NYT Pips Hints, Answers and Walkthrough for Sunday, May 24, 2026

Sunday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. May 24 delivers a well-balanced trio with overlapping zone conditions across three boards. The Easy puzzle eases you in with single-pip zones, Medium adds equal-sign constraints, and Hard introduces greater-than conditions that demand careful domino selection. We've got hints, step-by-step walkthroughs, and full solutions for Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty levels.

How to Play Pips

Pips is a domino placement puzzle where you fill a grid of color-coded zones. Each zone has a condition you must satisfy using the pip values on your dominoes. The twist: you must use every domino and meet every condition to win.

Zone Conditions:

• = All pips in this zone must equal the same number
• Not Equal All pips must be different numbers
• > Pips must be greater than the listed number
• < Pips must be less than the listed number
• Exact Number Pips must total that exact value
• No Color Free space, any domino value works

Click or tap dominoes to rotate them. Each puzzle has one or more valid solutions.

Today's Easy Pips

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Today's Medium Pips

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Today's Hard Pips

Quick Hints (No Spoilers)

Starting Point: The greater-than conditions on the bottom right board -- green (>11) and purple (>1) -- are your tightest constraints. Green needs a total above 11, which means large pip values are mandatory. Purple just needs any value above 1, which is most dominoes.

Key Insight: The equal-sign zones on the bottom left board (green and orange) require identical values in every cell of that zone. Double dominoes like 4/4 and 3/3 are your only options for these zones.

Watch Out For: Don't use high-value dominoes in the single-pip (1) zones by mistake. Those zones are strict -- only a 1-pip cell can go there. Save your 5s and 6s for the sum-11 and greater-than zones.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

1. 1.Top board: Place the 1/1 domino horizontally across purple (1) and pink (1). Both zones require exactly one pip, and this domino satisfies both cells immediately.
2. 2.Place the 1/6 domino vertically in orange (1) and navy (11). The 1 goes into orange. The 6 begins filling navy's 11-pip total.
3. 3.Place the 2/4 domino vertically in teal (11). This contributes 6 pips toward teal's sum of 11.
4. 4.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally across navy (11) and teal (11). Navy gets 5 (total: 1+5+5=11). Teal gets 5 (total: 6+5=11). Both sums are satisfied.
5. 5.Bottom left board: Place the 1/3 domino vertically in pink (1) and orange (=). The 1 satisfies pink. The 3 goes into orange's equal-value zone.
6. 6.Place the 4/4 domino vertically in green (=). Both cells show 4, meeting the equal condition without any other options.
7. 7.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in orange (=). Both cells show 3, matching the existing 3 from step 5. All cells in orange now equal 3.
8. 8.Place the 0/1 domino vertically in the uncolored zone (no condition) and navy (1). The uncolored zone accepts any value; the 1 satisfies navy's single-pip requirement.
9. 9.Place the 3/6 domino horizontally in orange (=) and purple (11). The 3 maintains orange's equal condition. The 6 goes toward purple's 11-pip sum.
10. 10.Place the 1/5 domino horizontally in pink (1) and purple (11). The 1 satisfies pink. The 5 completes purple's total (6+5=11).
11. 11.Bottom right board: Place the 6/5 domino vertically in green (>11) and teal (11). The 5 contributes to teal's sum. Green's total starts accumulating.
12. 12.Place the 6/2 domino horizontally in green (>11) and purple (>1). Green now totals 6+6+5=17, which exceeds 11. Purple gets 2, which is greater than 1.
13. 13.Place the 2/0 domino horizontally in teal (11). Adds 2 to teal's running total.
14. 14.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in teal (11) and orange (1). Teal accumulates more pips; the 1 satisfies orange's single-pip condition.
15. 15.Place the 1/2 domino horizontally in navy (1) and green (>1). The 1 satisfies navy. The 2 satisfies green's greater-than-1 condition.

Hard Pips Solution

Last chance to solve independently

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1. 1.Place the 1/1 domino horizontally in the purple (1) zone and pink (1) zone
2. 2.Place the 1/6 domino vertically in the orange (1) zone and navy (11) zone
3. 3.Place the 2/4 domino vertically in the teal (11) zone
4. 4.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the navy (11) zone and teal (11) zone
5. 5.Place the 1/3 domino vertically in the pink (1) zone and orange (=) zone
6. 6.Place the 4/4 domino vertically in the green (=) zone
7. 7.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the orange (=) zone
8. 8.Place the 0/1 domino vertically in the uncolored (no condition) zone and navy (1) zone
9. 9.Place the 3/6 domino horizontally in the orange (=) zone and purple (11) zone
10. 10.Place the 1/5 domino horizontally in the pink (1) zone and purple (11) zone
11. 11.Place the 6/5 domino vertically in the green (>11) zone and teal (11) zone
12. 12.Place the 6/2 domino horizontally in the green (>11) zone and purple (>1) zone
13. 13.Place the 2/0 domino horizontally in the teal (11) zone
14. 14.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in the teal (11) zone and orange (1) zone
15. 15.Place the 1/2 domino horizontally in the navy (1) zone and green (>1) zone

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Puzzle Debrief

Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. The zone conditions are straightforward but the three-board layout requires careful tracking of which dominoes have been used and where. No single step is hard, but keeping the full picture straight demands attention.

Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The greater-than conditions on the bottom right board (green >11, purple >1, green >1) create the tightest constraints. You need to reserve your highest pip values for green (>11) while still satisfying the teal (11) sum and the single-pip zones. It's easy to accidentally short-change the green zone's total.

Our Take: Sunday's set is a solid warm-up for the week ahead. The equal-sign zones on the bottom left board teach a useful Pips discipline: always check which dominoes can satisfy a uniform-value condition before committing them elsewhere. Tomorrow's puzzles will likely crank up the complexity, so today's solve is good practice.

Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.