Will airpods work with ipad 3rd generation?

Any Apple AirPods/ Pro are NOT really designed for very old iPads, like a nearly 8-year old iPad 3rd generation.

You will lose many touch features of AirPods being used on such an old iPad.

You are better off looking for third party wireless, Bluetooth earpods, instead, that may still support older iPads either directly or through the use of an iOS 9 compatible app that the third party earpod maker might supply.

Hello,

While yes you can use AirPods with an iPad (3rd generation) by putting AirPods in manual pairing mode, you will find that you will loose most features by using AirPods on an unsupported device such as microphone access and gestures.

Just realized, the OP asked about iPad 3. For some reason I though he meant the iPad Air 3.

As mentioned above, they'll work in a limited capacity. They are not actually supported by Apple directly. Sorry about that.

Yes.

See compatibility section here: AirPods Pro - Technical Specifications - Apple

or

here: AirPods (2nd generation) - Technical Specifications - Apple