TikTok pen challenge

Only those with high IQs can solve this viral pen challenge from TikTok and I am stumped

This brainteaser is driving me insane


There’s a really solid brainteaser on TikTok going viral right now called the pen challenge – and it is said that only those with a very high IQ are able to solve it. It’s one of those puzzles that makes you absolutely fuming as you try and work it out, so prepare to be kicking yourself and feeling like the thickest person in the world if you can’t do it or when you get told the solution. The TikTok pen challenge brain teaser is all about, err, pens – but it’s the annoying rules that restrict what you can do with them that makes this so hard.

The TikTok pen challenge brainteaser puzzle is as follows. There are 10 pens, arranged into four groups of one, two, three and four. The task asks you to rearrange the pens so instead of going up in quantity, you reverse it and it counts downwards from a group of four, three, two to one. The issue is you can only move one pen to make this happen.

Is your brain feeling teased yet? It should be.

This puzzle has been going around on TikTok for a year or so but has just had renewed viral attention as everyone has their lateral lobe tested by the wily solution.

Got it? Well, if you’re sat perplexed staring at a load of pens and you give up, here’s the solution. Don’t scroll down unless you want it all given away.

How to do it – there’s only ONE method

The correct way to solve this TikTok challenge is you take the second to most far right pen from the group of four and you slot it in between the single and the pair at the start. This one move then makes it read backwards.

If you got that, congrats – you’re cleverer than the majority of TikTok and you should give yourself a whopping big clap.

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