A brainteaser featuring a sequence of black and white boxes has left social media users baffled, with some proposing unusual theories about the hidden pattern. The puzzle, shared on Reddit, claims only the "smartest people on the planet" will be able to solve it.
The challenge shows a series of black and white squares with several question marks scattered throughout. Many users have admitted defeat, with one simply confessing: "I don't understand this."
Binary and alien theories
One user suggested the answer could involve binary code, writing: "I have spent too much time trying to solve puzzles which turned out to require binary without knowing binary." They proposed the sequence 110, 1011010, 10011, with 1 representing black and 0 white, adding: "As the question marks appear systematically, and I at this point in time, could not find any other pattern, what I did was, add all the binary digits, of each allocation."
Another offered a more imaginative theory, stating: "Number of squares: follow the powers of 3, ie 3,9,27,81,243,729. Number of white squares follow 1,2016,1,2017,1,2018 and so on with 1s separated in between (possibly counting the recent years since the detection of the first gravitational waves, possibly from aliens)."
They continued: "And the black ones follow year numbers too, namely 2726, 2004, and 2017, I don't know what events would connect these 3 years and haven't quite figured it out. Maybe it's some kind of warning or something like that."
Creator's hint
The puzzle's creator appeared to acknowledge part of the theory, joking: "The first part and the part where you realize I'm from the future and am an alien is correct lol. But the second part isn't; I think you can solve it based on the information you have."
When another participant asked for a clue, the creator revealed that two separate patterns are at work, explaining: "Number of squares and the black-and-white colour changes follow two different logics."
Pressed for the answer, the creator offered a final cryptic clue: "3,9,2,7,8,1,2,4,3,7,2,9 : 3,9,27,81,243,729" — but stopped short of explaining how the sequence solves the puzzle, leaving others to figure out the final answer themselves.
