Zebra Puzzle

The zebra puzzle is the best-known logic grid of all: five people, five categories, a page of clues and one question at the end. The version most people have heard of was published in Life International in 1962. It is often credited to Albert Einstein, but there is no evidence he wrote it.

5×5 zebra puzzles

Zebra Puzzle: 5×5 zebra puzzles

Click a square once for ✕ (no match), twice for ● (match), three times to clear. Click a clue to cross it off.

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    Print a set

    Zebra Puzzle: page 1 of the printable PDF

    Zebra Puzzle

    4 puzzles, one per page, with the answers at the back. US Letter; prints on A4 with “fit to page”.

    Download PDF

    The eight puzzles here follow the same shape with stories and clues of our own. Each is a 5×5 grid: five people, each matched with one item in each of four other categories. Four are medium and four are hard.

    How a zebra puzzle works

    • There are five people and four other categories, each with five items, such as a drink, a time, a street or a price.
    • Every person has exactly one item from each category, and no two people share an item.
    • Every clue is true. Together, the clues allow only one complete answer.
    • Use the grid to mark a cross for each pairing you rule out and a tick for each you confirm.

    Why five by five is a step up

    Five categories means ten separate blocks of yes/no squares, one for every pair of categories, and a fact learned in one block can change four others. On a smaller puzzle you can keep most of it in your head. Here you need to be methodical: after each new tick, carry it into every block that shares a category with it.

    The clues get longer too. A 5×5 puzzle usually has clues that only make sense together: one person is either the one who ordered tea or the one at the corner table, and a second clue tells you which. Finding the two clues that complete each other is most of the fun.

    Medium and hard

    The four medium puzzles use either/or clues, pairs (of two people, one did this and the other did that), cross-grid elimination and simple comparison bounds. A clue like arrived earlier than Dana already tells you Dana wasn't first, and the other person wasn't last.

    The four hard puzzles add exact differences and chained comparisons: two people whose prices are three dollars apart, or someone who is older than a person whose age you only half know. You'll make progress by listing what each person could still be and testing it against the comparison. Themes include The Charity Fun Run, The Vineyard Tasting, The Chess Open and Trivia Night.

    Harder puzzles and printables

    If the hard ones go smoothly, the Einstein puzzle collection holds our expert 5×5 grids, which need one short assumption followed to a contradiction. For more practice at this level, the hard logic grid puzzles include ten more at 5×5.

    New to logic grids? The guide to solving logic grid puzzles starts from the first clue. The printable set for this page puts four zebra puzzles in one PDF with the answers on the last pages, and the printable logic puzzles section has more.