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Missing Piece

Missing Piece

Eight shapes follow a rule across a 3x3 grid. Work out the rule, pick the ninth, and keep going for ninety seconds.

How to play

Each puzzle is a 3x3 grid with the bottom-right cell missing. The eight shapes you can see change according to a hidden rule, and five candidate pieces sit below the grid. Tap the one that belongs in the empty cell.

Four things can change: the shape itself, how many copies are in the cell, whether they are solid or outlined, and how far they are rotated. Any of these may advance along the rows, advance along the columns, or stay fixed — and more than one can be in play at once.

Start simple: only one attribute changes at first. Every four correct answers adds another attribute to the rule, until all four are moving at the same time and you have to check each one separately.

A correct pick scores a point and deals a new grid immediately. A wrong pick costs four seconds off the clock, so a guess is never free. The round lasts ninety seconds of real time — it keeps running if you switch away, so finish what you start.

Tips & strategy

Check the rows and the columns separately, and check one attribute at a time. The fastest readers of this puzzle do not look at the whole cell at once — they ask "what is the count doing along the top row?", answer it, then move to the next attribute. Trying to absorb four changes in one glance is what makes hard grids feel impossible.

The third cell of a row or column is where a rule proves itself. Two cells can be a coincidence: 1 then 2 might be +1, or it might be a repeat of something you cannot see yet. The third value settles it, and since the grid gives you two complete rows, use them before you look at the answer options at all.

When a rule is hard to read, work backwards from the candidates. The five options usually differ in only one or two attributes, so find which attributes they disagree about and study only those in the grid. If three options are solid and two are outlined, fill is the attribute that matters — everything else is decoration.

Guessing costs four seconds, which is roughly the time it takes to check one more attribute properly. That trade is almost always worth taking: a careful answer near the end of the round is worth more than two rushed ones, because a wrong pick both skips the point and shortens the clock you needed to earn it.