Wren PuzzlesLogic grid puzzles
Read a few plain-English clues and work out who goes with what, marking yes and no in a grid. A new puzzle every day, with no timer and no sign-up.
Wren Puzzles: logic grid puzzle
Logic grid puzzle
Clues (tick a clue when you have used it)
This grid is wider than your screen. Swipe it sideways to see every column. The names stay in place.
Your answers so far
Learn the puzzle
New to logic grid puzzles? Start with how to play, then follow the worked example step by step.
How to play
A logic grid puzzle tells a short story about a few people. Each person goes with exactly one item from every list, for example one flower and one garden tool, and no two people share an item. The clues say just enough to work out who goes with what. You never need to guess: every puzzle can be solved one step at a time from its clues.
The grid has a square for every pair of things that could go together. The names and some of the lists run down the left side, and the lists run across the top, read upwards. Each block of squares pairs one group with another: the top row of blocks pairs the names with every list, and the blocks underneath pair two lists with each other.
- Choose a mark. Under Tap a square to mark it, choose No to put an X in a square (these two don't go together) or Yes to put a dot in it (they do). Erase empties a square, and tapping a square that already has the chosen mark empties it too.
- Mark what each clue tells you. "Alice does not grow tulips" means an X where Alice's row meets the Tulips column.
- Use the rule of the grid. Every row and every column of a block has exactly one Yes. So once a square is Yes, the rest of its row and column in that block are No, and when every square but one in a row or column is No, the last one is Yes.
- Carry what you know from block to block. If the person who grows lilies brought the rake, then anyone who didn't bring the rake doesn't grow lilies, and anyone who doesn't grow lilies didn't bring the rake.
Tick a clue's box when you have used it, and the clue is crossed out. Tick Cross out the rest for me, and each Yes you mark also puts an X in the empty squares of its row and column in that block. Under the grid, Your answers so far lists what you have marked Yes beside each name.
The puzzle is solved when the top row of blocks has a Yes for every person in every list, those answers fit every clue, and no other mark in the grid disagrees with them. You don't have to fill in every X. With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move from square to square, and press Enter or Space to mark one.
Worked example
This is a small puzzle. Three friends from the garden club met at the community garden on Saturday morning. Each of them grows a different flower and brought a different tool. Their names are Alice, Frank and Nora, the flowers are roses, tulips and lilies, and the tools are a rake, a spade and a trowel. These are the clues:
- Alice does not grow tulips.
- The person who grows lilies brought the rake.
- Alice brought either the spade or the trowel.
- Nora grows either roses or lilies.
- Frank did not bring the trowel.
Each picture shows the grid after that step. Squares that change in the step have an orange frame.
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Clue 1 says Alice does not grow tulips. Put an X where Alice's row meets the Tulips column.
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Clue 2 links two lists, so it goes in the block at the bottom: a dot where the Rake row meets the Lilies column. Each row and column of a block has exactly one Yes, so the rest of that row and column get an X: the rake goes with no other flower, and lilies with no other tool.
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Clue 3 says Alice brought the spade or the trowel, so not the rake: an X in Alice's row under Rake. Whoever grows lilies brought the rake, and Alice didn't, so Alice doesn't grow lilies either: another X. That leaves only Roses in Alice's flower row, so it gets a dot, and Frank and Nora get an X under Roses.
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Clue 4 says Nora grows either roses or lilies. Roses already has an X in her row, so Nora grows lilies: a dot, with an X under Tulips beside it and an X for Frank under Lilies. Frank's flower row then has only Tulips left, so Frank grows tulips.
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No new clue is needed here. Nora grows lilies, and the person who grows lilies brought the rake, so Nora brought the rake: a dot. Her other two tools get an X, and so does Frank's square under Rake.
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Clue 5 says Frank did not bring the trowel, so Frank brought the spade and Alice brought the trowel. The block at the bottom fills in the same way: the spade goes with tulips, because Frank has both, and the trowel goes with roses, because Alice has both. Every name now has a Yes in each list, and the puzzle is solved: Alice grows roses and brought the trowel, Frank grows tulips and brought the spade, and Nora grows lilies and brought the rake.
Daily puzzle and sizes
Each size has its own daily puzzle, which changes at midnight where you are. When you've finished, press Next puzzle for another one, as many times as you like. A puzzle you've started is remembered in this browser, so you can come back to it.
When you finish a daily logic grid puzzle, its date is ticked on a small calendar under the puzzle, so you can see the days you have finished. (Puzzles from Next puzzle are not ticked, because they have no date.) Once a puzzle is solved, a Copy result button joins the others. It copies a short message to paste into an email or a text: it says that you finished and how big the puzzle was, never who goes with what, and for a daily puzzle it includes a link that opens the same puzzle. The calendar stays in this browser on this device.
- Small: 3 people, 2 lists. The clues say that two things go together or don't, or that one of two things is true. A gentle start, the same size as the worked example.
- Medium: 4 people, 2 lists. One list is in order, such as arrival times or prices, and clues can compare two people: "Alice arrived earlier than Frank."
- Large: 4 people, 3 lists. Clues can also say that two people are exactly one step apart in the list in order: "Alice arrived 15 minutes before Frank." This is the hardest size.
Each puzzle tells one of four stories: a garden club, a bake sale, a book club or a walking club, and the names and items change from puzzle to puzzle. On a narrow phone screen the Large grid is wider than the screen, so it slides sideways inside its own box while the names stay in view: swipe it to see every column.
Tips
- Start with the clues that say two things go together, or don't: they go straight into the grid.
- After every new Yes, cross out the rest of its row and column in that block, or tick Cross out the rest for me to have it done for you.
- Look for a row or column with only one empty square left: it must be Yes.
- An "either ... or" clue rules out every other item of that list.
- A clue that compares two people, such as "arrived earlier than", also tells you they are two different people, that the first can't be the last in the list, and that the second can't be the first.
- Use the blocks below the names to link two lists, then carry what you learn back up to the names.
- Stuck? Show answers fills in the grid and the table, and Print, then Print with answers, puts the answers on a second page.
- If the words feel small, press Text size at the top of the page.
How these puzzles are made
A program makes each puzzle from stories, names and lists written by hand for this site. It picks a story, the names and the items, matches them up at random, and writes down every clue that is true of that answer. Then it chooses clues one at a time, keeping only clues that tell you something new, until a solver that reasons step by step, the way this page describes, can finish the grid without guessing. Clues the solver can do without are taken out again. Before a puzzle appears, a second check tries every possible way of matching the people with the lists and makes sure that exactly one fits all the clues. Automated tests run the same checks on thousands of puzzles whenever the puzzle-making code or the stories change.