Pattern · spatial · sliding · word puzzles

Free Logic Puzzles,
Every One Explained.

Every puzzle here is generated on the spot from a catalogue of named patterns, so you never run out and never see the same puzzle twice. And every attempt ends with the reasoning — not a revealed answer, but why your option was wrong and why the right one is right.

Free, no account No adverts, ever Your answers stay in your browser
Live today’s puzzle — the same one for everybody
38puzzle types
2,280named patterns
puzzles generated
0accounts needed
New every day

A Daily Puzzle, And Nothing To Sign Up For

The puzzle at the top of this page is today’s. It is built from the date, so everybody opening the site today gets the same one and tomorrow brings a different one — with no account, no reminder emails and nothing to install. Answer it and the reasoning appears underneath, including what was wrong with each of the other three options.

If one a day is not enough, every puzzle type here generates as many as you like, and each one is explained the same way.

Play today’s puzzle → Free, and it stays free.
The difference

Why Every Puzzle Here Is Built, Not Stored

Most puzzle sites hand you a fixed set and a “show answer” button. Three things here work differently.

Generated, Not Scanned

Competitors publish a fixed set of a few hundred images. Every figure here is drawn from a named pattern at the moment you load it, so the supply of fresh questions is genuinely unlimited — and difficulty is a dial, not a category.

Explanations That Are Derived, Not Written

A few sites do explain why a wrong answer is wrong, and they are the good ones — but a human wrote each of those, so the bank stops where the writing stopped. Here the engine built the wrong answers, so it already knows the fault in each. That is why every one of an unlimited supply arrives explained.

Readable By Machines Too

Every figure is inline SVG carrying its own text description, not a PNG. Screen readers can read the questions, and so can search engines.

Explore the library

Every Puzzle Type, By What It Asks Of You

Pick a family on the left to preview four of its puzzles, then open the full hub for everything in it. Two families are live and deep; the rest are in build.

Families
12 types · 720 named patterns

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Reasoning in figures rather than in words. Three groups sit under it — inferring a hidden rule, transforming a shape in your head, and finding what is hidden in a figure.

12 inside this family

  • Figure Series
  • Figure Matrix
  • Figure Analogy
  • Odd One Out
  • Mirror Image
  • Water Image
  • Paper Folding
  • Cube Net
  • Dice
  • Rotation
  • Embedded Figures
  • Counting Figures
2 pages · 120 boards

Sliding Puzzles

The only sliding puzzle that computes the true shortest solution for the board in front of you, and tells you whether an arrangement can be solved at all — showing the arithmetic it used.

On both boards: a solvability checker that shows its arithmetic · the exact shortest solution · 3×3, 4×4 and 5×5

2 inside this family

  • Sliding
  • Picture Sliding
60 patterns · 72 pictures

Rebus Puzzles

Where the position of the words is the whole message. MIND over MATTER. Eight arrangement rules, and every wrong answer explained as the misreading it actually is.

The eight arrangements: above · below · inside · repeated · reversed · sized · split · rising

1 inside this family

  • Rebus
4 live · 240 puzzles

Number Logic Grids

Grid puzzles generated with a guaranteed no-guess solution — and then explained move by move, which is the part every sudoku site leaves out.

4 live · 240 patterns

Number And Letter Reasoning

Sequences, wrong terms, analogies, clock angles and calendars in numbers; alphabet position, letter series and rank finding in letters — the classic formats, generated rather than reprinted.

Under the hood

How The Puzzle Generator Works

A figure carries eleven independent visual attributes — how many sides the outline has, where its marker points, how it is shaded, what sits inside it, how many dots are beneath it, which corner holds a travelling dot. A pattern is a declaration of which of those move, and how.

Because the rules are what produced the picture, the explanation does not have to be written by hand — it is read straight back out of the rules that were applied. The same algebra already drives figure matrices, analogies and odd-one-out, and will drive number series and letter series next: one system, a dozen puzzle types.

Browse all 60 patterns →

Every Question Has A Permanent Address

Questions are not stored anywhere. Each one is rebuilt from a short seed in its URL, which means a question you liked can be bookmarked, shared with a class, or returned to a year later and it will be identical.

puzzletype.com/non-verbal-reasoning/figure-series/?q=k4m2p9&p=turn-and-count

Zero storage, unlimited inventory, and every question still has a real page behind it.

The method

The Habit That Solves Almost Every Pattern Puzzle

Most people solve these by staring and waiting for the answer to arrive. That works until the puzzle gets hard, and then it stops working entirely. The alternative is boring and much more reliable: check the same attributes in the same order every time.

Every figure on this site is built from eleven attributes. A puzzle is made by moving one, two or occasionally three of them and leaving the rest alone — so if you walk the list in order, you cannot miss the rule, because the rule is always somewhere on it. This is the actual list the generator uses:

The eleven attributes, in the order worth checking them.
#AttributeWhat to askHow it usually changes
1Outline shapeIs it the same shape each frame?Cycles through a set, or gains a side each step
2Number of sidesCount them, do not eyeball themIncreases or decreases by one
3Count of itemsHow many dots, lines or inner shapes?Adds one, doubles, or alternates
4ShadingEmpty, hatched or solid?Advances through a fixed cycle
5RotationHas the whole figure turned?A constant step — 45°, 90°, 180°
6ReflectionIs it flipped, not turned?Alternates every other frame
7SizeGrowing, shrinking, or steady?Steps up or down, or alternates
8PositionHas anything moved within the frame?Travels around corners or along an edge
9Inner symbolIs there a mark inside, and is it the same?Cycles independently of the outline
10Line styleSolid, dashed or double?Alternates, or marks a group
11Colour or toneHas the fill tone shifted?Advances with, or against, the shading

Then Test The Rule Before You Commit

This is the step almost everyone skips, and it is where most wrong answers come from. Once you think you have the rule, check it against every frame you were given — not just the two that suggested it. A rule that explains frames one and two but not frame three is not a rule, it is a coincidence, and the puzzle was very probably built to punish exactly that. It costs five seconds and it is the difference between guessing well and solving.

When You Are Properly Stuck, Work Backwards

Look at the options instead of the puzzle. If three of them share a feature and one does not, that feature is usually the thing being tested. If two options are identical except for one attribute, that attribute is the point of the question. Wrong answers are not random here — each one is built to catch a specific mistake, so the shape of the options tells you what mistake was on offer.

Where to start

Which Puzzle Should You Play First?

Sorted by what you actually feel like doing rather than by difficulty, which is rarely what anybody is choosing on.

Pick the row that sounds like your next ten minutes.
If you want to…Play thisWhy
Try the classic version of thisFigure seriesThe deepest type here, and the rules it teaches reappear everywhere else.
Think hard for a whileFigure matrixTwo rules running at right angles. Slow, satisfying, unforgiving.
Play with your hands, not inferSliding puzzleNothing hidden at all — the whole challenge is planning ahead.
Something relaxing and visualPicture sliding puzzleTwenty pictures cut across the tiles. Play at your own pace.
Fit shapes together by handTangramSeven pieces, one outline, no overlaps. Tap to place — no dragging.
Wordplay instead of shapesRebusEight arrangement rules. Once you know them they become readable.
Picture things in your headPaper foldingFold, punch, unfold. Nothing to infer, everything to visualise.
Fill a grid by pure logicFutoshikiInequality signs and a Latin square. Never needs a guess, and it proves it.
Something you can just countCounting figuresHow many triangles — and every one gets listed by its corners afterwards.
Honest comparison

How This Compares With Other Puzzle Sites

Written plainly, including where other sites still win. If you want a printable pack to work through away from a screen, or a daily puzzle with a leaderboard, somewhere else is the better tool.

PuzzleType against the typical puzzle site.
What you care aboutMost puzzle sitesPuzzleType
How many puzzlesA fixed set. Play long enough and you start recognising them.Generated as you load — 780 named patterns, unlimited draws.
When you get it wrong"Show answer", and you are none the wiser.The full solve path, plus what was wrong with the option you picked.
DifficultyA category you browse into.A switch you flip — easy, medium or hard, on any type.
Sharing a puzzle you likedScreenshot it.A permanent link that rebuilds exactly that puzzle.
Screen readersPuzzles drawn as images, usually unlabelled.Inline SVG carrying its own text description.
Cost and sign-upFree, then an account, then a subscription.Free. No account, no limit, nothing to install.
Daily puzzle and streaksYes — the real advantage.No. Play as much or as little as you like.
Word puzzlesUsually the main event.Only rebus so far.
Questions

PuzzleType Frequently Asked Questions

What types of logic puzzles are there?

Thirty-eight are playable here, grouped by what they ask of you. Spot a hidden rule: figure series, matrices, analogies and odd one out. Picture it in your head: paper folding, mirror and water images, rotation, cube nets and dice. Search a figure: embedded figures and counting figures. Fill a number grid: futoshiki, calcudoku, kakuro, killer sudoku, hidoku and math crossword. Shade a grid: nonogram, binary puzzle, hitori, nurikabe, star battle and heyawake. Draw a loop or a path: slitherlink, masyu, numberlink and hashi. Work with words and letters: word search and rebus. Continue a sequence: number series, the wrong number, letter series and clock angles. Reason from clues: the zebra puzzle. And three you play rather than answer: sliding puzzles, picture sliding puzzles and tangram.

How do you solve a figure series puzzle?

Read the frames one attribute at a time instead of looking at them whole. Go shape, then count, then shading, then rotation, and ask of each: is this changing, and if so by how much each step? Usually one or two attributes move and the rest are decoration. Then check the rule you found against every frame you were given before you pick — a rule that fits two frames out of four is a coincidence, and that is the single most common way people get these wrong. Try one and the explanation will name the rule it used.

What is a rebus puzzle?

A picture riddle where the position of the words is the message. MIND drawn above MATTER reads "mind over matter". A word drawn backwards adds "back". A word inside a box reads "in" — one in a million. There are eight of these arrangement rules in total, and once you know them the puzzles stop being guesswork and start being readable. Our rebus puzzles name the rule in play and explain each wrong option as the misreading it actually is.

How do you solve a sliding puzzle?

Solve it in layers, not tile by tile. Finish the top row completely, then the left column, and from then on never disturb what is already placed — you are now solving a smaller puzzle. The last two tiles of any row will not go in by force; they need a short three-move rotation. Two facts save a lot of wasted effort: about half of all shuffled arrangements cannot be solved at all, and no 3×3 board is ever more than 31 moves from finished. Our sliding puzzle works out the true minimum for the board in front of you and shows the arithmetic that proves whether it can be solved.

What is non-verbal reasoning?

Puzzles made of shapes and patterns rather than words — you work out what is happening to a figure instead of reading anything. It is the family most of this site belongs to, and the appeal is that nothing depends on vocabulary or on what you happen to know, so the puzzle is the same puzzle for everyone. Start with figure series if you want the classic version.

How can I get better at pattern puzzles?

Three habits, in the order they help most. Check attributes in a fixed order rather than staring at the whole figure hoping the answer arrives. Practise one named pattern at a time until it is solid — every type here has 60 of them, and drilling one beats random play by a distance. And read the explanation when you were right, not only when you were wrong: guessing correctly and knowing are different things, and the working is the only place they show up differently.

Which puzzle type is the hardest?

It depends on how you fail, which is more useful than a ranking. Rule-inference puzzles like figure matrices punish confidence — a wrong rule feels exactly like a right one. Paper folding and cube nets punish imprecision, since there is nothing to infer and everything to picture accurately. Sliding puzzles punish impatience — nothing is hidden at all, and the whole difficulty is planning further ahead than feels necessary. Most people find one of those three far harder than the other two.

Do I need an account, and is it free?

No account, and free with nothing held back — no sign-up wall, no puzzle limit, no card, nothing to install. Your progress lives in your own browser and is not sent anywhere. There is no server holding a puzzle bank, because every puzzle is built in the page at the moment you load it.

Are logic puzzles good for your brain?

They make you better at logic puzzles, and that improvement is real and comes quickly. The wider claim — that puzzle practice raises general intelligence — is not well supported: research on cognitive training keeps finding gains that stay close to the trained task rather than spreading out into everyday thinking. So play these because they are enjoyable and because getting sharper at them is satisfying, and be sceptical of any site promising more than that.

Play Your First Puzzle Now

No sign-up, no paywall, no ten-question limit. Just puzzles and reasons.

Play figure series →