Sliding Puzzle Game
Slide numbered tiles through the empty space until the board returns to perfect ascending order.
Hints available. Play as many boards as you like.
Ready when you are.
Scan to open on a phone
Scan for the same board — no hints.
How to play
Move a tile beside the empty space to slide it into the gap. You may also select a tile farther along the same row or column to shift the whole run at once.
Arrange the numbers from left to right and top to bottom, leaving the empty space in the final bottom-right position.
Every board is scrambled by making legal moves from the solved layout. That means the puzzle is always reachable; no random impossible permutation can appear.
Strategy
Solve in layers. Finish the top row first, then the left column of the remaining square, shrinking the active unsolved area as you go.
Use the corner pair technique for the last two tiles of a row. Place the final tile beneath its destination and the next-to-final tile to its left, then cycle the empty space around the 2×2 corner to lift both into order.
Avoid breaking completed layers. Once a row is correct, route the empty space through the unsolved region even if a shorter-looking move crosses the finished boundary.
Difficulty and variants
Easy is a 3×3 board, medium the classic 4×4, and hard a 5×5. Each starts from a legal random walk whose length scales with difficulty.
Questions, answered
Is every sliding puzzle solvable?
Not every shuffled arrangement is solvable, but every board here is. It is created by applying legal moves to a solved board.
How do you solve the last row of a sliding puzzle?
Keep the last two tiles paired and cycle the empty space around a small corner. Trying to place the final tile alone usually dislodges its neighbor.
Can I move sliding puzzle tiles with arrow keys?
Yes. Arrow keys move the empty space in that direction and shift the neighboring tile.