Sliding Puzzle
The classic 15 puzzle, free in your browser. Pick 3x3, 4x4 or 5x5, numbers or a picture, and slide the tiles back into order. Every shuffle is solvable.
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This is a free sliding puzzle you can play right here: a square frame of numbered tiles with one gap, shuffled, and your job is to slide them back so they read in order with the gap in the bottom-right corner. The 4x4 board is the famous 15 puzzle. The 3x3 is a warm-up and the 5x5 is for people who find the 15 puzzle relaxing, which says something about them. No download, no signup, and nothing to unlock.
How to play the sliding puzzle
Only a tile next to the gap can move, and it moves into the gap. Tap or click it, swipe the board in the direction you want a tile to go, or use the arrow keys: the left arrow slides the tile to the right of the gap leftwards, and so on. Tap a tile further along the same row or column as the gap and the whole line between them slides in one go.
The move counter counts tiles, not taps, so sliding a line of three costs three moves, the same as doing it one tile at a time. That keeps your score comparable with the textbook numbers. The clock starts on your first move. Undo takes back your last slide as many times as you like, Restart puts the same shuffle back, and New shuffle deals a fresh one.
In Numbers mode, tiles already in their home square turn gold, so you can see at a glance what is done. Picture mode slices a night-time heist scene into tiles instead, with a small number in each corner for when the sky all looks the same. The thumbnail above the board shows the finished picture. Your best move count and best time for each size are saved in this browser.
Solve it row by row, then column by column
Every square sliding puzzle falls to the same plan. Finish the top row, then the row below it, and keep going until two rows are left. Once a row is done, leave it alone: the rest of the puzzle fits in the space underneath, and you never need to disturb it again.
- Place the first tiles of a row one at a time. Bring the tile near its spot, then move the gap round to the side it needs to slide in from. Most of the work is moving the gap, not the tile.
- The last two tiles of a row go in together. On a 4x4 top row, put 3 where 4 belongs and 4 directly underneath it, then bring the gap round and slide them both into place. Trying to fit them one at a time is the classic way to undo half a row.
- The last two rows go by columns. Same trick turned sideways: on a 4x4, park 13 where 9 belongs with 9 beside it, then slide 13 down and 9 across. Then 10 and 14, and the final 2x2 square solves itself when you walk the gap round it.
- Move the gap on purpose. If you find yourself tapping whatever is next to the gap, stop and decide where the gap needs to be for your next tile. That one habit removes most wasted moves.
Parity: why some sliding puzzles are impossible
Take a solved board, swap any two tiles by hand, and no amount of sliding will ever fix it. Every move changes the order of the tiles in a way that keeps a hidden count, called parity, either even or odd, and a single swap flips it. That is why a plastic 15 puzzle that has been prised apart and put back carelessly can be a permanent trap.
Our shuffles do not have that problem. The game counts the parity of every board before you see it and only deals ones that can be solved. If you end with 14 and 15 swapped on a physical puzzle, you were never going to win it. Here, you were, so keep going.
Sliding puzzle FAQ
Is every shuffle solvable?
Yes. Half of all possible arrangements of a sliding puzzle cannot be solved, so the game checks the parity of every shuffle before you see it and fixes it if needed. Each board you get is a fair random pick from the solvable half, and we test that check against 1,000 random shuffles of each size.
What is the 15 puzzle?
The 15 puzzle is the 4x4 sliding puzzle: fifteen numbered tiles and one gap in a square frame, slid around until the numbers read 1 to 15 in order with the gap in the bottom-right corner. It caused a craze in 1880. The 3x3 version with eight tiles is called the 8 puzzle and the 5x5 version with 24 tiles is the 24 puzzle.
What is a good move count for a sliding puzzle?
Any 3x3 can be solved in 31 single-tile moves or fewer, and any 4x4 in 80 or fewer, but those numbers come from computer searches. A person using the row-by-row method will take noticeably more, and that is normal. The fairest target is your own record: the game keeps your best moves and best time for each size in this browser.
How do I solve the last row?
Do not solve the last row on its own. Once only two rows are left, solve them one column at a time from the left. On a 4x4, park 13 where 9 belongs with 9 just to its right, bring the gap underneath, then slide 13 down and 9 across. Do 10 and 14 the same way. When only a 2x2 square remains, walk the gap round it until all three tiles drop in.
Does the sliding puzzle work on my phone or offline?
It works in any modern browser on phones, tablets and computers. Tap a tile next to the gap or swipe the board, and the board shrinks to fit your screen. Once the page has loaded, the numbered puzzle runs entirely in your browser, so losing the connection mid-game does not stop it. Picture mode needs its image to have loaded once.
Is the sliding puzzle free?
Yes. It is free in your browser with no download and no signup. It is one of the browser games from Brightpoint Studios, the makers of Match Heist.
From the blog
Our step-by-step guide on how to solve a sliding puzzle walks through the 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 move by move, including the stacked-pair trick and the parity check. If you can already solve one and want to do it faster, read getting faster at Rush Hour-style puzzles, which covers the habits that cut your move count.
More free games
Prefer your sliding pieces with wheels on? Car Parking is a traffic jam puzzle where you slide parked cars aside to get the gold getaway car out, and Getaway Garage slides every vehicle in the yard with each swipe. The full list lives on our free games page, all playable in the browser.