Patches · No. 171 · Friday edition
LinkedIn Patches #171 Answer (Sep 4, 2026)
Hint: Place the large numbered patches first — they have the fewest ways to fit.
Show Patches #171 answer as text
- Patch 1: R1C1–R3C2 (6 cells)
- Patch 2: R1C3–R1C7 (5 cells)
- Patch 3: R2C3–R3C3 (2 cells)
- Patch 4: R2C4–R3C4 (2 cells)
- Patch 5: R2C5–R3C6 (4 cells)
- Patch 6: R4C1–R4C4 (4 cells)
- Patch 7: R4C5–R4C6 (2 cells)
- Patch 8: R5C1–R5C3 (3 cells)
- Patch 9: R5C4–R7C4 (3 cells)
- Patch 10: R5C5–R7C6 (6 cells)
- Patch 11: R6C1–R7C3 (6 cells)
- Patch 12: R2C7–R7C7 (6 cells)
About Patches #171
- Patches #171 splits a 7×7 grid into 12 patches.
- Clue shapes: 2 wide, 2 tall, 8 free-form.
- 4 clues show no size, so those patches can be any area.
- LinkedIn rates it Hard.
- It has 12 patches, more than the average of 10.0 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 free-form rectangle of 4 squares fits inside the grid around the free-form 4 clue at R3C5 without taking in another clue, so its patch must be the 2×2 block from R2C5 to R3C6.
- Only one free-form rectangle of 4 squares fits inside the grid around the free-form 4 clue at R4C3 without taking in another clue, so its patch must be the 1×4 block from R4C1 to R4C4.
- With the patch for the free-form 4 clue at R4C3 fixed, the free-form 2 clue at R3C4 has only one rectangle left, the 2×1 block from R2C4 to R3C4.