Zebra puzzle: play one right here
A zebra puzzle hides a whole street in a handful of clues. Here's a small one to solve on a grid, right on this page, and below it, how to solve any of them.
Play it
Who owns the zebra?
Four houses stand in a row, numbered 1 to 4 from the left. Each has a different owner, pet and drink.
The clues
- Ben lives in the first house.
- The cat lives next door to Ben.
- The cat's owner drinks tea.
- Cleo drinks milk.
- The coffee drinker lives right next door to Cleo, on the left.
- Dev drinks coffee.
- The dog lives somewhere to the left of the zebra.
- Cleo doesn't own the zebra.
Who owns the zebra?
Your grid
What is a zebra puzzle?
A zebra puzzle is a logic puzzle about a row of houses. Each house gets exactly one of everything, such as one owner, one pet and one drink, and the clues say how they line up. From the clues alone you work out where everything goes, and there is only one answer.
The name comes from the best-known one, printed in Life International magazine in 1962 as "Who Owns the Zebra?". Today it's usually called Einstein's riddle, and it has five houses and fifteen clues.
How to solve a zebra puzzle
Work through the clues one at a time. When a clue rules something in, place it. When it rules something out, cross it out. Then go around again, because every mark you make can unlock a clue you couldn't use before. Keep going until the grid is full.
A placement is always an elimination too. Once Ben is in house 1, he can't be in any other house, so cross him out everywhere else. The grid above does that part for you.
Stuck? Here's how this one starts
- Ben is in house 1 (clue 1).
- The cat is in house 2. It lives next door to Ben (clue 2), and house 1's only neighbor is house 2.
- House 2 drinks tea, because the cat's owner does (clue 3).
- Coffee is in house 3. Coffee sits right before milk (clues 4 and 5). It can't be house 1, because then milk would be in house 2, which drinks tea. It can't be house 2, which drinks tea, or house 4, the last house. So coffee is house 3 and milk is house 4.
Clues 4 and 6 now place Cleo and Dev. The pets come last.
Those few moves solve every zebra puzzle, big or small. How to solve logic puzzles shows six techniques on real boards, from the simplest placement to the only option left.
A new one every day, in pictures
Hence is a free daily logic puzzle, the same for everyone. Every puzzle can be solved by pure deduction, with no guessing, and the clues are playful pictures instead of written text. Its board works like the grid above: each square shows what it could still hold, and you rule things out until one is left.
Frequently asked questions
What is a zebra puzzle?
A logic puzzle where a few categories, such as houses, owners and pets, must be matched up using clues. Each item has exactly one match, and you find them all by placing what the clues fix and crossing out what they forbid.
Why is it called a zebra puzzle?
The best-known version, published in Life International magazine in 1962, ended by asking who owns the zebra. Puzzles built the same way took the name.
Is a zebra puzzle the same as Einstein's riddle?
Einstein's riddle is the most famous zebra puzzle, with five houses and fifteen clues. Any puzzle of the same kind is a zebra puzzle, whatever its size.
Who owns the zebra in the puzzle on this page?
Dev, who lives in house 3 and drinks coffee.
Do you need to guess to solve a zebra puzzle?
No. A good one has exactly one solution, and you can reach it by deduction alone. The one on this page was checked: every clue is needed, and none needs a guess.
Today's puzzle is waiting
A new 4x4 and 6x6 every day, the same for everyone. Free, in your browser, and you can start right away.