Pips has three boards a day. Each section below starts with a nudge and ends with the full solved board.
Welcome to today’s Pips, where the domino fun starts easy and then gets delightfully tricky. Whether you’re warming up with 5 dominoes or tackling the hard board, you’ve got this!
Easy board
5 dominoes, 5 rule sections.
| = | |||
| >1 | 8 | ||
| 3 | |||
| >3 |
Easy hint 1: The rule sections
- 3 cells that are all the same number
- 1 cell over 1
- 2 cells that add up to 8
- 2 cells that add up to 3
- 1 cell over 3
Easy hint 2: Where one domino goes
Place the 5|5 domino so the 5 sits in row 1, column 2 and the 5 sits in row 1, column 3.
Show the solved easy board
| =5 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| >14 | 86 | 2 | |
| 31 | 2 | ||
| >35 |
Each number is the pip count on that square. Blank squares are not part of the board.
Medium board
7 dominoes, 7 rule sections.
| >3 | >4 | ||
| ≠ | 12 | ||
| 3 | = | ||
| <5 | |||
Medium hint 1: The rule sections
- 1 cell over 3
- 2 cells that add up to more than 4
- 3 cells that are all different
- 3 cells that add up to 12
- 1 cell showing 3
- 3 cells that are all the same number
- 1 cell under 5
Medium hint 2: Where one domino goes
Place the 4|3 domino so the 4 sits in row 4, column 1 and the 3 sits in row 3, column 1.
Show the solved medium board
| >34 | >42 | ||
| ≠6 | 1 | 3 | 126 |
| 33 | 0 | =4 | 5 |
| <54 | 4 | 1 | |
| 4 |
Each number is the pip count on that square. Blank squares are not part of the board.
Hard board
10 dominoes, 11 rule sections.
| = | 2 | 6 | |||||
| >11 | 6 | ||||||
| >1 | 2 | ||||||
| 10 | <6 | ||||||
| 6 | >2 |
Hard hint 1: The rule sections
- 3 cells that are all the same number
- 1 cell showing 2
- 2 cells that add up to 6
- 3 cells that add up to more than 11
- 1 cell showing 6
- 1 cell over 1
- 1 cell showing 2
- 2 cells that add up to 10
- 2 cells that add up to less than 6
- 1 cell showing 6
- 1 cell over 2
Hard hint 2: Where one domino goes
Place the 2|6 domino so the 2 sits in row 3, column 3 and the 6 sits in row 3, column 2.
Show the solved hard board
| =4 | 4 | 4 | 22 | 61 | 5 | 3 | |
| >113 | 66 | ||||||
| 3 | 6 | >12 | 0 | 22 | |||
| 105 | <64 | ||||||
| 5 | 0 | 66 | >24 |
Each number is the pip count on that square. Blank squares are not part of the board.
Play today's Pips at The New York Times
More hints for October 19, 2026
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