Only 'geniuses' can solve 'impossible' Harvard question brainteaser - 90 percent fail

If you fancy yourself clever enough to enroll at Harvard, one of the globe's most elite institutions, you'd better be able to crack this seriously tough brainteaser.

Brainteasers are a brilliant method for testing your mental prowess, but this particular puzzle sees 90 percent of participants fail . It is said that only 'genius' can solve the question. See how you fare by taking the challenge, which you will find by scrolling down.

The interview question goes: "If there are seven men with seven wives and each man and each wife have seven children, what is the total number of people?."

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If you can't see the puzzle above, click here.

But what makes this riddle stand out from the usual head-scratchers is that it boasts two possible solutions. It popped up on the internet in 2021 and has been baffling maths buffs ever since. Why not take up the gauntlet and see how you fare?

People on Reddit have attempted the puzzle, with guesses ranging from 21 to a whopping 448. The trick lies in the wordplay, as the deliberately vague question can yield several different answers.

One Redditor took the time to explain their reasoning, saying: "The idea here is that you are tricked into multiplying 7 3 times when 7 men and 7 wives just means 7 couples, leading to an answer of 56.

"However, the way it's worded, I think interpreting that each man has 7 of his own wives is a perfectly good interpretation. When it says 'Each man and each wife' that's supposed to be a justification for the interpretation of 14 people. But instead, it leads to even further ambiguity, because it's possible to interpret that as a permutation statement.

"If you do that, you could say that the 7 men have 49 wives, and there are 343 to pair a man with a wife, with each pair having 7 children leading to 2401 children for a total answer of 7 + 49 + 2401 = 2457."

While opinions differ on the precise answer, one theory posits that there exist merely seven pairs seven men and their seven wives totalling 14 souls. Should each couple be blessed with seven offspring, this results in 49 children.

Upon tallying them together, the figure arrives at 63 individuals.

A fine question indeed; it reveals much about an interviewee's mental machinations, yet has sent the online world into fits trying to determine the correct resolution. Sources remain undecided if the conundrum originated directly from Harvard, as reported by MailOnline.

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