Cracking Today’s NYT Connections Puzzle #935 Without Losing Your Mind
If you’ve already tried today’s New York Times Connections puzzle and felt a bit stuck, trust me, you’re not alone. Puzzle number 935, released on Thursday, January 1, turned out to be trickier than it first appeared. Even experienced players were slowed down, and a few mistakes were almost expected. That’s kind of the charm of Connections — it looks simple, but it’s designed to gently mess with your head.
For anyone new to the game, Connections presents 16 words laid out in a four-by-four grid. The goal is to sort those words into four groups of four, based on a shared theme. Each group is color-coded by difficulty. Yellow is usually the easiest, green steps it up a bit, blue requires more careful thinking, and purple is where things get sneaky. You’re given four chances to make mistakes before the game ends, so every guess counts.
Today’s puzzle followed that familiar pattern, but the themes were cleverly layered. Many players found it helpful to start with the yellow group, which often jumps out first. In this case, the easiest category revolved around bits of magic — words like charm, curse, hex, and spell. Once those were grouped together, the board started to feel a little less intimidating.
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The green group focused on the idea of removing a covering. Words such as peel, shell, shuck, and skin all fit neatly once the theme was spotted. This category felt straightforward in hindsight, but it could easily overlap with others if you weren’t careful.
Things got more interesting with the blue group, which centered on words that are used as equivalents for an enthusiast. Buff, head, hound, and rat all made the cut here. These words are commonly used to describe someone who’s deeply into a particular topic, but spotting that connection took a bit more thought.
The toughest group, as expected, was purple. This one played on phrases that follow the word “butter.” Fingers, fly, nut, and scotch completed that set. A lot of players stumbled here because these words can fit into other categories at first glance, making the final grouping feel like a gamble.
One helpful tip that continues to hold true is paying attention to the game’s feedback. When you see “one away,” it means you’re extremely close, and just one word needs to be swapped. Shuffling the board can also help your brain see new patterns, especially when you feel stuck.
At the end of the day, today’s Connections puzzle was challenging but fair. It rewarded patience, pattern recognition, and a willingness to rethink assumptions. And if it took you a few extra tries, that’s perfectly fine — after all, these puzzles are meant to keep us guessing, not breeze through them.
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