About
Who writes Strands Hint?
Mrunmay Phanse built Strands Hint and maintains it. The site exists because every other page answering “strands hint today” copies the same four facts out of the same public puzzle feed, and none of them checks those facts against the board.
The work here is mostly engineering rather than opinion. Every Strands board published since March 4, 2024 is solved programmatically by exact cover — the answers have to tile all 48 letters with no overlap and no remainder — which is what makes it possible to state where each word starts and ends instead of guessing at it. The difficulty figure is a formula over measurable properties of the puzzle, published on the page so it can be argued with, rather than a personal rating.
No figure on this site is estimated, sourced from another website, or invented. Where something cannot be computed honestly it is left out and said so.
How are the board positions verified?
Every Strands puzzle has one property that makes verification possible: the theme words and the spangram together use all 48 letters of the grid exactly once, with no overlap and no leftovers. That turns finding the answers’ positions into an exact-cover problem, which a computer can solve outright rather than approximate.
Each board is searched for every path that could spell each answer, then the one combination that tiles the whole grid is selected. All 883 published boards have been solved this way, with no failures. When a board does not resolve, that puzzle’s page ships with no coordinates rather than with guessed ones.
How is the difficulty score calculated?
The difficulty figure is a formula over five measurable properties of each puzzle, not a personal rating. The components and their weights are published on the difficulty index page so the result can be disagreed with. It measures the structure of the grid and deliberately does not attempt to measure how obscure a theme feels.
What will this site not do?
Three rules govern everything published here, and they are stated so they can be held against the site.
- No invented numbers. Every figure is computed from the puzzles themselves. Nothing is estimated, rounded from another website, or filled in to look complete.
- No fabricated credentials. There are no invented years of experience, no fake staff, no testimonials and no review counts anywhere on this site.
- No future answers. The puzzle feed runs several days ahead of publication. Nothing dated after today is rendered, linked, or listed in the sitemap.
Is Strands Hint affiliated with The New York Times?
No. Strands Hint is an independent reference and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to The New York Times Company. Strands is a trademark of The New York Times Company, and the puzzle itself is played at nytimes.com/games/strands. Puzzle answers are reported here as fact, which is what every other outlet covering the game does.
How do you get in touch?
Corrections are welcome and are the fastest way to improve the record. The site is maintained publicly at github.com/mrunmayphanse, and a mistake in any figure on any page is worth reporting there.