Free online puzzles: what there is and which to pick for the time you have
A guide to the puzzles you can play in a browser without signing up, grouped by what they train and how long they take.
«Free puzzles» generally returns two kinds of page: the ones so covered in ads that you cannot find the game, and the ones that ask you to register before letting you touch anything.
This guide is the other thing: what puzzles exist, what each one trains, and which suits the time you have. Ours are at the end, playable with no sign-up and nothing to install, but the bulk of the article holds whatever you choose.
If you have two minutes
Quick arithmetic. Simple operations against the clock. It is the only one on the list where speed matters, and that is why it fits a short gap best. It is not for relaxing; it is for waking up.
One riddle. Just one. Riddles have the property of staying with you afterwards, so a minute reading one can give you twenty thinking about it while doing something else.
Guessing the word. Six tries, three minutes, and you cannot play twice in a row, which is exactly what stops it becoming a time sink.
If you have ten minutes
Word search. The most relaxing of all and the only one where getting stuck is impossible: you can always keep looking. Good for when you want to switch off rather than think.
Anagrams. Rearranging letters until the word appears. Short, and it hooks because the moment you see it is sudden.
Number sequences. Five numbers and guess the sixth. Pure pattern recognition, with no dependence on vocabulary or general knowledge. If you have an aptitude test coming, this is what they will set you: how to solve them.
Memory. Repeating a sequence that lights up. The most «gym» of the lot, in the good sense: you feel your limit quite precisely.
If you have half an hour
Sudoku. The classic. Mind the size: if the 9×9 sticks in your throat, the 6×6 is not a children's version, it is the same logic in less space. We have a guide to solving them, and by the way, they are not Japanese.
Crossword. The most complete: vocabulary, general knowledge and deduction at once. And the one that best survives interruptions, because you can leave it half done without losing the thread. There is also its history.
Deduction puzzles. Five suspects, a grid and some clues. It is the genre murdoku made fashionable, and the one that most resembles actually solving something: you do not fill in, you find out. Ours is called Criminoku, with every case checked by brute force for a unique solution.
What to check before settling on a site
Four things separate a decent page from one that will waste your time:
That it does not ask you to register to play. If it asks before letting you try, the game is not the product.
That the puzzles have a unique solution. It sounds technical and it is hugely important: a badly generated sudoku can have two solutions, and then you reach a point where you cannot deduce, only guess. If you find yourself trying at random in a sudoku, either you missed a deduction or the puzzle is badly made.
That it can be played without a clock. A running counter pushes you to try at random, which is the opposite of what a logic puzzle asks. It should be optional.
That it works on a phone without a fight. Many puzzle sites are fifteen years old and the grid runs off the screen.
And ours
MenteBrillante has fifteen puzzles and runs in the browser with nothing to install: sudoku, crossword, word search, anagrams, riddles, connections, sentence ordering, guess the year, guess the flag, who is it, quick arithmetic, memory, hidden word, logic series and Criminoku.
Two things that may interest you:
- Five new challenges every day, with the difficulty tuned to your level. One puzzle a day gets done; an infinite list does not.
- There are four games standalone and sign-up free at /en/games/ if you just want a try, and printable puzzles if you prefer paper.
It plays here, free.