How to play
- Pick 3×3 or 4×4 and press Start. The tiles are shuffled.
- Tap a tile next to the empty space to slide it in. On a keyboard, use the arrow keys.
- Put the numbers in order, left to right and top to bottom, with the gap in the last corner.
- The clock starts on your first move. Fewer moves and less time are better.
About this game
Tile Slide is the sliding number puzzle that has been around for well over a century. The board has one empty space. Any tile that touches the gap, above, below, left, or right, can slide into it. Move the tiles until they read 1, 2, 3 and onward in rows, with the empty space in the bottom-right corner.
Not every random layout of a sliding puzzle can be solved. To make sure yours can, the game starts from a finished board and shuffles it with hundreds of legal slides, the same moves you can make. Automated tests check the shuffled boards against the math rule that tells solvable and unsolvable layouts apart.
The three by three board is a good warm-up and usually takes a minute or two. The four by four board is a real puzzle. Your fewest moves and fastest time are saved separately for each size in this browser, so a slow but tidy solve can still set a record.
A common way to solve it: finish the top row first, then the left column, and keep shrinking the puzzle. Leave the last two rows for the end and rotate the tiles around the gap.
What this does not measure
This is a classic puzzle for fun, not an IQ test or any kind of assessment. How fast you solve it mostly depends on practice and on the shuffle you happen to get.
Your best score is saved in this browser only.