Past Wordle difficulty
Which answers were hardest for this solver?
Search past puzzles and compare the features that can make an answer difficult: long solver routes, large remaining groups, repeated letters and close alternatives.
Past puzzles
Find and compare a puzzle
1,906 puzzles
| Puzzle | Solver difficulty | Solver route | Avg. branch | Closest trap | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUPPY #1,837 · Jun 30, 2026 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 231.7 left | PU_PY · 2 | It repeats P; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| PUFFY #1,779 · May 3, 2026 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 231.7 left | No close family | It repeats F; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| DIZZY #1,714 · Feb 27, 2026 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 176.0 left | _IZZY · 3 | It repeats Z; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| POPPY #1,475 · Jul 3, 2025 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 222.3 left | P_PPY · 2 | It repeats P; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| HILLY #1,267 · Dec 7, 2024 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 160.0 left | _ILLY · 6 | It repeats L; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| JIFFY #1,119 · Jul 12, 2024 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 207.0 left | No close family | It repeats F; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| JOLLY #1,037 · Apr 21, 2024 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 175.3 left | _OLLY · 5 | It repeats L; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| JAZZY #712 · Jun 1, 2023 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 190.0 left | No close family | It repeats Z; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| GUPPY #684 · May 4, 2023 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 231.7 left | _UPPY · 2 | It repeats P; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| GULLY #441 · Sep 3, 2022 | 100Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 184.7 left | _ULLY · 5 | It repeats L; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
| WOUND #1,576 · Oct 12, 2025 | 99Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 105.7 left | _OUND · 8 | The example solver route takes 5 turns; CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave a large group. |
| LEVEL #1,518 · Aug 15, 2025 | 99Hard for the solver | 5 turns | 106.3 left | _EVEL · 3 | It repeats E, L; the example solver route takes 5 turns. |
How solver difficulty is calculated
Solver difficulty is a percentile within the past-answer archive. It combines the mean branch left by CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU, the number of turns in the example solver route, the size of the word's closest one-letter trap family, and repeated letters.
It does not use private NYT player data and it does not claim that every player found a word equally hard. Use the separate columns when you care about one particular kind of difficulty.
The What makes a Wordle hard? study treats pinned solver turns—not this composite percentile—as its outcome, then estimates the separate associations of opener branches, trap families, repeated letters, position rarity and familiarity with uncertainty intervals.
How the score is calculated
log₂(max(mean branch, 1)) + 1.25 × max(turns* − 2, 0) + 0.12 × max(trap size − 2, 0) + 0.3 × repeated-letter types
The raw value is converted to a percentile, so 90 marks the hardest 10% of this archive under this measure.
*Turns is the length of the example solver route. When a newly added answer has no route yet, the calculation uses a neutral three-turn value and the table shows an ellipsis.