The answer is 28 stars.
Count them the way they’re hung — string by string, top to bottom. There are four garland strings across the picture, and each one carries its own count:
- String 1 (top): 8 stars
- String 2: 6 stars
- String 3: 8 stars
- String 4 (bottom): 6 stars
Now add them up: 8 + 6 + 8 + 6 = 28.
Here’s the checklist that makes it provable: every star in this picture hangs on one of those four strings. There are no loose stars, no star-shaped decorations hiding anywhere else in the frame, and nothing sparkly that counts unless it is a full five-pointed star on a string. The trap is the symmetry — 8, 6, 8, 6 feels like it should round to a tidier number, and a lot of people count the first two strings, double them wrong, and land on 24 or 32. Count all four strings separately and the argument is over.
Did you land on 28, or did the pattern talk you into a rounder number? Be honest in the comments — and watch our page for tomorrow’s counting game.
