A guy pushes his car up to a hotel and knows right away he's broke. That's a lateral thinking puzzle. The story sounds impossible, and your job is to ask yes or no questions until it makes sense.
It's a short story with a missing piece. Everything in it is true, but it's told so your brain fills in the wrong picture. You can't solve it by doing math or knowing trivia. You solve it by asking questions and noticing which of your assumptions were never in the story.
You might know them by another name. They're also called situation puzzles, yes/no riddles, sea turtle soup, minute mysteries and Black Stories, after the card game. Same game, different names.
None of these are from the daily game, so they're safe to read. Try asking yourself questions before you peek.
A man pays for a ticket, sits in the dark for two hours with a bunch of strangers, and walks out crying. He says it was worth every penny.
Why is he happy he paid?
He went to see a movie. It was a sad one, and a really good one.
A woman orders two coffees, drinks one, and leaves without touching the other. She paid for both, and the barista isn't confused at all.
Who's the second coffee for?
It's a suspended coffee. She paid ahead so that someone who can't afford one can come in later and get it for free.
Every night a woman leaves her porch light on. She lives alone, she goes to bed at nine, and nobody ever visits at night.
Who's the light for?
Her son is a pilot. His route passes over her town at night, and he looks for her light every time he flies by.
Backstory gives you one new lateral thinking puzzle a day, like Wordle for riddles. You ask as many questions as you want and get three tries to type out the whole story. If you get stuck, three hints unlock one at a time. Fewer questions means a better score, and you can share your result as a spoiler-free grid. It's free, there's no sign-up, and you can play the past puzzles too.
It's a short, strange story with a hidden explanation. You figure out what really happened by asking yes or no questions. The answer always makes sense once you hear it. The trick is in what you assumed.
People also call them situation puzzles, yes/no riddles, sea turtle soup (the name used in a lot of Asia, after a famous puzzle about a bowl of turtle soup), minute mysteries and Black Stories, after the card game.
One person knows the answer and acts as the host. Everyone else asks questions that can be answered yes or no. The host only answers. You keep asking until someone can tell the whole story. In Backstory, an AI host plays that part, so you can play alone.
Backstory at playbackstory.app posts a new one every day. It's free, works in your phone's browser, and needs no account. You can share your result as a spoiler-free emoji grid, like Wordle.
Yes. They're great on road trips, at dinner and in class, because everyone can ask questions and it turns into a group effort. With Backstory a group can crowd around one phone, or everyone can play the daily story and compare scores.
The phrase comes from Edward de Bono, who wrote about it in the late 1960s. Puzzle writer Paul Sloane then made yes or no story puzzles popular with a series of books.
There's a new one every day.
Play today's Backstory