Halloween Math Riddles: 25 Spooky Word Problems with Answers on Riddlepedia
School & Science

Halloween Math Riddles: 25 Spooky Word Problems with Answers

25 riddles · tap Hint or Answer to reveal

by

Halloween is full of things to count: pumpkins on the porch, candies in the bag, bats in the sky and cats on a witch’s broom. That makes it the perfect week to sneak a little math into the fun. These riddles are real word problems, dressed up in costumes.

There are 25 Halloween math riddles here, in three rounds. The easy round is adding, subtracting and simple times tables for grades 2 and 3, the medium round brings in multiplication, money and time for grades 3 and 4, and the tricky round has fractions, averages, ratios and multi-step puzzles for grades 5 and 6. Every answer shows the working, so kids can check their own thinking.

Easy Halloween Math Riddles

There are 6 pumpkins on the porch. Dad carves 2 more and sets them out too. How many pumpkins are on the porch now?

Hint
Count up from 6.
Answer
  1. 6 + 2 = 8.

A bat has 2 wings. How many wings do 7 bats have?

Hint
Count by twos, seven times.
Answer
  1. 7 × 2 = 14.

Mia collects 20 pieces of candy and eats 3 on the walk home. How many pieces are left in her bag?

Hint
Take away the ones she ate.
Answer
  1. 20 − 3 = 17.

A witch’s broom can carry 3 cats at a time. How many brooms does she need to carry 12 cats in one trip?

Hint
How many groups of 3 are in 12?
Answer
4 brooms. 12 ÷ 3 = 4.

Each jack-o’-lantern gets 2 triangle eyes and 1 triangle nose. How many triangles do you need to carve 5 jack-o’-lanterns?

Hint
How many triangles does one pumpkin need?
Answer
  1. Each pumpkin needs 3 triangles, and 5 × 3 = 15.

Trick-or-treating starts at 6:00 and ends at 7:30. How many minutes is that?

Hint
How many minutes are in one hour?
Answer
90 minutes. One hour is 60 minutes, plus 30 more is 90.

A wizard’s cape needs 9 stars sewn on it. Grandma has sewn on 4 so far. How many stars are left to sew?

Hint
Count up from 4 to 9.
Answer
  1. 9 − 4 = 5.

Five friends share 30 candies equally. How many candies does each friend get?

Hint
Hand them out one at a time around the circle.
Answer
  1. 30 ÷ 5 = 6.

Medium Halloween Math Riddles

Leo has 3 times as many candies as Ava. Together, they have 48 candies. How many candies does Leo have?

Hint
If Ava has 1 “share,” Leo has 3 shares. How many shares is that altogether?
Answer
  1. Together they have 4 shares, so one share is 48 ÷ 4 = 12. Ava has 12, and Leo has 3 × 12 = 36.

Pumpkins cost $4 each at the farm stand. You have $30. What is the greatest number of pumpkins you can buy, and how much change do you get?

Hint
Count by fours until you can’t go any higher without passing 30.
Answer
7 pumpkins and $2 change. 7 × $4 = $28, and $30 − $28 = $2. An 8th pumpkin would cost $32.

A witch flies her broom 15 kilometers every hour. How far does she fly in 3 hours?

Hint
Add 15 three times.
Answer
45 kilometers. 15 × 3 = 45.

Bats fly out of a cave in groups. The first group has 2 bats, the second has 4, the third has 8 and the fourth has 16. If the pattern keeps going, how many bats are in the sixth group?

Hint
What happens to the number each time?
Answer
  1. Each group doubles: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.

At the school Halloween parade, half of the 80 kids wore masks. A quarter of the kids in masks were dressed as witches. How many kids were masked witches?

Hint
First find half of 80, then find a quarter of that.
Answer
  1. Half of 80 is 40, and a quarter of 40 is 10.

In a spooky barn, there are some bats and some black cats. Together they have 20 heads and 58 legs. Bats have 2 legs and cats have 4. How many cats are there?

Hint
Pretend every animal is a bat first. How many legs would that be?
Answer
9 cats. If all 20 animals were bats, there’d be 40 legs. The extra 18 legs come from cats, and each cat adds 2 extra legs, so 18 ÷ 2 = 9 cats (and 11 bats). Check: 9 × 4 + 11 × 2 = 58.

A costume costs $23, and a matching mask costs $9. You pay with a $50 bill. How much change do you get?

Hint
Add the prices first.
Answer
$18. $23 + $9 = $32, and $50 − $32 = $18.

The haunted hayride leaves every 20 minutes, and the first ride leaves at 5:00. What time does the fifth ride leave?

Hint
The first ride is at 5:00, so you only add 20 minutes four times.
Answer
6:20. The rides leave at 5:00, 5:20, 5:40, 6:00 and 6:20.

Tricky Halloween Math Riddles

Gus the ghost says, “I’m thinking of a number. If you multiply it by 3 and then subtract 7, you get 26.” What is Gus’s number?

Hint
Work backward: undo the subtracting first.
Answer
  1. 26 + 7 = 33, and 33 ÷ 3 = 11.

A bowl holds 40 pieces of candy corn and chocolate. For every 3 candy corns, there are 2 chocolates. How many candy corns are in the bowl?

Hint
Every group of 3 candy corns and 2 chocolates has 5 pieces.
Answer
  1. There are 40 ÷ 5 = 8 groups, and 8 × 3 = 24 candy corns (and 16 chocolates).

Four witches each have 2 black cats, and every cat has 3 kittens. How many cats and kittens are there altogether?

Hint
Count the grown-up cats first.
Answer
  1. There are 4 × 2 = 8 cats and 8 × 3 = 24 kittens, and 8 + 24 = 32.

Four friends count their candy after trick-or-treating: 15, 22, 18 and 25 pieces. They want to share it all out evenly. How many pieces does each friend end up with?

Hint
Add up all the candy, then split it four ways. That’s the average.
Answer
  1. 15 + 22 + 18 + 25 = 80, and 80 ÷ 4 = 20.

A rectangular pumpkin patch is 9 meters long and 7 meters wide. If each pumpkin needs 1 square meter of space, how many pumpkins can grow in the patch?

Hint
Find the area of the rectangle.
Answer
  1. The area is 9 × 7 = 63 square meters.

In the haunted house, one ghost pops out every 4 minutes and another pops out every 6 minutes. They just popped out together. How many minutes until they pop out together again?

Hint
List the times for each ghost and look for the first match.
Answer
12 minutes. The first ghost appears at 4, 8, 12… and the second at 6, 12… so 12 is the first time they match.

The haunted house has a two-digit number on its door. The tens digit is 3 more than the ones digit, and the two digits add up to 13. What is the house number?

Hint
Try pairs of digits that add up to 13.
Answer
  1. 8 + 5 = 13, and 8 is 3 more than 5.

A costume shop has 200 masks. On Monday, it sells 25% of them. How many masks are left?

Hint
25% is the same as one quarter.
Answer
  1. A quarter of 200 is 50, and 200 − 50 = 150.

A witch has 13 black cats. All but 3 of them run off to chase a mouse. How many cats are still with the witch?

Hint
Read “all but 3” very carefully.
Answer
  1. “All but 3” means every cat except 3 ran away, so 3 are left.

Using These Riddles in Class

  • Pumpkin points: split the class into teams. Each correct answer earns a paper pumpkin for the team’s patch on the wall. Ask teams to explain their working out loud to earn a bonus pumpkin.
  • Pick your level: print the three rounds on different colored cards (orange for easy, purple for medium, green for tricky) and let students choose where to start. Anyone who solves three cards moves up a color.
  • Show your work: for the tricky round, the answer is only half the point. Have students draw a picture or a bar model for the candy ratio and the bats-and-cats puzzle.
  • Write your own: challenge students to write one Halloween word problem for a partner, using a number fact they’re practicing this week.

Want more number fun? Try our math brain teasers, these number riddles or our pumpkin riddles.