Patches · No. 186 · Saturday edition
LinkedIn Patches #186 Answer (Sep 19, 2026)
Hint: Place the large numbered patches first — they have the fewest ways to fit.
Show Patches #186 answer as text
- Patch 1: R1C1–R1C2 (2 cells)
- Patch 2: R1C4–R1C7 (4 cells)
- Patch 3: R2C1–R2C2 (2 cells)
- Patch 4: R1C3–R2C3 (2 cells)
- Patch 5: R2C4–R2C7 (4 cells)
- Patch 6: R1C8–R4C8 (4 cells)
- Patch 7: R3C1–R4C5 (10 cells)
- Patch 8: R3C6–R4C7 (4 cells)
- Patch 9: R5C1–R6C2 (4 cells)
- Patch 10: R5C7–R7C7 (3 cells)
- Patch 11: R7C1–R7C2 (2 cells)
- Patch 12: R5C3–R7C3 (3 cells)
- Patch 13: R5C4–R7C6 (9 cells)
- Patch 14: R5C8–R8C8 (4 cells)
- Patch 15: R8C1–R8C2 (2 cells)
- Patch 16: R8C3–R8C7 (5 cells)
About Patches #186
- Patches #186 splits an 8×8 grid into 16 patches.
- Clue shapes: 1 square, 5 wide, 2 tall, 8 free-form.
- 8 clues show no size, so those patches can be any area.
- LinkedIn rates it Hard.
- It has 16 patches, more than the average of 9.3 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 R2C1 without taking in another clue, so its patch must be the 1×2 block from R2C1 to R2C2.
- Only one wide rectangle fits inside the grid around the wide clue with no number at R7C1 without taking in another clue, so its patch must be the 1×2 block from R7C1 to R7C2.
- Square R1C1 can only be reached by the wide clue with no number at R1C2, so it belongs to that patch.