‘Connections’ January 2: Hints and Answers for Puzzle #571

If you’re still in holiday mode, Newsweek is here to help you with today’s Connections puzzle.

The brainteaser was launched by The New York Times in June 2023 and has gone on to become the newspaper’s second-most played game behind Wordle, another word-based puzzle.

According to the publication, today’s difficulty is 2.8 out of 5. It states: “The difficulty of each puzzle is determined by averaging the ratings provided by a panel of testers who are paid to solve each puzzle in advance to help us catch bugs, inconsistencies and other issues. A higher rating means the puzzle is more difficult.”

Connections can be quite challenging, and a little nudge can sometimes make all the difference. If you’re here for a hint, we’ve got you covered. The answers for Thursday’s puzzle are at the bottom of this article, so proceed with caution if you’d prefer to solve it on your own.

Woman using smartphone playing mobile game isolated on pink background. Newsweek has provided a variety of clues to help you with today’s “Connections” puzzle.

Mirel Kipioro/Getty Images

How to Play ‘Connections’

Connections tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, Friday’s game linked the words “Endeavor,” “Enterprise,” “Project,” and “Venture” under the category “Undertaking.”

Each of the four categories is labeled with a color, which also signifies their difficulty level. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue and purple. The puzzles are rarely straightforward, using homophones and wordplay, among other techniques, to keep players challenged.

Once you have selected four words, you click the “submit” button. If your choices match a category, they will appear in the category color and disappear from the grid. If they are incorrect, however, they will remain gray and stay on the board.

If you are stuck, try selecting the “shuffle” button to move the words to a different place on the grid.

Wyna Liu, a crossword editor at The New York Times who was asked to develop Connections, told Newsweek about her recommended tips for playing the game. She said that, if you have five cards that seem like they belong in the same category, move on to a different category and see if you can eliminate some of the words.

“Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see,” Liu said.