A seemingly simple puzzle
At first glance, these drawings look like they came straight out of a children’s book. Roosters, baskets of eggs, bunches of bananas. Yet 97% of people get it wrong. And they remain convinced they are right. Have you found the answer? Are you sure? How much are you willing to bet? 😏 Everyone is looking at the same image. But no one agrees.
Why?
Because your brain moves too quickly.
It fills in gaps. It makes assumptions. It skips details.
And in a group… it’s exactly the same. You organize a seminar. A workshop. A strategic meeting. And everyone ends up saying, “I knew that.”
What’s your answer?
Good puzzles rely on a subtle mechanism: they make us think we already know the rules. We add, we multiply, we go with our gut… and we fall into the trap.
The secret might lie elsewhere. A discreet detail, a minor variation, completely changes the solution.
Every rooster, every basket of eggs, every bunch of bananas is a clue. You just need to know how to read them.
More than just calculations, an exercise in observation
These riddles don’t just test your math skills. They mainly challenge your ability to slow down and really look.
Because the first intuition is often misleading. Details – the exact number of eggs in the basket, the number of bananas in the bunch – are essential.
Here, seeing differently is more valuable than calculating quickly.
A lesson from elsewhere
It is said that an old professor loved posing these kinds of problems to his students. Faced with an absurd-looking drawing, students would get lost in complicated equations.
He watched their reactions: who would notice the detail that changes everything? Who would persist despite the apparent absurdity?
He wasn’t interested in the solution, but in the way to reach it. Because great discoverers, he said, are not those who find answers quickly, but those who dare to question what seems obvious.
The solution is right before your eyes
Before picking up a pencil or a calculator, look at the image closely. Count the elements. Observe the subtle changes from line to line. Every detail is a piece of the puzzle.
The rooster isn’t just worth “20.” The basket isn’t always the same. Neither are the bananas. It is in these nuances that the true logic lies.
It’s your turn to play
The answer won’t come immediately, and that’s exactly what makes the riddle exciting. Analyze, compare, dare to make hypotheses. The real joy isn’t in the final result, but in the journey taken to discover it.
So, will you be able to solve the mystery of this rooster, these eggs, and these bananas?
Here’s the solution we found:
Here is the detailed solution for the “rooster – eggs – bananas” puzzle.
1) Identify the base values
Line 1:
Rooster + Rooster + Rooster = 60 ⟹ 1 rooster = 20.
2) Deduce the value of a basket of eggs
Line 2:
Rooster + basket of 3 eggs + basket of 3 eggs = 26
20 + 3E + 3E = 26 ⟹ 6E = 6 ⟹ 1 egg = 1.
So a basket of 3 eggs = 3.
3) Deduce the value of a bunch of bananas
Line 3:
Basket (3 eggs) + bunch + bunch = 15
3 + 2×(bunch) = 15 ⟹ bunch = 6.
At this point, we know:
rooster = 20; 1 egg = 1; basket of 3 eggs = 3; bunch (line 3) = 6.
4) Observe the changes in the last line
In the last line, the drawings change subtly:
- The basket no longer contains 3 eggs but 2 eggs → value 2;
- The bunch shows 3 bananas (while the bunch worth 6 in line 3 showed 4).
So the value of 1 banana = 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5 and a bunch of 3 bananas is worth 3 × 1.5 = 4.5.
5) Apply the order of operations
Last line: rooster + (basket of 2 eggs) × (bunch of 3 bananas)
Priority to multiplication:
= 20 + (2) × (4.5)
= 20 + 9
= 29.
Answer
29.
If you enjoyed this test, don’t forget to take on other challenges in our recommended readings section by clicking here.
