NYT Connections Daily Puzzle: Ultimate Strategy Guide & Tips [2025]

Let me be honest. When the New York Times launched Connections, I thought it was just another word game that would sit in my bookmarks, forgotten after two weeks. I was wrong.

Connections isn't Wordle. It's not Strands. It's something different entirely, and that's what makes it so addictive. You're not guessing letters or finding hidden words in a grid. You're looking at four seemingly random words and trying to figure out what ties them together. Sometimes the connection is obvious. Other times? It's a trap designed to make you feel stupid.

I've been playing daily for months now. I've seen patterns emerge. I've noticed which categories trip people up. I've learned that the hardest puzzle doesn't always mean the most obscure category—sometimes it just means the game is playing with your assumptions.

This guide isn't just about today's puzzle (though I'll give you hints for that too). It's about understanding how Connections works as a system. It's about learning to spot the tricks before they catch you. It's about building the mental framework that lets you solve these puzzles consistently, day after day.

The real skill in Connections isn't knowing obscure facts. It's learning to think like a puzzle constructor. Once you understand how they build these categories, the puzzles become significantly easier. Not easy, mind you. But solvable.

Let's dive in.

TL; DR

• Today's Game (#939): Yellow group involves social media actions, green covers geographical extremes, blue focuses on art movements with "-ism" suffixes, and purple explores multiple meanings of the letter "V"
• Core Strategy: Always identify the purple group first through pattern recognition, use process of elimination for difficult connections, and watch out for homophones and double meanings
• Common Mistakes: Assuming connections are too obvious, grouping similar words without shared categories, and ignoring alternative meanings that the puzzle intentionally plants
• Time Management: Don't spend more than 5-7 minutes on any single group, take breaks when frustrated, and trust your initial instincts about categorical relationships
• Daily Habit: Playing consistently improves your ability to recognize category patterns, but don't let losing streaks discourage you—even experts get stumped

Estimated data showing equal distribution of difficulty levels in the Connections game. Each color represents a different challenge level.

Understanding the Connections Game Format

Connections is deceptively simple on the surface. You get sixteen words. You need to arrange them into four groups of four. Each group shares a common theme or connection. That's it.

But here's where the genius lies: the New York Times constructs these puzzles so that multiple words can fit into multiple categories. COMMENT could be something you do on social media. But it could also be a casual remark or observation. LIKE isn't just what you do on Instagram. It's also a comparison tool, a question word, or something you enjoy. The puzzle's difficulty comes not from obscurity, but from ambiguity.

Your job is to identify which grouping is correct.

Each group has a difficulty rating shown by color. Green is easiest. Yellow is harder. Blue is quite challenging. Purple is ruthlessly difficult. The game lets you make up to four mistakes before you lose. You can solve three groups and then automatically get the fourth through elimination, though that's not really satisfying.

The strategy isn't to solve them in order of difficulty. Most people try green first, which makes sense. But experienced players approach this differently. They look for the group with the most obvious connection first—which might be blue or purple if the constructor has been clever.

Playable on any device through the New York Times Games website, Connections appears fresh at midnight in your time zone. This creates an interesting phenomenon: at any given moment, people around the world are playing "today's" puzzle simultaneously, though the actual date differs by timezone.

Estimated data suggests that maintaining high confidence (8+) in puzzle solutions is crucial for consistent success. Moderate and low confidence often lead to errors.

Today's Puzzle Analysis (Game #939)

Today's puzzle presented four distinct categories, each with varying difficulty levels. Let's break down exactly what we're dealing with and why each connection works.

The Yellow Group: Social Media Actions

Yellow groups are typically your entry point. They're easier than blue or purple, but trickier than green. Today's yellow group asked you to identify things you can do on social media platforms: COMMENT, LIKE, LURK, and POST.

This seems straightforward until you realize every single one of these words has multiple meanings. COMMENT is a noun, a verb, or feedback. LIKE is a social action, a comparison tool, or a preference indicator. LURK has general English meaning beyond social media contexts. POST can be a noun (a physical post), a verb (to place something), or a blog post.

The puzzle specifically builds categories around the social media interpretation. Your brain, however, naturally considers all possible meanings. That's the tension that makes the category slightly harder than it first appears.

The best approach here is to look for the most specific, narrow interpretation. If multiple meanings exist, the puzzle usually wants the interpretation that's most time-bound to modern usage. LURK, for instance, has gained massive cultural significance in the social media era. Twenty years ago, most people wouldn't have understood what lurking meant in an online context. Now it's commonplace.

Notice that LIKE and POST could theoretically fit into other categories. But once you identify COMMENT and LURK as definitely being social media actions, the pattern becomes clear. The puzzle has forced you into this group by elimination and specificity.

The Green Group: Geographical Extremes

Green is supposed to be easy. Today's green asked you to find things that represent the furthest point or extreme: END, EXTREME, OPPOSITE, and POLE.

Here's where it gets tricky. EXTREME is obviously extreme. POLE is geographically an extreme point. OPPOSITE is... well, it's the furthest thing from something. END is where things reach their limit. All four work, but not for immediately obvious reasons.

EXTREME is a direct synonym. POLE hits you over the head with geographical reference. But OPPOSITE and END require you to think about the concept of "furthest" more abstractly. OPPOSITE means "as far away as possible in direction." END means "as far as we can go."

This reveals something important about Connections: the puzzle doesn't always group words by part of speech or strict definition. It groups them by shared meaning or context, even if that meaning is slightly abstract.

Green groups almost always have this characteristic. One or two words are obvious. One or two require you to think slightly deeper. Your job is to find where the overlap exists.

The Blue Group: Art Movements with "-ISM" Suffix

Blue groups hit harder. Today's blue asked you to identify art movements ending in "-ism": BRUTAL, IMPRESSION, MANNER, and REAL.

IMPRESSION immediately makes you think of "Impressionism." BRUTAL connects to "Brutalism." REAL connects to "Realism." But MANNER? That's the trap.

MANNER is the connector for "Mannerism," a legitimate art movement from the 16th century. But Mannerism is far less famous than the others. If you don't know art history deeply, MANNER feels like it doesn't belong. The puzzle is betting you'll try to force these words into other categories because MANNER seems wrong.

This is classic blue-level difficulty. The puzzle includes one word that doesn't immediately conjure its category in your mind. Instead of MANNERIST or MANNER-ISM, you just get MANNER. You have to know the art movement or deduce it through elimination.

Blue groups always include at least one word that makes you second-guess your category. Your job is to be confident in the pattern once you spot it. If three out of four words clearly fit an "-ism" art movement pattern, the fourth probably does too, even if you don't immediately recognize it.

The Purple Group: Multiple Meanings of "V"

Purple is the puzzle's final boss. Today's purple group asked you to find things the letter "V" might mean: FIVE, VERSUS, VERY, and VOLT.

Let's map this out:

• V = Five (Roman numeral)
• V = Versus (abbreviation, particularly in legal contexts and sports)
• V = Very (abbreviated slang, "v. cool" = "very cool")
• V = Volt (unit of electrical potential)

Each of these is a real, valid meaning of the letter V. None of them is more "correct" than another. The puzzle is asking you to recognize that a single letter can represent four different concepts entirely, then group those concepts together.

This requires lateral thinking. You're not looking for a semantic connection like "social media actions." You're looking for a linguistic or symbolic connection. The category itself is meta: "Things V represents."

Purple groups almost always involve wordplay, multiple meanings, or highly abstract connections. The words themselves rarely hint at the actual pattern. You often have to solve the other three groups first, then recognize the purple pattern by elimination.

The Strategic Approach to Solving Connections

When you sit down to play Connections, your instinct is probably to solve the green group first, then yellow, then blue, then purple. That's the natural progression by difficulty. But that's not always the fastest path to victory.

Identifying Obvious Patterns First

The first strategy is to look for the most obvious pattern, regardless of color. Scan all sixteen words. Is there a category that jumps out immediately? Sometimes green groups are genuinely hard. Sometimes purple groups are obvious wordplay that you spot in five seconds.

Today, the purple group (if you know about Roman numerals, abbreviations, and electrical units) might have been obvious. Or it might have been mysterious. That depends on your knowledge base and how quickly your brain makes lateral connections.

The goal is to identify one group—just one—that you're completely confident about. Once you've locked in one group, you've eliminated four words from consideration. Now you're working with twelve words, which is significantly easier than sixteen.

Using Process of Elimination

Once you've solved one group, look for the next most obvious connection. You might find it in a different color entirely. Lock that in. Now you're at twelve words. Then eight. At eight words, the puzzle becomes dramatically easier because you've constrained the possibilities so severely.

Say you locked in the social media group (COMMENT, LIKE, LURK, POST) and the geographical extremes group (END, EXTREME, OPPOSITE, POLE). Now you're left with eight words: BRUTAL, IMPRESSION, MANNER, REAL, FIVE, VERSUS, VERY, VOLT.

The art movement pattern should jump out immediately because you have BRUTAL, IMPRESSION, MANNER, and REAL. Then FIVE, VERSUS, VERY, VOLT are obviously left, and they must fit the purple category.

Process of elimination is powerful. The puzzle becomes solvable not because you suddenly understand the harder categories, but because there's nowhere else for the words to go.

Recognizing Puzzle Tricks

Connections specializes in misdirection. The puzzle plants words that could fit multiple categories. Your job is to recognize which grouping is actually correct.

Take COMMENT. In today's puzzle, it goes with social media. But COMMENT could also mean a critical remark. You could imagine a puzzle where COMMENT groups with OBSERVATION, STATEMENT, and REMARK—all things people say. The puzzle wants you to consider this possibility, then reject it when you find a better grouping.

Similarly, LIKE could theoretically go in a category about preferences (LIKE, LOVE, ADORE, PREFER). But in context, with COMMENT, LURK, and POST, the social media interpretation is correct.

The trick is learning to separate the most obvious interpretation from all possible interpretations. Most of the time, the most obvious answer is correct. But purple groups specifically plant alternative interpretations to mess with you.

Most players prefer solving Connections puzzles in the morning when they are fresh and alert. Estimated data based on typical habits.

Common Traps and How to Avoid Them

Over months of playing Connections, patterns emerge in how the puzzle tricks you. Learning these patterns helps you spot traps before they catch you.

The Homophone Trap

Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. Connections loves these. The puzzle will include words that sound like other words, banking on your brain making automatic sound-based connections.

Imagine a puzzle with CELL, SAIL, WAIST, and WASTE. Your brain might group SAIL and WAIST together because they rhyme with CELL and WASTE. But the actual connection might be different entirely. CELL and WAIST might belong to a "things that come in pairs" category (cell pairs, waist pairs in anatomy). SAIL and WASTE might belong to "homophones of [other words]." The puzzle exploits your automatic sound-based pattern matching.

The solution is to resist acoustic associations. Force yourself to think about meaning, not sound. When you're stuck, ask yourself: "Am I grouping these by how they sound rather than what they mean?"

The Too-Obvious Trap

Sometimes the puzzle presents what seems like an obvious category. You lock it in. You're wrong. Why? Because the puzzle included a ringer that seemed to fit perfectly but actually doesn't.

For instance, imagine a puzzle with COFFEE, TEA, MILK, and WATER. These are all beverages, right? They fit perfectly. But what if the actual category is "things that can be hot or cold" and the puzzle separated COFFEE from its beverage buddies because coffee fits the temperature category better? Now you've locked in the wrong group.

This is especially common in yellow groups, which are supposed to be easier. The puzzle sometimes makes a yellow group intentionally deceptive by creating multiple groupings that all seem valid. Your job is to find the specific grouping the puzzle intended.

The protection against this trap is to always verify your categories. Before you lock in a group, ask: "Is there any other way to group these four words?" If the answer is yes, you might have fallen into a trap.

The Knowledge Gap Trap

Connections sometimes includes references that are culturally or educationally specific. If you don't know a reference, you feel locked out of the puzzle. But this is actually less common than you'd think. The puzzle is designed for a general audience. It includes references that are recognizable to most English speakers, even if they're not specialists in that field.

The MANNER trap in today's puzzle is this type. Most people don't know Mannerism as an art movement. But the puzzle isn't actually requiring you to know it. If you identify BRUTAL-ISM, IMPRESSION-ISM, and REAL-ISM, you can deduce that MANNER must be MANNER-ISM through pattern recognition alone.

The protection is to trust your pattern-spotting ability. Even if you don't recognize a reference, if you can see how other words in a potential group fit, you can deduce the missing piece.

Daily Puzzle Strategies for Consistency

Connections is designed to be played daily. The puzzle changes every twenty-four hours. This creates a rhythm. Some days you'll solve it in three minutes. Other days you'll hit the four-mistake limit and lose. Building a consistent winning strategy helps you maintain that streak.

The 5-7 Minute Rule

I've noticed that if you can't make progress on a group within five to seven minutes, you're either missing something obvious or you need to shift your approach. Staring at the same words for ten minutes doesn't suddenly make new patterns appear. It just wastes time and creates frustration.

Set a timer. Give yourself five minutes on a stuck group. If you haven't made progress, shift to a different group. Come back to the difficult group after you've locked in easier ones. Fresh context from solved groups often illuminates the stuck group.

This isn't just time management. It's cognitive strategy. Your brain needs variety. Staring at the same four words while frustrated doesn't help. Solving other groups, then coming back with a mental reset, often provides the breakthrough.

The Confidence Test

Before you lock in a group, ask yourself: "How confident am I in this?" Rate it from 1 to 10. If it's below an 8, don't lock it in yet. Keep it as a tentative hypothesis and see if other groups support it.

High confidence usually means:

• The connection feels tight and specific
• All four words fit cleanly without forcing meaning
• You can articulate the category in one clear sentence
• The words don't obviously fit into alternative groupings

Low confidence usually means:

• One word seems slightly off
• Multiple interpretations are possible
• You're grouping words by how similar they seem rather than by a specific shared category
• The category feels vague or arbitrary

When confidence is low, wait. Solve other groups. Use process of elimination. Let the puzzle clarify itself.

The Mistake Management System

You get four mistakes. They're not just a safety net. They're a strategic resource. Some people try to solve Connections without using any mistakes. That's the wrong mentality. You're allowed four mistakes. Sometimes using a mistake to eliminate a hypothesis is smarter than agonizing over it.

If you're completely stuck, try locking in your second-most-confident group. If it's wrong, you lose one mistake and gain critical information. You now know that group doesn't belong together. That affects how you interpret the remaining words.

Mistakes become costly only when you run out. As long as you have mistakes left, use them strategically to eliminate possibilities and gather information.

The puzzle is evenly divided among four thematic groups: social media actions, geographical extremes, art movements, and meanings of the letter 'V'. Estimated data.

Recognizing Category Patterns Across Multiple Puzzles

After playing Connections regularly, you start to notice patterns in how categories are structured. Learning these patterns makes you better at predicting what categories might appear and how the puzzle will disguise them.

The Compound Category

One common pattern is the compound category. This is when a category describes multiple words that follow a specific formula. Today's purple group is an example: "Things V represents." Another common format is "[Word] + [Suffix]" or "[Word] minus [Letter]." The category itself is the formula, and the words are examples that fit it.

When you spot a potential compound category, test it against all sixteen words. Do other groups fit this pattern? If the category works for exactly four words and no more, it's probably correct.

The Professional Jargon Category

Puzzles often include words that have specific meaning in certain professional contexts. A word that seems random to a general audience might be obvious to someone in that industry.

Connections relies on the fact that the solver might not be in that industry. But the category isn't hidden. The category is clearly stated as "things [Profession] does" or "[Industry] terminology." The trick is recognizing when professional jargon is in play.

The Cultural Reference Category

Similarly, categories sometimes reference specific cultural moments, celebrities, historical events, or media properties. These require more background knowledge. But again, the category isn't hidden. It's stated explicitly. Your job is recognizing the theme.

For instance, if you see HARRY, HERMIONE, RON, and DUMBLEDORE in one puzzle, the category might be "Harry Potter characters." That's obvious. But what if the puzzle presents HARRY, HERMIONE, CHANDLER, and MONICA? Now you have to recognize that HARRY and HERMIONE are from one universe, while CHANDLER and MONICA are from another. The actual category might be something else entirely—"TV friendships" or "names of TV characters that come in pairs."

The Wordplay Category

Purple groups frequently use wordplay. This includes:

• Homophones: Words that sound like other words
• Anagrams: Words that can be rearranged to spell other words
• Acronyms: Letters that represent other words or phrases
• Double meanings: Words that mean two different things in different contexts
• Puns: Words that create humor through multiple meanings

When you suspect wordplay, don't think about the literal meaning of the words. Think about how the words could be manipulated, rearranged, or reinterpreted. Today's purple group falls into the acronym category: letters that represent other concepts.

Why Some Puzzles Feel Harder Than Others

Connections difficulty isn't random. The puzzle is constructed with a specific difficulty trajectory in mind. Some days will feel easier. Some days will feel nearly impossible. Understanding why helps you manage frustration and adjust your strategy.

Constructed Difficulty Factors

Several factors make certain puzzles harder:

Word Ambiguity: Words with multiple strong meanings create confusion. If a word could fit into multiple categories with equal strength, the puzzle is harder. If each word has one obvious meaning, the puzzle is easier.

Obscurity of Connection: A connection that references mainstream culture is easier than one that references niche culture. A connection that's based on common language is easier than one based on professional jargon.

Overlap Between Categories: When multiple groups have overlapping themes, the puzzle is harder. If one group is about animals and another is about sounds, but some animals make specific sounds, the puzzle is ambiguous. If groups are completely distinct, the puzzle is easier.

Color Accuracy: Sometimes a yellow group is genuinely harder than a blue group. When this happens, the puzzle relies on your flexibility to solve groups out of color order. You need to recognize that the actual difficulty doesn't match the assigned difficulty.

Personal Difficulty Variations

Your difficulty level also depends on personal factors:

Your Knowledge Base: You'll find puzzles easier or harder based on your background. A lawyer will find legal terminology easier. A musician will find music-related categories easier. An artist will understand art movements more quickly.

Your Pattern Recognition: Some people naturally spot categories quickly. Others need to approach them more systematically. Neither is wrong. It's just a different cognitive style.

Your Stress Level: When you're frustrated, you perform worse. When you're calm, you spot patterns more easily. Stress management is actually a Connections skill.

Time Pressure: If you're playing quickly (trying to solve before work), you make different mistakes than when you're playing leisurely. Adjust your expectations based on context.

The Yellow Group is moderately difficult due to multiple meanings, while the Green Group is easier with straightforward interpretations. Estimated data based on typical puzzle difficulty.

Building Your Daily Connections Habit

Connections is designed to be a daily ritual. It takes about five to fifteen minutes, depending on puzzle difficulty. Building consistency helps your skill improve and keeps your streak alive.

The Optimal Timing

Most people play Connections in the morning. The puzzle refreshes at midnight in your timezone, so it's waiting for you when you wake up. Playing in the morning before work or other obligations makes sense logistically.

But timing also affects your performance. When you're fresh and alert, you spot patterns more easily. When you're tired or distracted, you make mistakes. If you're a night person, playing after you've had coffee or food is better than playing immediately upon waking.

Managing Losing Streaks

You will eventually lose. Your perfect streak will end. This is inevitable. Losing doesn't mean you're bad at Connections. It means the puzzle constructor was particularly clever, or you were having an off day, or the puzzle required knowledge you don't have.

When you lose, don't let frustration drive your next day. Don't overthink it. Take it as a data point. See what you missed. Learn from it. Then move on.

Some of the best learning comes from losses. When you fail, you discover gaps in your thinking. You see tricks you fell for. You recognize patterns you missed. The next time you encounter a similar puzzle structure, you'll spot it immediately.

Sharing Results

Connections has a built-in sharing feature. You can share your results without spoiling the puzzle for others. If you complete the puzzle, you get a colored grid showing your solving order. This creates a social element.

Sharing your results reinforces your habit. It gives you accountability. It lets you celebrate when you solve a particularly tough puzzle. It also creates community. You see friends' results and can discuss strategies without spoiling the puzzle.

Advanced Patterns in Puzzle Construction

Once you've played Connections regularly, you start seeing the meta-patterns in how puzzles are constructed. The New York Times employs puzzle constructors who follow certain principles. Understanding these principles helps you anticipate what categories might appear.

The Difficulty Curve

Most puzzles follow a difficulty curve: green is easiest, yellow is harder, blue is quite hard, purple is hardest. But some puzzles invert this. Some days, green is genuinely tricky while purple is a straightforward wordplay category that you spot immediately.

When you notice the difficulty is inverted, your entire strategy shifts. You should no longer look for green first. You should look for what feels obvious, regardless of color. Often that's the purple group on an "inverted" day.

The Theme Day Pattern

Occasionally, a puzzle has a unifying theme. All categories relate to a specific topic—movies, history, geography, whatever. When you recognize a theme day, solving becomes easier because all four groups are in the same conceptual space. Once you understand the theme, you understand the constraints.

Theme days are usually signaled by green groups. If the green group is about, say, movies from 2024, it's likely the entire puzzle is movie-related. You can use this knowledge to guide your approach to the harder groups.

The Disguise Pattern

Puzzles frequently disguise categories by using words that seem to have strong alternative meanings. A puzzle might include SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, and WINTER. But instead of grouping them as "seasons," it might group them as "words that precede [another word]"—springs could be water springs, summers could be jobs you had, etc.

When you suspect a disguise, ask yourself: "What's the most obvious category these words could fit into? And what's an alternative?" Usually one of these two is correct, and the puzzle is intentionally making you choose between them.

The Reflection Practice is estimated to be the most effective strategy for managing frustration, with a rating of 9 out of 10. Estimated data.

Comparing Connections to Other Puzzle Games

The New York Times Games portfolio includes several daily puzzles: Wordle, Strands, Spelling Bee, and Letter Boxed alongside Connections. Each has distinct mechanics and appeals to different cognitive skills.

Connections vs. Wordle

Wordle is pattern-matching through process of elimination. You narrow down possibilities letter by letter. Connections is categorical thinking. You recognize groupings rather than letter patterns. Wordle rewards vocabulary and strategic letter guessing. Connections rewards lateral thinking and pattern recognition.

Some people excel at Wordle but struggle with Connections. Others find the opposite. The skills are related but distinct.

Connections vs. Strands

Strands is similar to Connections in that it involves finding hidden words. But Strands hides words within a letter grid rather than asking you to group discrete items. Strands requires spatial reasoning. Connections requires categorical reasoning.

Strands often feels more like a puzzle (in the traditional sense). Connections feels more like a logic problem.

Connections vs. Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee gives you seven letters and asks you to form as many words as possible. It's about vocabulary and permutation. Connections is about categorical relationships.

Spelling Bee is more forgiving (you can solve partially). Connections is more binary (you either correctly group all four or you don't). This makes Connections feel higher stakes.

The Neuroscience Behind Pattern Recognition in Connections

There's actual cognitive science underlying why Connections is engaging and why some people find it easier than others.

Your brain is a pattern recognition machine. It evolved to spot patterns because patterns mean survival. If you see spots on an animal, your brain recognizes "dangerous predator" because it's spotted that pattern before. Your brain does this automatically and unconsciously.

Connections leverages this. When you look at four words, your brain automatically searches for patterns. Sometimes it finds real patterns. Sometimes it gets fooled by false patterns. The puzzle is essentially a contest between your automatic pattern-recognition system and the puzzle constructor's deliberate pattern-hiding strategy.

People who are good at Connections are often good at noticing patterns their brain produces subconsciously, then questioning whether those patterns are real or false. This is a learnable skill.

Interestingly, the more you play Connections, the more your brain adapts to the game's specific patterns. You start developing intuitions about how categories are likely to be constructed. Your automatic pattern-recognition system becomes attuned to Connections-specific patterns. This is why people improve at Connections with practice.

Tools and Resources to Improve Your Connections Game

While Connections is designed to be played solo, various resources can help you improve.

The Archive of Past Puzzles

The New York Times Games website maintains an archive of previous Connections puzzles. You can play old puzzles and see solutions. This is one of the best ways to improve. You'll learn from puzzles you solved (how did you approach it correctly?) and from puzzles you failed (why did you miss that category?).

Online Communities

Various Reddit communities and Discord servers dedicated to Connections exist. These communities discuss puzzles (usually with spoiler warnings). You can learn strategies from experienced players.

Be cautious about communities early in the day. If you want to solve the current puzzle yourself, avoid checking communities until you've finished.

Your Own Performance Tracking

Keeping track of which categories gave you difficulty is valuable. Maintain a simple list: "Struggled with music references on Jan 3." "Didn't know Impressionism as art movement on Jan 6." Over time, you'll see patterns in what trips you up. You can then focus on learning those specific areas.

Strategy Adjustments for Different Puzzle Types

While Connections maintains consistent mechanics, certain puzzle structures call for specific strategies.

The Obvious Advantage Puzzle

Some days, one group is so obviously connected that you can identify it in five seconds. In these puzzles, lock in that easy group immediately. Don't second-guess yourself. Your confidence on an obvious group is correct. Use that confidence to fuel solving the harder groups.

The Scrambled Difficulty Puzzle

Other days, the color difficulty assignments seem random. A green group is harder than a blue group. When this happens, ignore colors. Solve by actual difficulty. Find what's easiest regardless of color assignment. This usually means purple is disguised as green or vice versa.

The No-Clear-Leader Puzzle

Sometimes all four groups seem equally obscure. You can't identify any obvious group. When this happens, look for the compound category or wordplay. These are usually easier to identify than you'd expect because the category itself is clever and memorable.

The Demographic-Specific Puzzle

Occasionally, a puzzle heavily references a specific demographic or interest group. If you're in that group, it's much easier. If you're not, it's much harder.

When you encounter a demographic-specific puzzle outside your group, don't feel bad for struggling. The puzzle constructor intentionally made it harder for those outside the reference group. Learn the category anyway. Next time you encounter similar references, you'll know them.

Handling Frustration and Maintaining Motivation

Connections can be frustrating. You might lose after a fifty-game streak. You might spend ten minutes on a puzzle that should take five. Frustration is part of the experience.

Managing frustration is actually a Connections skill.

The Step-Away Strategy

When you've been stuck on a puzzle for more than seven minutes, step away. Take a ten-minute break. Think about something completely different. Your subconscious mind continues processing the puzzle while you're focused elsewhere.

When you come back, you'll often spot the category immediately. Your brain needed the break to reset its assumptions.

The Perspective Shift

When frustrated, try shifting how you approach the stuck group. If you've been looking for semantic relationships, try looking for wordplay. If you've been thinking literally, think metaphorically. If you've been assuming obvious meanings, assume obscure meanings.

The stuck group usually just needs a different cognitive approach.

The Reflection Practice

When you lose, don't just move on. Spend two minutes reflecting. What did you miss? Why did you miss it? What would you do differently?

This reflection converts losses into learning. Over time, losses become less frequent because you've learned what to watch for.

Looking Ahead: Predicting Future Puzzle Trends

Connections has been popular for over a year now. The New York Times will likely continue evolving the game. What might future Connections look like?

Potential Category Innovations

The puzzle might introduce multi-layer categories. Instead of "Things V represents," a purple group might be "Things V represents that also mean [secondary concept]." This would increase complexity significantly.

Alternatively, the puzzle might introduce time-variant categories. Categories that change meaning based on current events. This would make Connections even more tied to contemporary culture.

Difficulty Escalation

As players become more experienced, puzzle difficulty might increase. Constructors might rely less on obvious alternative meanings and more on subtle linguistic nuances.

Alternatively, difficulty might stay constant to keep the game accessible to casual players.

Community Features

The New York Times might add multiplayer components. Competitive Connections where you race against friends to solve the puzzle. This would create a different dynamic than the current solo experience.

Conclusion: Mastering Connections as a Daily Practice

Connections isn't just a word game. It's a daily practice in pattern recognition, strategic thinking, and cognitive flexibility. Over months of play, you develop intuitions about how the puzzle constructor thinks. You learn to spot traps. You recognize category patterns before the words explicitly reveal them.

The strategies in this guide—identifying obvious patterns first, using process of elimination, recognizing tricks, managing frustration—apply to today's game and to every future game. The specific words change, but the underlying mechanics remain consistent.

What makes Connections brilliant is that it scales. Casual players can enjoy it. Competitive players can challenge themselves. Experienced players can develop meta-strategies about puzzle construction itself. The game works at every level.

For today's game (#939), the categories were: social media actions, geographical extremes, art movements with "-ism" suffixes, and things "V" represents. You either solved it quickly, you solved it through process of elimination, or you lost and learned something for tomorrow's puzzle.

Regardless of today's result, tomorrow you'll play again. This is where Connections' genius lies. It's not designed to be mastered in one sitting. It's designed to be an ongoing practice. Each puzzle teaches you something. Each loss teaches you more than each win. Over weeks and months, you become significantly better at the game.

The best part? You don't need to be a genius or have specialized knowledge. You need patience, strategic thinking, and willingness to question your assumptions. These are skills you can develop. These are skills worth developing. Because Connections, fundamentally, is a game about seeing patterns others miss.

And that's a skill that extends far beyond a daily puzzle.

FAQ

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle made by the New York Times Games division. You receive sixteen words and must organize them into four groups of four, where each group shares a common theme or connection. The puzzle rates difficulty by color: green (easy), yellow (harder), blue (quite hard), and purple (very difficult). You can make up to four mistakes before losing. It's free to play on the New York Times Games website.

How does NYT Connections differ from Wordle?

Wordle is a pattern-matching game where you guess letters and narrow down possibilities. Connections requires categorical thinking—you recognize groupings and relationships rather than letter patterns. While Wordle rewards vocabulary and strategic letter guessing, Connections rewards lateral thinking and the ability to recognize connections between seemingly unrelated words. Both use similar daily puzzle structures, but the underlying cognitive skills are distinct.

What strategies help solve Connections consistently?

Effective strategies include identifying obvious patterns first (regardless of assigned difficulty color), using process of elimination to narrow possibilities, watching for homophones and double meanings that the puzzle plants as traps, and taking breaks when stuck on a particular group. Confidence testing before locking in answers, managing frustration through step-away breaks, and analyzing past puzzles to understand constructor patterns all improve consistency. The key is flexible thinking—sometimes the purple group is obvious while the green group is tricky.

Why are some Connections puzzles harder than others?

Puzzle difficulty depends on word ambiguity (how many meanings each word has), obscurity of connections (whether references are mainstream or niche), and overlap between categories. Personal factors also matter—your knowledge base, pattern-recognition ability, stress level, and familiarity with the puzzle constructor's style all affect difficulty. Someone with an art background will find art-movement categories easier than someone without that knowledge. Difficulty isn't random; it's intentionally constructed.

What should I do when I lose at Connections?

Losing is inevitable and valuable. Spend two minutes reflecting on what you missed. Why did you group words incorrectly? What alternative interpretation did you overlook? What category did you fail to recognize? This reflection converts losses into learning. Analyze what tricked you so you'll recognize similar patterns in future puzzles. Keep a log of categories you struggle with and study those areas. Remember that even experienced players lose occasionally—losing doesn't indicate failure, it indicates the puzzle constructor was particularly clever.

How can I improve my pattern recognition for Connections?

Regularly play the archived puzzles available on the New York Times Games website. Study both puzzles you solved correctly and puzzles you failed. Notice the constructor's tricks and category patterns. Engage with online Connections communities (with spoiler awareness) to see how others approach puzzles. Track which categories give you difficulty and research those areas. Practice shifting your cognitive approach when stuck—try wordplay when semantic relationships aren't working, or think metaphorically when literal meanings fail. Over time, your brain becomes attuned to Connections-specific patterns and improves automatically.

What's the best time of day to play Connections?

Most people play in the morning since the puzzle refreshes at midnight in your timezone. Optimal timing depends on personal factors. Play when you're mentally fresh and alert, as you spot patterns more easily. Morning typically works for many people, but if you're a night person, play after you're fully awake and fed. Avoid playing when stressed, frustrated from previous losses, or under time pressure. Your cognitive state matters more than the time of day. Some people play multiple times—once in the morning and again in the evening—to catch it when they're most alert.

Recommended Next Steps

Now that you understand the strategies behind Connections, apply them to today's puzzle and beyond. Visit the New York Times Games website to play the current puzzle. If you finished today's game, explore the archives to practice with previous puzzles. Join an online community dedicated to Connections to discuss strategies and learn from experienced players. Most importantly, remember that improvement comes from consistent play and reflection on both successes and failures. Connections rewards persistence, strategic thinking, and the willingness to question your assumptions. Keep playing.

Key Takeaways

• Connections strategy involves identifying obvious patterns first regardless of color difficulty, then using process of elimination to clarify remaining groups
• The puzzle deliberately plants homophones, alternative meanings, and red herrings to create ambiguity that tricks pattern recognition
• Purple groups almost always involve wordplay, acronyms, or multiple meanings rather than semantic connections like green or yellow groups
• Taking 5-7 minute breaks on stuck groups prevents frustration and allows subconscious pattern recognition to work before returning fresh
• Consistent play and reflection on both wins and losses dramatically improves your ability to recognize Connections' construction patterns over time

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