How to Play Sliding Puzzle
The sliding puzzle is a square tray of numbered tiles with one empty space. Click or tap any tile directly above, below, left or right of the gap and it slides into it. Your goal is to put the tiles back in order - 1, 2, 3 across the top row, continuing left to right and top to bottom - with the empty space finishing in the bottom-right corner. The puzzle recognises the solved position automatically as soon as you reach it.
Pick 3×3 (8 tiles), 4×4 (the classic 15-puzzle) or 5×5 (24 tiles). Each board is scrambled by making thousands of random legal slides from the solved position, so every puzzle you're given can definitely be solved. Every tile you slide counts as one move, and your final move count is your score - fewer is better. The clock starts with your first slide, and your time is shown alongside your moves when you finish.
Strategy Tips
- Solve the top row first, then leave it alone - work on 1, 2, 3 and so on, and once the row is complete, never move those tiles again. The rest of the puzzle shrinks to a smaller version of the same problem.
- Place the last two tiles of a row as a pair - on the 4×4, park the 3 in the top-right corner with the 4 directly beneath it, put the gap to the left of the 3, then slide the 3 left and the 4 up. Trying to drop them in one at a time usually knocks the other out.
- Finish with columns, not rows - when only two rows remain, solve them one column at a time from left to right, placing each top/bottom pair together the same way you placed the row ends.
- Move the gap, not the tile - think about where the empty space needs to go next. Every tile movement is really the gap travelling around it, so plan the gap's route around tiles you've already solved.
- Learn on 3×3 before chasing low counts - the 3×3 uses exactly the same techniques in miniature. Once the row-end and column-pair moves are automatic there, the 4×4 and 5×5 are just more of the same.
Read the full Sliding Puzzle guide →
Playing Sliding Puzzle on PlayVersusAI
The puzzle that caused a craze in 1880: numbered tiles in a square tray with one empty space, to be slid back into order. Click or tap any tile next to the gap and it moves into it; tiles only move one at a time, and only horizontally or vertically. The puzzle is solved when the numbers read in order from the top-left and the gap sits in the bottom-right corner, and the game detects that position the moment you reach it.
Every board is scrambled by making thousands of random legal slides from the solved position, rather than by placing tiles at random. That matters, because half of all random tile arrangements can never be solved. Scrambling with real moves guarantees every puzzle you are given has a solution. Each slide adds one move, your total is your score, and the global leaderboard ranks the fewest moves highest. The clock starts on your first slide, and your time appears with your move count when you finish.
What's on This Page
- Three difficulty levels — Easy, Medium and Hard, chosen with the buttons above the board. Changing level starts a fresh game.
- High-score table — lowest move counts are ranked on the global leaderboard when you are signed in.
- No account required — the full game is playable as a guest, on desktop, tablet or phone.
Difficulty is the size of the grid. Easy is 3x3 with 8 tiles, Medium is the classic 4x4 with 15 tiles, and Hard is 5x5 with 24 tiles. The rules and the scrambling method are identical at every size, but each step up adds another full row and column to solve, so a typical solve gets much longer.
Mistakes That Lose Games
- Placing the last two tiles of a row one at a time. Putting the second-to-last tile in first leaves no room for the last one, so set them up together and slide them in as a pair.
- Disturbing solved rows to fix a tile below. Once a row is finished, route the gap around it. Breaking it open almost always costs more moves than it saves.
- Trying to finish the bottom two rows row by row. The last two rows are solved column by column from the left, which leaves a small 2x2 block that cycles into place.
- Assuming a position is impossible. Every puzzle on this site was scrambled with legal moves, so it can always be solved. If the end looks stuck, it is a technique problem, not a broken board.
Sliding Puzzle Questions
Is every puzzle solvable?
Yes. Boards are created by sliding tiles at random from the solved position, so every scramble can be reversed. A puzzle made by placing tiles at random would have only a 50% chance of being solvable.
What counts as a move?
Each tile you slide counts as one move. You can only move one tile per click, so sliding several tiles across counts as several moves.
Why does the empty square have to end in the bottom-right?
That is the standard solved position for the 15-puzzle and its relatives. The game checks that every numbered tile is in order, which leaves the gap in the last cell.
For the complete rules, the deeper strategy and the history of the game, read the full Sliding Puzzle guide, or browse guides for all 33 games.