Brainteaser asks players to guess the 'poor man's' song choice -answer leaves them baffled

Daily Record

26-05-2025

A brainteaser shared to Reddit asks players to think outside the box when coming up with a solution - and consider the 'simple' option as sometimes this can be the correct answer.
A brainteaser that's been dubbed as 'easy to solve but isn't' has left people scratching their heads. The puzzle encourages participants to think creatively and consider the 'simple' solution, which can often be the correct one.
The riddle was shared on the Reddit thread titled 'What are some of the best brainteasers in the world?'
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It begins: "A poor man walks into a bar and starts talking with a really rich man. The poor man says, 'You know, I know every song in the world. I bet all your fortune and possessions that I can find a song with any name you want'.
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"The rich man, chuckling, accepts and challenges him to find a song featuring his daughter's full name, Julie-Monique-Alexandrina.
"A few minutes later, the poor man exits the bar, with the rich man's wallet, car(s) key(s), clothes, etc. He won his bet. How?"
One user speculated that the answer could be Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega, given its inclusion of numerous female names such as Angela, Pamela, Sandra, Rita, Monica, Erica, Tina, Sandra, Mary, and Jessica, reports the Mirror.
Echoing this guess, another user chimed in: "I was thinking Mambo No 5. That song has quite a few lady names."
Meanwhile, others were stumped and pleaded with the original poster to reveal the solution.
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The quizmaster eventually shared the correct answer, stating simply: "He sang Happy Birthday."
However, this isn't the only mind-boggler that has left people scratching their heads recently. A question once posed by Google to its job applicants has sparked a lively debate on social media.
TikTok creator Tanya Zakowich, known as @pinkpencilmath on social media, revealed that Google used to challenge its job candidates with a brainteaser during interviews - and wouldn't hire anyone who couldn't solve it.
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Yet, in 2013, Google is thought to have phased out these questions, with the former head of Google human resources telling the New York Times they couldn't "predict anything" and were mainly designed to "make the interviewer feel smart".
In her video, she shared: "If you don't know the prisoner hat riddle, you're going to love this one. It's a super classic brainteaser that was commonly asked in job interviews at Google."
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She then proceeded to explain the riddle: "There were four prisoners on a staircase all facing the same direction. A brick wall separates prisoner 4 from the rest."
She explained that prisoner 1 can see prisoners 2 and 3, while prisoner 2 can only see prisoner 3 and prisoners 3 and 4 cannot see anyone.
"All four prisoners are wearing hats. They are told there are only two black hats and white white hats. However, they do not know the colour of the hats they are personally wearing.
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"The prisoners were told to shout out the colour of the hat they're wearing as soon as they know what colour it is."
With this information, she poses the question: "Who is the first person to shout out correctly - and why?"
Laying down the guidelines, the prisoners are not allowed to turn around to see each other, move in any other formation, or remove their own hats.
Did you manage to figure it out? Check the correct answer.