Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Try out the lottery that is played in a far-away land. What is the chance of winning?
Move your counters through this snake of cards and see how far you can go. Are you surprised by where you end up?
An irregular tetrahedron is composed of four different triangles. Can such a tetrahedron be constructed where the side lengths are 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 units of length?
Roll two red dice and a green dice. Add the two numbers on the red dice and take away the number on the green. What are all the different possibilities that could come up?
Find out what a "fault-free" rectangle is and try to make some of your own.
Mr McGregor has a magic potting shed. Overnight, the number of plants in it doubles. He'd like to put the same number of plants in each of three gardens, planting one garden each day. Can he do it?
Starting with four different triangles, imagine you have an unlimited number of each type. How many different tetrahedra can you make? Convince us you have found them all.
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?
When you throw two regular, six-faced dice you have more chance of getting one particular result than any other. What result would that be? Why is this?
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?
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?
A package contains a set of resources designed to develop students’ mathematical thinking. This package places a particular emphasis on “being systematic” and is designed to meet. . . .
You have been given nine weights, one of which is slightly heavier than the rest. Can you work out which weight is heavier in just two weighings of the balance?
Draw some isosceles triangles with an area of $9$cm$^2$ and a vertex at (20,20). If all the vertices must have whole number coordinates, how many is it possible to draw?
Can you find six numbers to go in the Daisy from which you can make all the numbers from 1 to a number bigger than 25?
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....?
A Sudoku with clues given as sums of entries.
There is a long tradition of creating mazes throughout history and across the world. This article gives details of mazes you can visit and those that you can tackle on paper.
George and Jim want to buy a chocolate bar. George needs 2p more and Jim need 50p more to buy it. How much is the chocolate bar?
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.
Sweets are given out to party-goers in a particular way. Investigate the total number of sweets received by people sitting in different positions.
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
This problem is based on a code using two different prime numbers less than 10. You'll need to multiply them together and shift the alphabet forwards by the result. Can you decipher the code?
Use the interactivity to find all the different right-angled triangles you can make by just moving one corner of the starting triangle.
Play the divisibility game to create numbers in which the first two digits make a number divisible by 2, the first three digits make a number divisible by 3...
Find the smallest whole number which, when mutiplied by 7, gives a product consisting entirely of ones.
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 solutions can you find to this sum? Each of the different letters stands for a different number.
Countries from across the world competed in a sports tournament. Can you devise an efficient strategy to work out the order in which they finished?
Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules, to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line.
A few extra challenges set by some young NRICH members.
This tricky challenge asks you to find ways of going across rectangles, going through exactly ten squares.
An extra constraint means this Sudoku requires you to think in diagonals as well as horizontal and vertical lines and boxes of nine.
Rather than using the numbers 1-9, this sudoku uses the nine different letters used to make the words "Advent Calendar".
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.
The letters of the word ABACUS have been arranged in the shape of a triangle. How many different ways can you find to read the word ABACUS from this triangular pattern?
How many ways can you find to do up all four buttons on my coat? How about if I had five buttons? Six ...?
Use the interactivity to play two of the bells in a pattern. How do you know when it is your turn to ring, and how do you know which bell to ring?
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?
My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What could my number be?
The number of plants in Mr McGregor's magic potting shed increases overnight. He'd like to put the same number of plants in each of his gardens, planting one garden each day. How can he do it?
This cube has ink on each face which leaves marks on paper as it is rolled. Can you work out what is on each face and the route it has taken?
Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.
Do you notice anything about the solutions when you add and/or subtract consecutive negative numbers?
Many numbers can be expressed as the sum of two or more consecutive integers. For example, 15=7+8 and 10=1+2+3+4. Can you say which numbers can be expressed in this way?
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 put the numbers 1 to 8 into the circles so that the four calculations are correct?
Have a go at this well-known challenge. Can you swap the frogs and toads in as few slides and jumps as possible?
Different combinations of the weights available allow you to make different totals. Which totals can you make?
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?