Pips Answer for Friday, January 9, 2026
Complete NYT Pips puzzle solution with interactive board and expert analysis.
Click a domino below or a cell on the board to reveal
Expert Puzzle Analysis
Deep insights from puzzle experts
Nyt Pips easy answer for 2026-01-09
Answer for 2026-01-09
Solving this set of Pips puzzles felt like putting together a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces can change their values based on where you put them. For the Easy puzzle, I immediately looked for the 'less than' and 'empty' constraints. I saw that cell [1,0] had to be less than 2, and since I had a [1,1] domino, it made sense to place it there so the 1 could satisfy that constraint.
The 'equals' region for [1,3] and [1,4] was a gift; I just looked for a double domino, and [3,3] fit perfectly. Once those were in, the Sum 9 and Sum 8 regions fell into place by process of elimination. Moving to the
Nyt Pips medium answer for 2026-01-09
Answer for 2026-01-09
Medium puzzle, the Sum 17 region [1,3, 2,3, 3,3] was the anchor.
You can't get to 17 without some big numbers, so I knew the [6,6] and [5,3] dominoes had to be involved nearby. The 'less than 1' at [3,0] was a dead giveaway for a 0, which narrowed down my choices for the [0,2] domino.
Nyt Pips hard answer for 2026-01-09
Answer for 2026-01-09
Finally, the Hard puzzle was all about those large 'equals' regions of four cells each. When you have four cells that must all have the same value, you're looking for dominoes that share numbers or multiples of the same value.
I focused on the [0,2, 1,2, 2,2, 3,2] column first. By matching the [1,3] and [2,3] dominoes across those regions, the rest of the board started to stabilize. The toughest part was managing the empty cells at [5,0] and [5,2], which acted as 'blockers' that forced the dominoes into specific orientations.
What I Learned
One big thing I learned today is that 'empty' cells are actually your best friends. They seem like they're just taking up space, but they're actually the strongest constraints because they tell you exactly where a domino *cannot* go.
I also noticed a pattern in the Hard puzzle: when you have multiple regions of four cells that must be equal, the puzzle usually relies on you using 'double' dominoes (like 5-5 or 4-4) to bridge the gaps between those regions. Also, in the Medium puzzle, starting with the highest sum (the 17) is almost always better than starting with the small sums because there are fewer mathematical combinations that work for high numbers.