Zebra Puzzle facts for kids

The Zebra Puzzle is a famous logic puzzle. It's also known as Einstein's Puzzle or Einstein's Riddle. Some people say Albert Einstein or Lewis Carroll created it. But there's no real proof of this. The puzzle mentions brands that didn't exist when they were young. A version of this puzzle appeared in Life International magazine in 1962. Later, the magazine shared the solution and the names of many people who solved it. This puzzle is sometimes used to test how well computer programs can solve tricky problems.

How the Puzzle Works

Here is the puzzle as it appeared in Life International in 1962:

• There are five houses in a row.
• The Englishman lives in the red house.
• The Spaniard owns the dog.
• Coffee is drunk in the green house.
• The Ukrainian drinks tea.
• The green house is right next to the ivory house (on your right).
• The person who smokes Old Gold owns snails.
• Kools are smoked in the yellow house.
• Milk is drunk in the middle house.
• The Norwegian lives in the first house.
• The person who smokes Chesterfields lives next to the person with the fox.
• Kools are smoked next to the house where the horse is kept.
• The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice.
• The Japanese smokes Parliaments.
• The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

Now, can you figure out: Who drinks water? Who owns the zebra?

Each of the five houses is a different color. People from different countries live in them. They own different pets, drink different drinks, and smoke different brands. Remember, "right" means your right side.

– Life International, December 17, 1962

Solving the Puzzle

If you assume only one person drinks water and one owns a zebra, you can solve the whole puzzle! You can figure out who lives in each house, its color, their pet, drink, and what they smoke. By looking at the clues one by one, you can slowly piece together the answer.

For example, clue 10 says the Norwegian lives in the first house. Clue 15 says the house next to the Norwegian's is blue. So, the Norwegian's house can't be blue. It also can't be red (clue 2) or green or ivory (clue 6). This means the Norwegian's house must be yellow. And since Kools are smoked in the yellow house (clue 8), the Norwegian smokes Kools!

The magazine shared this solution in 1963:

Another Way to Solve It

Clue 10 says "first house." It doesn't say if that's the one on the far left or far right. But it doesn't matter! No matter which side you pick as "first," the answers for who drinks water and who owns the zebra stay the same.

Here's the solution if you start from the other side:

Different Versions of the Puzzle

There are many versions of the Zebra Puzzle. They might change the colors, countries, brands, drinks, or pets. The clues might also be in a different order. But the way you solve the puzzle stays the same.

Some versions say the green house is to the left of the ivory house, not the right. This makes the puzzle a bit easier to solve. It just swaps the order of those two houses and everything in them.

• You can find the "Who owns the Zebra" Quiz in many languages here: "Who owns the Zebra"

See also

In Spanish: Acertijo de la cebra para niños