Only 5 percent of Brits will be able to solve this mind-boggling optical illusion

Only 5 percent of Brits will be able to solve this mind-boggling optical illusion (Image: GETTY)

A mind-boggling optical illusion is so difficult that only five percent of the people who attempt it will succeed.

While Easter has now passed, chocolate eggs are still lurking in many people's cupboards, and puzzle masters clearly have the items on their minds as well, as they have created an egg-themed challenge.

A picture that appears to capture an ordinary pile of eggs is actually a tricky riddle.

Challengers are presented with a photo showing eggs inside a carton stacked four layers high.

They must use the little information available to calculate exactly how many eggs are inside the carton, but the puzzle is not as easy as it may appear.

The eggs are stacked in four layers around the outside, with seven on the bottom, five on the layer above, and three and one in the remaining upper layers.

Considered by its surface alone, the picture would appear to show 16 eggs in total.

But the picture appears to present the front of a three-dimensional stac, meaning the correct number of eggs is not immediately clear.

The Sun reports that 95 percent of people cannot immediately determine how many eggs there are, with the remaining five percent boasting a high IQ.

The key to understanding how many eggs there really are is considering the part of the picture people can't see.

Assuming the crate is a square, with four eggs on the bottom in a four-by-four structure, the bottom layer has 16 eggs in total.

The next layer, in the same structure, has the eggs arranged three by three, adding nine more.

The penultimate layer is four eggs, and the final is one, adding a further five to a true total of 30.