What kind of puzzle solver are you? Four playful approaches
Discover whether method, experimentation, persistence or thinking aloud leads your puzzle solving.
16 questions
5 min
Free, no sign-up
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About this test
This quiz is for fun. It compares four approaches to a puzzle: working to a method, trying things to see what happens, staying with it after the first idea fails, and solving out loud with someone else. Each is reported on its own, and the result names an approach you took today rather than a kind of person you are.
What this quiz looks at
Method first · 4 statements
Try it and see · 4 statements
Stay with it · 4 statements
Solve out loud · 4 statements
Time
5 minutes
Questions
16
Result
a score for each pattern
Time frame
Answer for how you usually take on a puzzle, a game or a tricky problem.
A playful reflection of your choices today.
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Use the result
What this test adds
The four are strategies rather than identities, and any of them can be borrowed on purpose. A stalled crossword tends to move when you switch: sort before you guess, guess before you sort, put it down for a day, or read the clue out to the room. The result points at the switch you have not tried.
A small next step
Take the approach that came out lowest and run your next puzzle with it on purpose: read the rules through first, or make five bad guesses, or hand the clue to whoever is in the room. Notice what the first five minutes feel like, since that is where a borrowed approach either helps or gets in the way.
Questions people ask
What kind of puzzle solver am I?
This quiz answers that as an approach rather than an identity: method, experiment, persistence or thinking aloud, each reported on its own. It describes how you answered sixteen questions today, and it is meant as entertainment.
Can my puzzle approach change?
That is rather the point. The four are things you can pick up deliberately, and a stuck puzzle tends to move when you swap approach rather than try harder at the one that stalled.
How long does the puzzle quiz take?
About five minutes for sixteen questions. It is free, and you can stop partway without leaving anything behind you.
Are my answers saved anywhere?
No. The questions are free to take, and you do not need an account. Your answers and your result stay in this browser tab and are gone when you close or reset it.
