If you’ve typed “forbes connections” into Google at some point in the last year, you already know the drill. You’re staring at sixteen words on your phone screen, you’ve made one wrong guess already, and you need a nudge before you burn through your last attempt. Forbes has quietly become one of the most reliable places to get that nudge, and there’s a whole system behind how those hints get published every single day.
This guide breaks down what Forbes Connections actually is, who’s behind it, how the hints are structured, and how to use forbes com connections coverage as a tool for getting better at the game instead of a crutch that ruins it.
What Is Forbes Connections
Forbes Connections refers to the daily coverage Forbes publishes about the New York Times’ Connections puzzle. It isn’t a separate game Forbes built. It’s a running column, updated every day of the year, that walks readers through that day’s NYT Connections grid: sixteen words that need to be sorted into four hidden groups of four.
The coverage lives primarily on Forbes’ contributor network, with writers like Kris Holt, Paul Tassi, and Erik Kain rotating through the daily posts. Kris Holt covers video games and word games for Forbes and has become the most consistent byline behind the site’s Connections hints. On weekends and when Holt is off, other contributors such as Tassi and Kain step in to keep the streak of daily posts going.
Each entry typically comes in two parts. There’s a hints and answers post that walks you through the puzzle without spoiling everything at once, and a separate “answers explained” column that digs into why each group is grouped the way it is, including any wordplay or references you might have missed.
How the NYT Connections Game Actually Works
Before the hints make sense, it helps to understand the base game. Connections presents you with a grid of sixteen words, phrases, or sometimes numbers and symbols. Your job is to sort them into four groups of four that share something in common. You play it for free on the NYT’s website or through the Games app.
There’s only one correct solution, and the puzzle is loaded with red herrings designed to trip you up. You select four words at a time and either land in the correct group, which lights up the row, or you get told you’re one away. Four wrong guesses and the game ends.
The four categories are color coded, and there’s a rough pattern to how difficult each one is. Yellow is usually the easiest group to spot, followed by blue, then green, then purple as the hardest. Often the yellow and green groups lean on straightforward synonyms, while the blue category tends toward pop culture references and purple gets into genuine wordplay. That said, the NYT likes to mix things up on purpose, so treat that pattern as a general guide rather than a rule you can bank on every time.
Players who nail all four groups without a single mistake, and in the toughest to easiest order, get what the community calls a reverse rainbow. Pulling off a reverse rainbow means correctly guessing purple, blue, green, and yellow in that exact order with zero errors, and it’s become a genuine point of pride among regular players.
If you want to go back and play older puzzles, that’s possible too. An NYT Games subscription gets you access to the full archive of past Connections puzzles, which is handy if you’re trying to build a habit or just missed a few days.
How Forbes Structures Its Connections Hints
What sets the Forbes format apart from a lot of other puzzle sites is the pacing. Instead of dumping every answer at the top of the page, the posts are built to let you bail out at whatever point you’re comfortable with.
Here’s roughly how a typical Forbes Connections post is laid out:
- A quick note on how tough the puzzle is shaping up to be that day, so you know what you’re walking into.
- General hints for each color group, phrased vaguely enough that they nudge your thinking without naming the actual words.
- One example word revealed per group, giving you a toehold if the general hint didn’t land.
- The full category names and complete word lists, positioned at the very bottom for anyone who wants the straight answer.
This structure means you can stop reading the moment you’ve got what you need. Read the difficulty note and feel confident, close the tab. Need a bit more, read the vague hints. Fully stuck, scroll to the reveal.
The posts also tend to open with a short personal note from the writer, often something about their week or a song recommendation, before getting into the puzzle itself. It’s a small touch, but it’s part of why readers keep coming back daily rather than treating the page as a disposable answer key.
Forbes Connections Hints for Recent Puzzles
Because the puzzle changes every day, “forbes connections hints” as a search term is really a moving target. Here’s a look at how recent entries have played out, just to give you a feel for the pattern.
On Thursday, July 2, one of the groups centered on old fashioned names for everyday objects, including a word for movies rooted in the term “talking pictures” and another that’s the origin of the acronym for a bathroom. Another group that day played on the idea of things that can mimic or copy other things, covering everything from a bird species known for repeating other animals’ sounds to the shape shifting villain from a well known 1990s action movie.
The July 1 puzzle built categories around cities and places, including clues tied to Chicago, Long Island, Nigeria, and Cologne. A day earlier, the June 22 grid worked in words like Stressed, Boomer, Powder, and Head as part of its clue set.
The takeaway isn’t any single day’s answers, since those go stale within hours. It’s that the puzzle leans on wordplay, pop culture, and the occasional curveball category almost every single day, which is exactly why a guided hint system works better than a flat answer list.
Is It Okay to Use Forbes Connections Hints
Short answer: yes, if you use them the right way. Forbes has built a reputation among puzzle fans for structuring hints in a way that helps readers reason through the puzzle themselves instead of just spoon feeding the solution.
That said, there’s a real difference between using hints as training wheels and using them as a crutch. If you’re checking the reveal every single day before attempting a single group on your own, you’re not actually getting better at the game, you’re just outsourcing it. The players who improve tend to do the opposite: they use the vague hints only when genuinely stuck, and they save the full reveal for a last resort.
A few habits worth building if you want the hints to actually make you sharper:
- Read the difficulty rating first and try a couple of groups cold before opening any hints.
- Stop scrolling the moment you’ve got enough information to make progress.
- Solve as much as you can before checking any comment sections or Discord chatter about that day’s answers.
- Come back to a hard puzzle later in the day instead of immediately jumping to the reveal.
Over time, patterns start to click. You’ll notice how often a purple group hinges on a shared prefix or suffix, or how frequently blue groups pull from movies and TV rather than sports or music. That kind of pattern recognition is the actual skill Connections is testing, and hints only build it if you’re using them as a nudge rather than an answer sheet.
Where Else to Find Connections Hints
Forbes is far from the only outlet covering NYT Connections daily, and plenty of players compare a few sources before locking in their final guesses. Other regular publishers of Connections hints include Mashable, USA Today’s puzzle section, and various dedicated puzzle blogs that spring up around NYT Games content. What tends to set Forbes apart is the two part format, splitting the initial hints from a deeper “answers explained” breakdown that gets into the actual logic behind each category.
If you’re someone who plays multiple NYT games daily, it’s worth bookmarking a couple of sources rather than relying on just one, since writers occasionally catch different red herrings or explain a wordplay connection more clearly than another.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time does the new Connections puzzle come out?
A new game goes live at midnight in your local time zone every day.
Who writes the Forbes Connections hints?
Kris Holt handles most weekday coverage, with contributors including Paul Tassi and Erik Kain covering weekends and filling in periodically.
Can I play old Connections puzzles through Forbes?
Forbes doesn’t host an archive itself, but an NYT Games subscription unlocks the full back catalog of past puzzles directly through the New York Times.
What happens if I get four wrong guesses?
Four incorrect guesses ended the game for that day, with no way to keep attempting the same puzzle.
Is there a way to track my Connections stats?
The NYT app tracks your streak automatically, and players commonly share results using an emoji grid, similar to how Wordle results get shared.
Bottom Line
Forbes Connections hints exist for the moments when your brain hits a wall on group three and you refuse to lose your streak over it. Used well, they’re less of an answer key and more of a coach standing over your shoulder, only stepping in when you actually ask. Bookmark the daily column, read only as far as you need to, and let the actual puzzle do the work of making you sharper. Your streak, and your brain, will thank you.
Read More About: Foenegriek
