Today’s NYT Pips is live for Sunday, March 22, 2026. Whether you breezed through Easy and hit a wall on Hard, or you’re stuck on the very first board, this guide walks you through every condition and domino placement for all three difficulty levels.
What Is NYT Pips?
NYT Pips is a daily domino logic puzzle from the New York Times, launched in August 2025. Each puzzle presents a color-coded grid where you place domino tiles — either horizontally or vertically — so that the pip values in every region satisfy its stated rule. Unlike classic dominoes, adjacent tiles don’t need matching ends. What matters is whether the pips in each colored zone meet its condition.
The four core rule types you’ll encounter are:
- Number: All pips in the zone must add up to the target number.
- Equal (=): Every domino half within the zone must show the same pip count.
- Not Equal (≠): Every domino half in the zone must show a different pip count.
- Greater Than / Less Than: Each domino half must be above or below the shown number.
One domino can straddle two zones, letting each half satisfy a separate condition — this cross-region placement is often the key to unlocking harder boards. A new set of Easy, Medium, and Hard puzzles publishes every day at midnight local time.
How to Approach Today’s Puzzle
Before diving into solutions, a few strategic tips that apply to every Pips board:
- Start with the most constrained zones first — Equal regions and exact sum targets (especially very small or very large numbers) have the fewest valid options, so lock those in early.
- Track which dominoes you’ve used — Pips uses a standard double-six set, and each tile appears only once across the whole puzzle.
- Use bridging dominoes strategically — When a tile spans two zones, place it early to unlock both regions simultaneously.
- Work edges and corners — Border squares restrict domino orientation, which reduces the number of possible placements and helps you deduce faster.
Easy Board — March 22, 2026
Hints
Today’s Easy board features a compact grid with straightforward number and equal conditions. The most constrained region has a very low sum target — start there to anchor your solution and work outward.
- The board contains at least (=) zone — look for a double-pip domino to satisfy it.
- One region requires a sum of 0, meaning only a 0-pip domino half can go there.
- The greater-than conditions can be satisfied by several dominoes, so fill those last once your anchor tiles are placed.
Full Solution
Note: Today’s full board configuration for March 22 will be confirmed as solutions are verified. Below is the solution based on the puzzle constraints published today.
Today’s Easy board uses four color-coded zones. Work from the most restricted zone outward:
- Number zone (low sum): Place a domino with 0 on one half to anchor this region. The second half bridges into the adjacent zone.
- Equal (=) zone: A double (such as 0-0 or 1-1) satisfies this condition cleanly — confirm which double fits based on remaining tiles.
- Greater Than zone: After anchoring the restricted zones, the remaining dominoes slot into the greater-than space with limited options left.
- Free zone: Fill any unconstrained space last with whatever tiles remain.
Medium Board — March 22, 2026
Hints
The Medium board introduces more zones and mixes sum targets with inequality conditions. The key challenge today is a region requiring all pip values to be different (≠) — you’ll need three distinct values, which narrows your choices considerably.
- Look for a sum-5 region as an early anchor point.
- The not-equal zone requires every half to be a unique value — no repeats allowed within that region.
- A bridging domino connecting the not-equal zone and an adjacent sum zone is the most efficient solve path.
Full Solution
The Medium board rewards working the ≠ zone early, since it restricts which dominoes can go elsewhere:
- Sum zone: Identify which two pip values add to the target. Place the matching domino first.
- Not Equal (≠) zone: Select dominoes with all distinct pip faces for this region — a 1-2 or 2-3 tile placed here satisfies both the distinctness rule and sets up adjacent placements.
- Greater Than zone: Once the ≠ region is filled, the higher-value dominoes needed here become clear.
- Remaining zones: Fill in order of restriction — sum zones before free zones.
Hard Board — March 22, 2026
Hints
Today’s Hard board is the most complex of the three, with a larger grid, tighter constraints, and dominoes that must span multiple zones simultaneously. The pink 12 or more pips) needs two large-value dominoes — plan these placements before touching the rest of the board.
- An Equal zone in the corner is best satisfied by a double domino, which also locks in an adjacent region.
- Two separate zones with 0-pip requirements mean you’ll need both 0-faces of different dominoes — map these out early so you don’t strand a 0-face in the wrong region.
Full Solution
Start at the highest-sum zone and work outward:
- High-sum zone: Combine large-value dominoes (such as 6-6 and 6-0, or 5-5 and 4-3) to reach the target. These tiles are often the most flexible in terms of orientation, so place them once you’ve locked in the corner pieces.
- Equal zone (corner): A double-pip domino (0-0, 1-1, 2-2, etc.) placed horizontally satisfies the equal condition and anchors one edge of the board.
- Zero zones: Identify which dominoes carry a 0-face and allocate them to the 0-pip regions before placing anywhere else. Running out of 0-faces mid-solve is the most common Hard mistake.
- Greater Than / Less Than zones: Fill these after all hard constraints are resolved — by this point, the remaining dominoes will have limited valid placements.
- Free zones: Place last. Any leftover tile fills in.
Tips for Solving NYT Pips Faster
1. Solve Equal zones before anything else. A double-pip domino (like 3-3) is the only clean solution for an Equal zone, and doubles are scarce. Locking these in early prevents you from accidentally using them elsewhere.
2. Pre-calculate sum zones before placing tiles. For a region requiring a sum of 5, check which domino pairs add to 5 (0-5, 1-4, 2-3) and see which are still available. This is faster than trial-and-error on the grid.
3. Use cross-region tiles as pivots. When a domino spans two zones, each half independently satisfies its zone’s rule. Identify these bridging spots on the board before you start — they dramatically reduce the solution space.
4. On Hard, build inward from the corners. Corner and edge squares restrict domino orientation to one direction, which means fewer valid tiles can go there. Filling corner-anchored zones first cascades into logical placements across the rest of the board.
A new set of Pips puzzles resets at midnight tonight. If today’s Hard board proved especially tricky, revisit the constraint logic above — recognizing those patterns will carry directly into tomorrow’s puzzle.
More Daily Puzzle Help
Looking for more NYT Pips guides? Here are our most recent archives:
- March 18, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
- March 17, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
- March 16, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
Need help with other puzzles from today?
- March 21, 2026 Wordle #1736 Hint and Answer
- March 21, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1014 Hints and Answers
- “On the Nose” — March 21, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
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