The 1% Club final question leaves viewers completely stumped

Two finalists on The 1% Club were left struggling with a deceptively simple maths question, and viewers at home admitted they were just as confused.

Comedian Lee Mack puts 100 contestants through a series of questions designed to test logic and common sense rather than general knowledge. Those who survive the earlier rounds can compete for a share of up to £100,000 by correctly answering a question that only one percent of the general public can solve.

But on Saturday night’s episode on 30 March, the final challenge proved a step too far for Maisie and Alex, who were the last two contestants remaining.

A 30-second maths nightmare

With just 30 seconds to work it out, the pair were given the following puzzle:

“Given that: 0+100 =100, 1+99 = 100, 2+98 =100, what is the sum of all the whole numbers between zero and 100?”

With the £100,000 prize fund potentially within reach, Maisie and Alex decided not to take the risk. Instead, they secured £5,000 each.

They still attempted to work out the answer, suggesting it might be 5,000, but that guess turned out to be incorrect.

Viewers were just as confused

The finalists were hardly alone in struggling with the question. Viewers watching from home quickly took to social media to admit they couldn’t figure it out either.

One viewer simply pleaded: “Help me understand???”

Another described it as possibly the hardest 1% question they had seen, joking that it felt more like a “0.1% question.”

Others shared their own frustration, with one admitting that questions involving numbers always catch them out, while another said they were “gutted” after failing to get it.

One viewer confessed they didn’t even attempt the puzzle, saying maths was difficult enough with a calculator, let alone trying to solve it mentally in just 30 seconds.

So, what was the answer?

Lee Mack explained that Maisie and Alex had actually been closer than they realised.

The numbers can be grouped into pairs that add up to 100: 0 and 100, 1 and 99, 2 and 98, and so on. There are 50 such pairs, producing a total of 5,000.

However, there’s one number left over: 50.

Because 50 sits in the middle and cannot be paired with another number without counting it twice, it also has to be included.

That brings the final answer to 5,050.

Some of The 1% Club’s toughest questions

For anyone who found that puzzle difficult, the show has delivered plenty of other brainteasers that have left contestants scratching their heads.

Among them are questions asking for the first number whose letters appear in alphabetical order, decoding unusual number patterns involving months, identifying the next mileage reading that works the same forwards and backwards, and finding what four seemingly unrelated words have in common.

Another famously tricky question asks how much a ball costs when a bat and ball together cost £1.10, with the bat costing £1 more than the ball.