As the weekend draws to a close, the popular game Connections is still going strong.

Since its launch in June 2023 by The New York TimesQuickly building a large following, Connections challenges players to group words based on hidden links such as homophones, synonyms and clever wordplay. The combination of logic and language skills means it is now the second most popular game, right behind Wordle.

In this guide, we'll explain how to play Connections, share strategies to improve your puzzle-solving skills, and provide tips for Sunday's challenge.

Be careful – Sunday's answers can be found further down in this article. So avoid spoilers if you want to solve the problem yourself!

How to play connections

Connections challenges players to divide 16 words into four groups based on their associations.

Each group is color coded to reflect its level of difficulty: yellow for the easiest, followed by green, blue and purple. The puzzles are rarely easy and often involve homophones, puns, and other techniques to challenge players. If players get stuck, they can use the random button to rearrange the words on the screen.

Wyna Liu, crossword editor at Just who developed Connections recently shared her tips for playing the game with us Newsweek.

“My best advice is to wait as long as possible before guessing,” Liu said. “You may see the board and have fully identified the category by seeing five words that could belong in that category,” she continued. “Don't try to guess the four words in this category, because even if you know what the fifth element is, you don't know which of the four it might not be.” This would ultimately waste a turn.

“Don't do what I do, which is 'getting rid of anger,'” Liu added.

Connections #490 Notes for Sunday, October 13th

Newsweek has some pointers to help you understand today's Connections categories.

Yellow: They are all made up of a substance that makes up three parts of the human body.

Green: Common things seen in a popular cartoon.

Blue: Words associated with a specific item of clothing.

Purple: Words that all have a common word in a phrase.

Connections #490 answers for Sunday, October 13th

Yellow Category: Made from keratin

Yellow words: Claw, hoof, horn, nail

Green Category: Road Runner cartoon staples

Green words: Anvil, boulder, coyote, TNT

Blue category: types of trousers

Blue words: Capri, charge, hammer, stirrup

Purple Category: Role Types

Purple words: California, drum, egg, honor

Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to solve the puzzle on Monday.