Patches · No. 156 · Thursday edition
LinkedIn Patches #156 Answer (Aug 20, 2026)
Hint: Place the large numbered patches first — they have the fewest ways to fit.
Show Patches #156 answer as text
- Patch 1: R1C1–R3C5 (15 cells)
- Patch 2: R1C6–R3C7 (6 cells)
- Patch 3: R4C1–R4C2 (2 cells)
- Patch 4: R4C3–R4C4 (2 cells)
- Patch 5: R4C5–R7C5 (4 cells)
- Patch 6: R4C6–R7C7 (8 cells)
- Patch 7: R5C1–R7C2 (6 cells)
- Patch 8: R5C3–R7C4 (6 cells)
About Patches #156
- Patches #156 splits a 7×7 grid into 8 patches.
- Clue shapes: 1 wide, 1 tall, 6 free-form.
- 6 clues show no size, so those patches can be any area.
- It has 8 patches, fewer than the average of 10.9 across the previous 7 puzzles.
- Each patch is one rectangle holding exactly one clue, with the clue's shape and, where a number is shown, exactly that many squares.
- Only one wide rectangle fits inside the grid around the wide clue with no number at R4C2 without taking in another clue, so its patch must be the 1×2 block from R4C1 to R4C2.
- Squares R1C1, R1C2, R1C3, R1C4, R1C5, R2C1, R2C2, R2C3, R2C4, R2C5, R3C1, R3C2, and R3C4 can only be reached by the free-form clue with no number at R3C5, so they belong to that patch, and the only rectangle for that clue that includes them is the 3×5 block from R1C1 to R3C5.