For today’s post, I’m going to keep it short…and see if I can practice with some type of question block, for my “learning WordPress” journey.

So here’s a thing about me: I think a lot. Even this quest of “write a short blog post to practice” took me into a Google rabbithole, because:

What even is a trick question?

It might be a riddle, a question that stumps you and usually has something to do with words/logic/different ways of thinking. Like:

If you build a fort, drive a Ford, and fill out a form, then what do you eat soup with? (Source)

…you’ll have to wait for a part 2, because I need some type of “spoiler block.” Also, I drafted this yesterday and then lost the will to “computer.” Still counting this as a post created on that day, though!

…okay, I’m back!

Thanks to a colleague who pointed me to a little HTML trick, let’s try this again…

If you build a fort, drive a Ford, and fill out a form, then what do you eat soup with?

…a spoon. You were gonna say “fork,” right?

(You’ll need to click on that item above to expand and see the answer).

Cool, that only took 10-ish minutes to get down. It’ll work!

Other types of trick questions might be about subtle details that actually make a big difference toward getting something right or wrong. This thread from the “Teachers” subreddit has a decent example.

When can trick questions help?

In my (humble) opinion, trick questions help when the process of understanding the answer (and why you were tricked) is supportive rather than punitive, and when it helps you recall and apply the correct information or process. We don’t want learners to feel stupid, but we do want to help them avoid common mistakes — like a good trick question can catch.

What do you think? What am I missing? Let’s hear it in the comments.