History Main / OnlySmartPeopleMayPass

* In the novelisation of ''Radio/{{Earthsearch}} II'', the puzzle at the climax is extremely simple but highly effective: [[spoiler:the collected technological knowledge of the pre-[[DarkAgeEurope Dark Ages]] Earth is guarded by a metal door that fits its frame too tightly to open, and is kept so by the slight heating from an embedded radioisotope; one must be observant enough to spot the extra warmth, smart enough to figure out that cooling the door will allow it to open, and sufficiently technologically advanced to achieve that on an overheated planet that has been in drought for over three centuries.]]

* Exploited in ''Literature/DiamondDogs'' by Creator/AlastairReynolds. The novella concerns the discovery of a sealed alien tower that can only be ascended by answering successively more difficult math problems in various chambers. The characters in the story are eventually forced to augment their own intelligence with [[NeuralImplanting neural implanting]] just to proceed. More sinisterly, the doorways between each chamber get smaller each time, forcing the characters to also [[BodyHorror modify their bodies to fit]]. [[spoiler:The exploitation comes when narrator realizes that the Tower probably doesn't have ''anything'' at the top. It exists solely to goad gullible intelligent species into exploring it. When they get to the top, the tower "harvests" them like a Venus Fly Trap.]]

** To gain entry to the living quarters of the House of Ravenclaw, one must answer a intellectual riddle. This is designed to help the Ravenclaws increase their intellectual capacity, so it's ''literally'' "only smart people may pass". It could even be intentional: perhaps Rowena considered all smart people honorary Ravenclaws? The Pottermore welcome message for Ravenclaw goes even further in this direction. It states that "it's not unusual" to see twenty or more Ravenclaw students trying to solve the day's riddle together, and that it's a great way for first years to learn from older students. It also says that Ravenclaws "learn quickly".

* Parodied in the [=PS1=] game ''Shadow Madness''; at one point, the heroes encounter a talking stone mouth located in a crypt that's been unoccupied for centuries. When it tells them to answer three questions in order to pass, one of the heroes asks why, to which it responds with, "You'd be bored too if you were me, honey."
* In the game ''Brothers Pilots'', a fridge is locked by a puzzle. After you open it, a cat comes out and opens the door your characters were unable to open by simply pushing it (your characters try to pull it). Apparently, solving this puzzle was simpler than opening an unlocked door.
* ''Chinatown Detective Agency'', which is kind of a SpiritualSuccessor to the Franchise/CarmenSandiego franchise and a borderline EdutainmentGame for grown-ups, unsurprisingly runs on this, particularly throughout the art theft subplot. The password to the rare book case in the library involves pulling switches coded by characters from major novels, a secret door has to be opened by correctly assembling Bosch triptychs, etc.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' has several doors were locked with numerical combination locks. This wouldn't be so bad (the combinations are hidden in various notebooks and diaries hidden around the mansion), except that the lock itself has the numbers written in kanji and in an archaic arrangement (counterclockwise with "zero" in the top position). Only a minor example for Japanese players, but for Western players this is GuideDangIt territory (at the very least, much harder than the developers intended the puzzle to be). Fortunately, the Xbox remake addressed this by changing the lock to feature numerals rather than kanji.

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod''

* In the Warhammer 40k novel ''The Iron Guard'', this is a notable WeaksauceWeakness of the the "changed". While they are quite cunning in other regards, their altered brains seem incapable of solving simple spatial puzzles. The unchanged survivors use this fact to construct barricades that most humans could easily dismantle by moving a few pieces around but the "changed" brains are incapable of reasoning out the puzzle.

* UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} game ''VideoGame/TheChaosEngine'' (''Soldiers of Fortune'' on consoles) features fairly inventive puzzles which can only be interacted with by shooting them. In rooms full of enemies. Often, you'll have solved the puzzle ''without ever noticing it existed''.

* ''WesternAnimation/ElenaOfAvalor'': When the new (and largely untrained) royal wizard Mateo needs to access a powerful spell book in order to reverse a curse, he discovers that the spell book can only be found by solving several riddles. The trope is then played with when it turns out Mateo ''can't'' solve the riddles and begins to question if he should be the wizard at all; Elena then insists that it's fine if he relies on his friends to solve the puzzles as long as Mateo gets thespellbook and saves the cursed people in the end.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' had a very interesting minigame built into the plot, wherein the team has to sit down for dinner with [[BigBad Emperor Gestahl]] and make small-talk. Several questions are asked of the player, for toasts and such, most of which offer three possible answers: sucking-up, magnanimous, and vindictive. He also answers questions about some plot-points, and then quizzes on which one was asked first. The game goes on through the dinner no matter what; since it's not possible to "lose", it's not exactly a critical puzzle, but "winning" nets the player lots of nice rewards. The puzzle is figuring out the right answers - each has a score attached to it, with the rewards based on the total earned. The answer isn't entirely obvious from the context, but the Emperor is trying really hard to apologize, so [[spoiler:you want to take the magnanimous answers, because you don't to degrade his apology, and you don't want to be rude at a dinner party. As the other Returners are present, you also don't want to offend ''them'', which is why the middle-of-the-road answers are best.]]