Zebra Puzzle (Einstein's Riddle)

How to play

The Zebra Puzzle, also known as Einstein's riddle, is a logic puzzle about a row of houses. Each column of the board is a house, numbered 1, 2, 3… from the left, and each row is one kind of thing: pets, fruit, sweets, vehicles and so on. Every house gets exactly one item from every row, and every item lives in exactly one house. The clues under the board are drawn as pictures: two items stacked together share a house; stacked with a red slash they live in different houses; two items side by side in one tile mean the first lives directly left of the second; a double arrow means they are next-door neighbours, either way round; three dots mean the first lives somewhere to the left of the second; and an item with a house number lives in that house. Tap a cell to select it, then tap an item under the board to put it there, or tap its ✕ to rule it out. Once a house is certain for an item, it disappears from the rest of the row automatically. Tap a clue to cross it off when you've used it. Every puzzle has exactly one solution that you can reach by logic alone, without guessing. Puzzles come in Easy, Medium and Hard and never run out, and each level has its own leaderboard for the fastest solve times.

Tips

• Start with the clues that name a house number or link two items in the same house — they pin things down fastest.
• "Directly left of" clues rule out the edges: the item on the left can't be in the last house, and the one on the right can't be in house 1.
• Rule items out as you go. When only one house is left for an item in its row, put it there — and when a house has only one item left, it's placed for you.
• Combine clues that share an item: if 🐱 lives with 🍎 and 🍎 lives next to 🚲, then 🐱 lives next to 🚲 too.
• Hints show the next deduction (or fix a mistake) but add 30 seconds to your time, so try the clues first.