NYT Pips Hints and Answers for Monday, Oct. 26, 2026: Easy, Medium and Hard Domino Placements

Monday’s Pips from The New York Times (NYT), for Oct. 26, 2026, has an Easy board by Ian Livengood and Medium and Hard boards by Rodolfo Kurchan; two hints for each come first, and every domino placement is at the end. The solutions come from the puzzle data the Times publishes for the game and were checked against every region’s rule. The boards go live at midnight in your time zone. Sunday’s boards are in our Pips story for Oct. 25.

How Pips works

You place every domino so that each colored region meets its condition. A number means the pips in the region add up to it; = means every half shows the same value; ≠ means all are different; > and < set a total above or below a number; a region with no condition takes anything. Rows are counted from the top and columns from the left, so R2C5 is the second row, fifth column.

Monday’s Pips hints, Oct. 26, 2026

Easy (five dominoes: 5-5, 6-4, 1-6, 2-1, 1-1)

• Hint 1: R4C2 and R4C3 add up to 11. Only a 5 and a 6 make that, and they come from two different dominoes.
• Hint 2: The three-cell equal region in the top-left corner is all 1s: the 1-1 double plus the 1 from the 2-1 domino.

Medium (seven dominoes: 0-5, 1-3, 6-4, 2-5, 1-1, 4-5, 2-1)

• Hint 1: R2C2 must be less than 1, so it is a blank, the 0 end of the 0-5 domino.
• Hint 2: R1C2, R1C3 and R2C3 are equal. They hold 1s, from the 1-1 double and the 1-3 domino.

Hard (sixteen dominoes on a nine-column board)

• Hint 1: The four-cell equal run down column 7, from R3C7 to R6C7, is all blanks. The 0-0 double fills the middle of it.
• Hint 2: R4C9 and R5C9 must total more than 8. The 3-6 domino stands upright there, with the 6 on top.

Solving tips

Look for sums that only one pair can make: 11 needs a 5 and a 6, 12 needs the 6-6, 0 needs blanks. An “equal” region shrinks your options fast once one value is known; with four cells, as in Monday’s column 7, you need four matching halves, and a double can supply two of them. On the Hard board, count the blanks: there are six 0 halves among the 16 dominoes.

More of Monday’s puzzles: Wordle hints and Connections hints. Track your solve times on our printable weekly calendar or the October 2026 calendar.

Monday’s Pips answers, Oct. 26, 2026 (spoilers)

Stop here if you want to solve the boards yourself.

Easy, by Ian Livengood. Regions: R1C1, R1C2 and R2C1 are equal; R3C1 and R4C1 add up to 7; R3C4 and R4C4 add up to 7; R4C2 and R4C3 add up to 11; R2C4 takes any value.

• 5-5: R4C1 = 5, R4C2 = 5
• 6-4: R3C4 = 6, R2C4 = 4
• 1-6: R4C4 = 1, R4C3 = 6
• 2-1: R3C1 = 2, R2C1 = 1
• 1-1: R1C1 = 1, R1C2 = 1

Medium, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Regions: R1C1 is more than 2; R1C2, R1C3 and R2C3 are equal; R2C1 adds up to 4; R2C2 is less than 1; R2C5 is less than 5; R3C1 and R3C2 are different; R3C4 and R3C5 add up to 5; R4C3 is more than 2; R2C4 and R3C3 take any value.

• 0-5: R2C2 = 0, R3C2 = 5
• 1-3: R1C2 = 1, R1C1 = 3
• 6-4: R3C1 = 6, R2C1 = 4
• 2-5: R3C3 = 2, R4C3 = 5
• 1-1: R1C3 = 1, R2C3 = 1
• 4-5: R3C4 = 4, R2C4 = 5
• 2-1: R2C5 = 2, R3C5 = 1

Hard, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Two equal runs (R3C2, R3C3, R4C3, R5C3 and R3C7 to R6C7), a pair in column 9 that totals more than 8, and single-cell targets elsewhere.

• 5-3: R1C8 = 5, R2C8 = 3
• 5-2: R4C6 = 5, R5C6 = 2
• 6-1: R4C5 = 6, R5C5 = 1
• 0-6: R6C7 = 0, R6C6 = 6
• 1-0: R3C3 = 1, R3C4 = 0
• 4-0: R5C2 = 4, R4C2 = 0
• 1-1: R4C3 = 1, R5C3 = 1
• 2-3: R4C4 = 2, R5C4 = 3
• 2-6: R3C8 = 2, R3C9 = 6
• 0-0: R4C7 = 0, R5C7 = 0
• 3-6: R5C9 = 3, R4C9 = 6
• 5-1: R3C1 = 5, R3C2 = 1
• 0-5: R3C7 = 0, R2C7 = 5
• 2-4: R3C6 = 2, R3C5 = 4
• 3-3: R6C2 = 3, R6C3 = 3
• 4-4: R1C9 = 4, R2C9 = 4

The first equal run, R3C2 down to R5C3, is all 1s, from the 5-1, 1-0 and 1-1 dominoes. Tuesday’s boards arrive at midnight.