Guides & Solving Tips
Long-form guides from our editors — how the NYT puzzles really work, where the traps hide, and the habits that turn casual solvers into streak-keepers. New guides land regularly.
SOLVING GUIDE
NYT Crossword Difficulty by Day: How Hard Is Each Puzzle, Really?
The NYT Crossword isn't one puzzle — it's seven. The real difficulty curve from Monday's welcome mat to Saturday's deep end, why Thursday is its own genre, and the Sunday myth that deserves busting.
SOLVING GUIDE
How to Solve a Crossword Clue When You Only Know Some Letters
A half-filled answer isn't a dead end — it's a fingerprint. Crossing strategy, the vowel trick, when to distrust a letter you “know,” and the pattern search that does the heavy lifting.
CROSSWORD SCHOOL
What Is a Rebus? Thursday's Favorite Trick, Explained
One square, many letters, zero shame. How to spot a rebus before it wrecks your grid, how to enter one in the app, and why the first one you meet feels illegal — then becomes your favorite.
SPELLING BEE
How Spelling Bee Scoring Works — and How to Reach Genius
Genius is 70% of the day's maximum — which changes everything about how you should hunt. The points table, the rank ladder, the pangram math, and the four-letter gremlins that ambush everyone.
CONNECTIONS
NYT Connections Strategy: How to Dodge the Purple Trap
Connections isn't testing whether you see connections — it's testing whether you can resist the wrong ones. The purple-first heresy, the five habits of unbroken streaks, and how to spend your mistakes.