Pips Answer for Sunday, March 15, 2026
Complete NYT Pips puzzle solution with interactive board and expert analysis for Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty levels.
Reveal by clicking a domino below OR a cell on the board
Expert Puzzle Analysis
Deep insights from puzzle experts
Starting My Day With Some Easy Pips
Nyt Pips easy answer for 2026-03-15
Answer for 2026-03-15
I sat down with my latte this morning and dived straight into the easy puzzle. The first thing that caught my eye was that sum 10 region at [2,1] and [3,1]. Since we only have a few dominoes to work with, like the [5,5] and the [5,4], I knew I needed some high numbers there. It turns out that using the [5,5] and [5,4] dominoes was the trick. I put a 5 in both of those sum cells to hit that target 10.
After that, the equals region at [2,2], [2,3], and [2,4] became much easier to handle. Since I used the [5,4] domino for one of the sum cells, it left a 4 sitting at [2,2]. That meant [2,3] and [2,4] also had to be 4. Everything else just fell into place, like placing the [0,0] domino in the [0,1] and [0,2] slots to satisfy that first equals constraint. It was a nice, gentle way to wake up my brain!
Things Are Getting A Little Crowded
Nyt Pips medium answer for 2026-03-15
Answer for 2026-03-15
The medium puzzle definitely stepped things up! I immediately looked for the biggest restriction and found it at [2,5] and [2,6], where the sum had to be greater than 10. That narrowed things down to a sum of 11 or 12. At the same time, I noticed the cell at [1,3] had to be less than 1. That basically screams zero! I grabbed the [0,2] domino and put the 0 at [1,3], which left the 2 at [2,3].
Once I had that 2 at [2,3], the equals sign told me that [2,4] also had to be 2. This was a huge help because it meant the domino covering [2,4] and [2,5] had to be the [2,5] domino from our list. With that 5 sitting in [2,5], the only way to satisfy that greater than 10 sum was to make [2,6] a 6. From there, I just followed the trail of numbers to the left side of the board to finish it off.
The Big Boss Of Sunday Puzzles
Nyt Pips hard answer for 2026-03-15
Answer for 2026-03-15
Wow, the hard puzzle today was a real workout! The breakthrough for me was looking at those two sum 12 regions. Since the highest number on any domino is a 6, both cells in a sum 12 must be 6. I placed the [6,6] domino at [2,3] and [3,3] first. Then I had to figure out how to get another 12 at [3,7] and [3,8] without using another [6,6] domino. I saw that [2,8] had a sum constraint of 1, so [2,8] had to be 1. That meant the domino at [3,8] and [2,8] had to be the [6,1], giving me one of the 6s I needed.
Another tricky spot was the triple equals region at [4,5], [4,6], and [4,7]. I spent a good five minutes second-guessing myself there! But once I linked the [3,6] and [3,7] sum of 11, I realized [3,7] had to be 6 and [3,6] had to be 5. That led me to use the [5,6] domino. Piece by piece, the board started to fill up. It felt so satisfying to finally place that last [0,0] domino and see the whole thing come together.
Pro Tips for Today's Puzzle
Always look for the extreme constraints first, like sums of 12 or values less than 1, because they have the fewest possibilities.
If you see an equals region, try to see if it shares a domino with a sum region, as that usually forces a specific number into place.
What I Learned
Today really showed me how powerful the equals regions can be when they are lined up in a row.
They act like a bridge, carrying a value from one side of the board to the other and narrowing down your domino choices much faster than I expected. I also realized that a sum 11 is just as restrictive as a sum 12 when you have already used up some of your high-value dominoes.