Crossing the River Game: Strategy and Solution

Crossing the river game is considered one of the most popular IQ games as it requires lots of concentration, strategy and critical thinking in order to beat the game. The objective of this IQ game test is very simple: the player must transfer all the characters from one side of the river to the other side using a raft. However, the tricky part here is the game’s rules; making it more interesting and mind bugging. The characters in this game are a policeman, a criminal, a mother, a father, 2 daughters and 2 sons. The restrictions/constraints of the game are listed below.

1. The raft can only carry at most 2 passengers at a time.
2. Only the police, the mother and the father can operate the raft.
3. The father cannot be on the presence of the daughters without the mother
4. The mother cannot be on the presence of the sons without the father.
5. The criminal cannot be left alone with the family without the policeman

Click here to play the game: http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/riverIQGame.swf

It would be great if you solve this IQ game without looking at the strategy and solutions below. But if you’ve already had enough and decided to give up on trying, then the solution of the game is written below.

Solution to the Crossing the River Game:

Only about 10% who tried have solved this problem. So it'll be great if you solve this IQ problem by your own analysis and logic and not relying on this solution. But if you aren't tough enough to face the challenge, here is the solution to the problem.

1.     Move the Policeman and Criminal to the other side of the river.

2.     Move the Policeman back to the other side.

3.     Move the Policeman and a child (boy/girl) to the other side of the river.

4.     Move the Policeman and criminal back to the other side.

5.     If the child you transferred on step 3 is a boy, move the father and the boy child to the other side, otherwise move the mother and the girl to the other side.

6.     Move the father/mother (based on step 5) to the other side of the river.

7.     Move father and mother to the other side of the river.

8.     If the children on you transferred on step 3 are boys, then transfer the mother back to the other side, otherwise transfer the father.

9.     Move the police and the criminal to the other side.

10. Move the father/mother to the other side.

11. Move the father and mother to the other side.

12. If the children left on the other side are girls, transfer the mother to the other side, otherwise transfer the father.

13. Move the father/mother and a child to the other side.

14. Move the policeman and the criminal to the other side.

15. Move the policeman and the child to the other side. This step must left the criminal alone on the other side of the river.

16. Move the policeman to the other side.

17. Move the policeman and the criminal to the other side.

18. GAME END

Those are the algorithm or the steps I made to solve the game. As what I have mentioned earlier, it'll be great if you solve this game on your own without cheating.