Pips Answer for Monday, March 2, 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
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Nyt Pips easy answer for 2026-03-02
Answer for 2026-03-02
Solving this March 2nd set felt like a classic progression from a quick morning coffee warm-up to a deep-dive brain teaser. For the Easy puzzle by Ian Livengood, I immediately looked at the domino list. With only five dominoes available ([3,3], [3,5], [4,6], [6,0], [6,1]), the constraints are super tight. I started at the bottom-right corner where a single cell at [2,2] had a sum target of 6.
Looking at my pips, only three dominoes have a 6. By cross-referencing that with the Sum 5 region at [2,0] and [2,1], I could see how the 4 and 1 had to fit together. It was like a little dance of numbers where once the [4,6] and [6,1] were placed, the rest just fell into place. Moving to Rodolfo Kurchan's
Nyt Pips medium answer for 2026-03-02
Answer for 2026-03-02
Medium puzzle, the game changed. Three different regions had a target sum of 10. Since many of the dominoes like [0,4] or [0,6] have lower values, I knew the [5,5] and [6,5] dominoes had to be the anchors for those big sums.
I spent most of my time figuring out the 'Greater than 10' region at [2,3] and [3,3]. That's a high bar! It forced me to use the [6,5] domino there because no other combination reachable in that area would work. The
Nyt Pips hard answer for 2026-03-02
Answer for 2026-03-02
Hard puzzle was a massive 6x9 grid and a total masterpiece. The 'Equals' region involving five different cells ([2,5], [3,5], [3,6], [4,5], [5,5]) was the absolute key. When five cells have to be identical, you look for a value that appears frequently across your dominoes. I noticed a lot of 4s and 5s.
I narrowed it down by looking at the 'Sum 12' target at [4,2] and [4,3]. Since the highest single pip is a 6, the only way to get 12 is two 6s from different dominoes touching. Once I locked those 6s in, the five-cell 'Equals' region had to be 5s. From there, it was a slow but steady process of elimination, making sure the 'Sum 1' and 'Sum 2' regions didn't get blocked by the larger dominoes.
What I Learned
This set really taught me the power of 'Equal' regions as a logic anchor. In the Hard puzzle, that five-cell equal block acted like a spine for the entire right side of the board.
I also realized that 'Empty' regions aren't just wasted space; they are crucial because they limit where dominoes can be placed horizontally or vertically. If you have an empty cell at [3,0], you know a domino must either start or end adjacent to it, which helps narrow down the orientation of nearby pieces. Another trick I picked up today was checking the 'Greater than 0' hints—they seem simple, but they often mean 'this cell cannot be a blank (0),' which is a huge help when you're deciding between a domino like [0,4] and [4,4].