Puzzle Overview
Here are today’s Connections hints and answers for NYT Connections No. 1,224 on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. We’ll give you a hint for each color group first, then reveal today’s Connections answers further down.
Today’s Connections hints
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough purple group.
Yellow group hint: Hey, pay attention!
Green group hint: Say cheese!
Blue group hint: Pinch!
Purple group hint: Same word in front of these four.
Today’s Connections answers
Yellow group: Digital notifications.
Green group: Photo.
Blue group: Kinds of crabs.
Purple group: La ____.
CNET publishes daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is digital notifications.
The four answers are alert, chime, ding and ping.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is photo.
The four answers are print, shot, snap and still.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is kinds of crabs.
The four answers are fiddler, hermit, king and snow.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is la ____.
The four answers are Bohème, Brea, Paz and Scala.
Gameplay Mechanics
In Connections, you look at a grid of 16 words and pick four words that have a connection to one another. You do this four times until all 16 words in the puzzle are grouped. The tough part is that puzzle editor Wyna Liu chooses words that could fit in multiple groups.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers.
