Puzzle designed for six-year-olds leaves adults completely stumped

12 September 2023 , 07:01

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Can you answer this question?

We'd all like to think that we're more intelligent than a six-year-old, right? Despite this fact, a puzzle for kids has left adults completely stumped though, and wondering how on earth little ones are supposed to answer it when adults are baffled about it. And, to add to the stress of solving the problem, there is a time limit.

The recently resurfaced question is from an admission test for a primary school in Hong Kong, and children have just 20 seconds to answer it, making it a whole lot trickier. But do you think you've got what it takes to provide the answer? According to reactions online, it's a lot more difficult than you could ever anticipate.

The question features an illustration of a parking lot with six spaces. Five of the spaces feature numbers, and the sixth has a car in it obscuring the number. The question is 'what is the number of the parking space containing the car?' And if you're trying to use logic, or algebra to try and work it out, you'll be pleased to know that it's actually a lot more simplistic than that.

In fact, there's something that you can do in order to get the answer in seconds - and if you've worked it out, congratulations, you're as smart as a six-year-old.

Have you figured out what to do? If you're still trying to work it out, look away now, as the answer is coming up. The answer is totally obvious when you flip the question upside down and realise that the numbers are printed on the car parking spaces.

Mind-bending optical illusion makes your brain 'adjust' after 10 seconds

It's a lot easier than it seems

Apparently, adult minds overthink the picture, and this causes them to get it wrong, or not be able to come up with an answer at all. For children, the obvious answer is to flip the page and come out with the answer of 87 - the missing number in the ascending sequence of 86 to 91. British puzzle inventor David Bodycombe told the Guardian that he came up with the idea while in a car park in Portugal two decades ago, and he finds it amusing that people are so flummoxed about it.

Did you manage to get it right? Let us know in the comments below.

Danielle Kate Wroe