The 1% Club viewers stumped by tricky time question. Could you solve it in 30 seconds?

Could you work out the answer before the clock runs out?

A deceptively simple question about a digital clock left viewers of ITV’s The 1% Club scratching their heads.

The challenge was to look at the time 10:05am and work out how many individual lines would be illuminated on the display. Contestants had just 30 seconds to find the answer.

The question that caught viewers out

Hosted by Lee Mack, The 1% Club puts 100 contestants through 15 questions that become progressively more difficult.

Unlike traditional general-knowledge quizzes, the show focuses on logic, observation and common sense. The opening question is one that 90 per cent of the public polled managed to answer correctly, while the questions gradually become harder until contestants reach the final challenge, which only 1 per cent are expected to solve.

A wrong answer means elimination, with the contestant’s money added to the prize pot. That money is eventually shared between those who successfully answer the final 1% question.

One particularly troublesome question appeared in an episode that aired in 2023. It was classed as a 20% question, but plenty of viewers found it much harder than expected.

The question was:

A digital clock uses a maximum of seven lines per digit, which can be used to create any time. How many lines are lit at 10:05am?

The answer is 19

If you know how a standard seven-segment digital display works, the solution becomes much easier.

The 1 uses two lines, while each 0 requires six. The 5 uses five lines.

So for 10:05, the calculation is:

2 + 6 + 6 + 5 = 19

That makes 19 the correct answer.

It sounds straightforward once the solution is explained, but contestants had only 30 seconds to spot it under the pressure of the quiz.

Viewers had plenty of guesses

When a clip of the question was later shared on TikTok, viewers offered a wide range of answers.

Some guessed 19, while others suggested 21, 27 or even seven. Several admitted that they would have struggled to make it through the easier questions earlier in the game.

One viewer joked: “I can’t even get to the 70 percent question.”

Another got caught up on how the number one should be drawn on a digital display, asking why they were among the few people who thought 1 was made with three lines.

That detail is at the heart of the puzzle. The question is asking viewers to think about the individual illuminated segments used to form each number, rather than simply counting the characters displayed on the clock.

Why The 1% Club can be so frustrating

The format is deliberately designed to make contestants rethink seemingly obvious problems.

Players begin with questions that a large proportion of the public can answer, before facing puzzles that fewer and fewer people manage to solve. Each question has the same 30-second time limit, meaning contestants have to identify the trick quickly rather than spend several minutes working through possibilities.

Lee Mack has previously explained why he enjoys the show’s approach to quizzing.

“Great contestants, loads of cash to win, and guaranteed ‘I can’t believe you couldn’t work that one out Dad!’ moments to cause family disputes — I love it,” he told The Sun.

Mack has also said that he enjoys difficult quizzes himself, pointing to University Challenge as an example. He said he is happy to get only a couple of questions right because successfully solving a difficult question gives you a particularly satisfying feeling.

That, he said, is part of what appealed to him about The 1% Club. Producers had shown him some of the questions before he agreed to take part, and he joked that if he had been able to answer all of them correctly, he probably would not have done the programme.

He quickly realised that anyone capable of getting them all right would have to be “a proper brainbox.”

And for anyone still wondering about that deceptively simple clock question, there is no trick hidden in the time itself.

10:05 = 19 illuminated lines.

The real challenge was spotting how the numbers are built before those 30 seconds were up.