We’ve got a tidy little puzzle leak that fans of NYT Connections will want to see — and take with a pinch of salt. According to Insider Gaming, a guide published by Grant Taylor-Hill allegedly lists the words, color hints, and the full grouping for the daily NYT Connections challenge labeled #1162. If true, the breakdown gives you the four color-coded categories and the exact four-word sets Insider Gaming reports you should be looking for.
What Was Reported
Per Insider Gaming, today’s 16 words for the puzzle are laid out as follows:
- STEP
- FROM
- NEANDER
- GIG
- AGENT
- GRAND
- WISE
- SHOW
- HALF
- PLAYER
- CONCERT
- HANDY
- PARTY
- GREAT
- SET
- ACTOR
- UPRIGHT
Insider Gaming provides color-coded hints and the reported solution. The site’s hints are listed as:
- Yellow – Musical performance
- Green – People who participate in something
- Blue – Words that can modifier family members
- Purple – How our ancestors might be described
And the answers Insider Gaming reports for the puzzle are highlighted as:
- Yellow – CONCERT, GIG, SET, SHOW
- Green – ACTOR, AGENT, PARTY, PLAYER
- Blue – GRAND, GREAT, HALF, STEP
- Purple – FROM NEANDER, HANDY, UPRIGHT, WISE
Insider Gaming also reminds players of the core mechanics: NYT Connections presents a 16-word grid each day that must be sorted into four groups of four. Words are color-coded — yellow, blue, green, and purple — listed in order of difficulty from least to most, and players get four guesses before the game ends, per Insider Gaming. The guide also notes that the game resets daily at midnight local time.
The Source & Credibility
We should be clear about the provenance of this information: the list and answers appear in a guide published on Insider Gaming written by Grant Taylor-Hill, who is named on the piece as Senior Editor and Esports Lead. Insider Gaming is cited directly by us here; take this with a pinch of salt until you or others confirm by opening the puzzle yourself.
We’re framing this as a leak because the published guide includes full answers and explicit groupings for the challenge. If you prefer to tackle the puzzle blind, avoid the lists above. For readers tracking pattern quirks, this follow-up ties into similar coverage — see our earlier report on the odd purple category and another take with the full NYT Connections answers that surfaced elsewhere.
What It Could Mean
On the surface, this is exactly what it appears to be: a set of today’s puzzle answers and hints published in a walkthrough format. If true, it’s useful for players who want to skip the puzzle or check their own solutions. The inclusion of explicit color hints and categorized answers allegedly gives away the daily structure — the musical cluster, the participant cluster, the family-modifier cluster, and the ancestral-description cluster — which could help pattern-spotters identify how the game frames certain word relationships.
That said, treat any published solution as an optional shortcut. The charm of NYT Connections, according to the guide, is the challenge of deducing the four groups from ambiguous or double-meaning words. Leaks like this remove that challenge for some, but they also highlight the kinds of themes the puzzle setter favors.
Why This Matters
Walkthroughs and answer leaks change how daily puzzle communities engage. If Insider Gaming’s reported lists are correct, they give players an immediate route to a perfect run for this specific puzzle. That’s handy for casual players who missed the window or want to reset a streak, but it’s also a reminder that answers circulate quickly online.
We’ll continue to track these daily solutions and the conversations they generate. If you want to compare how today’s grouping stacks up against other surfaced answers and themes, check our related coverage of past sets and spangrams linked above. As always, take this with a healthy dose of skepticism — view the reported answers if you must, but don’t blame us if you prefer a spoiler-free morning.
