Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Have a go at this well-known challenge. Can you swap the frogs and toads in as few slides and jumps as possible?
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
Winifred Wytsh bought a box each of jelly babies, milk jelly bears, yellow jelly bees and jelly belly beans. In how many different ways could she make a jolly jelly feast with 32 legs?
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?
Can you put plus signs in so this is true? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 99 How many ways can you do it?
Can you arrange 5 different digits (from 0 - 9) in the cross in the way described?
You have 5 darts and your target score is 44. How many different ways could you score 44?
Cherri, Saxon, Mel and Paul are friends. They are all different ages. Can you find out the age of each friend using the information?
How could you put these three beads into bags? How many different ways can you do it? How could you record what you've done?
This problem is based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
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?
How could you put eight beanbags in the hoops so that there are four in the blue hoop, five in the red and six in the yellow? Can you find all the ways of doing this?
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?
Can you put the numbers from 1 to 15 on the circles so that no consecutive numbers lie anywhere along a continuous straight line?
This magic square has operations written in it, to make it into a maze. Start wherever you like, go through every cell and go out a total of 15!
You have two egg timers. One takes 4 minutes exactly to empty and the other takes 7 minutes. What times in whole minutes can you measure and how?
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.
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?
There are 78 prisoners in a square cell block of twelve cells. The clever prison warder arranged them so there were 25 along each wall of the prison block. How did he do it?
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?
Three children are going to buy some plants for their birthdays. They will plant them within circular paths. How could they do this?
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?
There are 4 jugs which hold 9 litres, 7 litres, 4 litres and 2 litres. Find a way to pour 9 litres of drink from one jug to another until you are left with exactly 3 litres in three of the jugs.
Can you find all the different ways of lining up these Cuisenaire rods?
Zumf makes spectacles for the residents of the planet Zargon, who have either 3 eyes or 4 eyes. How many lenses will Zumf need to make all the different orders for 9 families?
Use the interactivity to find all the different right-angled triangles you can make by just moving one corner of the starting triangle.
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?
There are 44 people coming to a dinner party. There are 15 square tables that seat 4 people. Find a way to seat the 44 people using all 15 tables, with no empty places.
Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?
Can you put the numbers 1 to 8 into the circles so that the four calculations are correct?
A dog is looking for a good place to bury his bone. Can you work out where he started and ended in each case? What possible routes could he have taken?
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?
Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.
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 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?
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
An investigation involving adding and subtracting sets of consecutive numbers. Lots to find out, lots to explore.
Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
How can you put five cereal packets together to make different shapes if you must put them face-to-face?
Tim had nine cards each with a different number from 1 to 9 on it. How could he have put them into three piles so that the total in each pile was 15?
Find the product of the numbers on the routes from A to B. Which route has the smallest product? Which the largest?
Can you find all the different triangles on these peg boards, and find their angles?
Can you substitute numbers for the letters in these sums?
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?
Can you rearrange the biscuits on the plates so that the three biscuits on each plate are all different and there is no plate with two biscuits the same as two biscuits on another plate?
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is between each super-eclipse?
Choose four different digits from 1-9 and put one in each box so that the resulting four two-digit numbers add to a total of 100.
What is the greatest number of counters you can place on the grid below without four of them lying at the corners of a square?