planning.
What is the best way to shunt these carriages so that each train can continue its journey?
Can you put the numbers from 1 to 15 on the circles so that no consecutive numbers lie anywhere along a continuous straight line?
The NRICH team are always looking for new ways to engage teachers and pupils in problem solving. Here we explain the thinking behind maths trails.
There are nine teddies in Teddy Town - three red, three blue and three yellow. There are also nine houses, three of each colour. Can you put them on the map of Teddy Town according to the rules?
A Sudoku with clues given as sums of entries.
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
What do the numbers shaded in blue on this hundred square have in common? What do you notice about the pink numbers? How about the shaded numbers in the other squares?
Cut four triangles from a square as shown in the picture. How many different shapes can you make by fitting the four triangles back together?
10 space travellers are waiting to board their spaceships. There are two rows of seats in the waiting room. Using the rules, where are they all sitting? Can you find all the possible ways?
Can you work out how to balance this equaliser? You can put more than one weight on a hook.
Place the numbers 1 to 6 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
Can you shunt the trucks so that the Cattle truck and the Sheep truck change places and the Engine is back on the main line?
Kate has eight multilink cubes. She has two red ones, two yellow, two green and two blue. She wants to fit them together to make a cube so that each colour shows on each face just once.
How many ways can you find to do up all four buttons on my coat? How about if I had five buttons? Six ...?
Here are some rods that are different colours. How could I make a dark green rod using yellow and white rods?
Is it possible to place 2 counters on the 3 by 3 grid so that there is an even number of counters in every row and every column? How about if you have 3 counters or 4 counters or....?
Can you find all the different ways of lining up these Cuisenaire rods?
How many trains can you make which are the same length as Matt's, using rods that are identical?
In this town, houses are built with one room for each person. There are some families of seven people living in the town. In how many different ways can they build their houses?
A game for 2 people. Take turns placing a counter on the star. You win when you have completed a line of 3 in your colour.
Only one side of a two-slice toaster is working. What is the quickest way to toast both sides of three slices of bread?
How many different rhythms can you make by putting two drums on the wheel?
Try out the lottery that is played in a far-away land. What is the chance of winning?
Find out what a "fault-free" rectangle is and try to make some of your own.
You have 4 red and 5 blue counters. How many ways can they be placed on a 3 by 3 grid so that all the rows columns and diagonals have an even number of red counters?
Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.
Hover your mouse over the counters to see which ones will be removed. Click to remover them. The winner is the last one to remove a counter. How you can make sure you win?
How many different triangles can you draw on the dotty grid which each have one dot in the middle?
Can you put the 25 coloured tiles into the 5 x 5 square so that no column, no row and no diagonal line have tiles of the same colour in them?
Can you order pictures of the development of a frog from frogspawn and of a bean seed growing into a plant?
A tetromino is made up of four squares joined edge to edge. Can this tetromino, together with 15 copies of itself, be used to cover an eight by eight chessboard?
The idea of this game is to add or subtract the two numbers on the dice and cover the result on the grid, trying to get a line of three. Are there some numbers that are good to aim for?
Use the interactivity to help get a feel for this problem and to find out all the possible ways the balls could land.
How many triangles can you make using sticks that are 3cm, 4cm and 5cm long?
Let's say you can only use two different lengths - 2 units and 4 units. Using just these 2 lengths as the edges how many different cuboids can you make?
Find all the numbers that can be made by adding the dots on two dice.
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?