Brain Teaser Test (IQ-Style Puzzles)

A brain teaser test with 30 IQ-style puzzles — just for fun

This brain teaser test gives you 30 original puzzles of the kinds found in reasoning and aptitude tests: number and letter series, 3 × 3 picture matrices, word and number analogies, odd-one-out questions and spatial puzzles about rotating shapes, folding paper and building cubes. Each has four options, and after every answer you see the solution with a short explanation.

It is not an IQ test and does not produce an IQ score. Real IQ tests are standardised on large samples and administered under controlled conditions; these puzzles were simply written for this page. Treat your score as a bit of fun, a warm-up before an aptitude test, or a challenge to share.

Everything runs in your browser. The only thing saved is your best score, on this device.

How to use the Brain Teaser Test

1. Leave the 20-minute timer ticked for a challenge, or untick it to work at your own pace. Press Start the test.
2. Read each puzzle and choose one of the four options — tap it, or press keys 1–4.
3. Read the explanation that appears, then press Next puzzle (or Enter). Stuck? Skip shows the answer and moves on.
4. After puzzle 30, or when the timer runs out, you get your score out of 30 and a breakdown by puzzle type.
5. Press Take the test again — the order of the options is shuffled each time.

Brain Teaser Test features

How to solve each type

• Series: write down the differences between neighbouring terms. If they are not constant, look at the differences of the differences, at multiplying factors, or at two sequences interleaved.
• Matrices: check rows and columns separately. Common rules are counting (one, two, three), rotation by a fixed angle, combining the first two tiles, and “each shape once per row and column”.
• Analogies: say the relationship as a sentence — “a library is where books are kept” — then apply the same sentence to the second pair.
• Odd one out: find a property shared by three: category (fruit, planet), dimension (flat or solid), or number property (prime, square, cube).
• Spatial: a rotation never turns a shape into its mirror image. Track one distinctive corner as you mentally turn the shape.

What your score means — and what it does not

Scores are not converted into IQ because that would require norms from thousands of people of different ages taking exactly these puzzles under the same conditions. Without norms, 22 out of 30 means you solved 22 of these puzzles, nothing more. Familiarity also matters a lot: people who have practised series and matrices score far higher on them, which is one reason a quick online quiz says little about general ability.

If you like this kind of thinking, try the sudoku generator for pure logic, the riddle generator for lateral thinking, or the Big Five personality test for a different kind of self-quiz.