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AWAGAMES

Data study

LinkedIn's hidden difficulty schedule

We hold the solved board of every puzzle LinkedIn has ever published across its six daily games, 2,708 in all. Measuring them says the difficulty ramp is real, and it is not the same in every game: Zip, Queens, Wend and Patches grow toward the weekend, while Tango and Mini Sudoku hold steady all week.

2,708boards measured
6games
+96%Wend's weekend jump
4/6games that ramp

Median board size by weekday

Cells per board, Monday to Sunday, across each game's full history. Shared scale.

Zip531 boards
Mon: median 36 cellsMTue: median 36 cellsTWed: median 36 cellsWThu: median 36 cellsTFri: median 49 cells49FSat: median 49 cellsSSun: median 49 cellsS

Weekend boards run 36% larger than weekdays.

Queens852 boards
Mon: median 49 cellsMTue: median 64 cellsTWed: median 64 cellsWThu: median 72.5 cellsTFri: median 81 cells81FSat: median 81 cellsSSun: median 81 cellsS

Weekend boards run 27% larger than weekdays.

Tango692 boards
Mon: median 36 cells36MTue: median 36 cellsTWed: median 36 cellsWThu: median 36 cellsTFri: median 36 cellsFSat: median 36 cellsSSun: median 36 cellsS

Flat week: weekend and weekday medians match.

Mini Sudoku384 boards
Mon: median 36 cells36MTue: median 36 cellsTWed: median 36 cellsWThu: median 36 cellsTFri: median 36 cellsFSat: median 36 cellsSSun: median 36 cellsS

Flat week: weekend and weekday medians match.

Wend83 boards
Mon: median 25 cellsMTue: median 25 cellsTWed: median 25 cellsWThu: median 36 cellsTFri: median 36 cellsFSat: median 49 cells49SSun: median 49 cellsS

Weekend boards run 96% larger than weekdays.

Patches166 boards
Mon: median 36 cellsMTue: median 36 cellsTWed: median 36 cellsWThu: median 49 cellsTFri: median 49 cellsFSat: median 56.5 cellsSSun: median 64 cells64S

Weekend boards run 78% larger than weekdays.

The same numbers, as a table

GameMonTueWedThuFriSatSunWeekend vs week
Zip36363636494949+36%
Queens49646472.5818181+27%
Tango36363636363636flat
Mini Sudoku36363636363636flat
Wend25252536364949+96%
Patches363636494956.564+78%

The largest board each game has ever run

GamePuzzleDateGridCells
Zip#526Aug 25, 20268x864
Queens#512Sep 24, 202511x11121
Tango#321Aug 24, 20258x864
Mini Sudoku#384Aug 30, 20266x636
Wend#27Jul 5, 20268x864
Patches#166Aug 30, 20268x864

For Zip we also maintain a full structural difficulty index, walls and checkpoints included, on the hardest Zip puzzles page.

Method

Source
Our own solved archive, verified against the published puzzles: every board from 2024-05-01 to 2026-08-30.
Measure
Grid area in cells, the one dimension all six games share. A structural proxy for difficulty, not a solve-time claim.
Statistic
Medians per weekday, never means, so a single oversized board cannot move a day of the week.
Freshness
Recomputed from the archive on every daily build. Figures run through 2026-08-30 and refresh each morning.

How to cite

AWA Games, "LinkedIn's hidden difficulty schedule", linkedinzip.solutions/linkedin-games-difficulty-study/

Dataset CC BY 4.0

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AWA Games is independent. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by LinkedIn Corporation.