Sliding Puzzle 5×5

The 5×5 board holds twenty-four numbered tiles and one gap, sometimes called the 24 puzzle. It plays by the same rules as the smaller boards, but with five rows and five columns there is far more to put in place, and a solve is a slow, steady job rather than a quick one.

The number of solvable layouts runs to almost eight million billion billion, so no computer has checked them all, and nobody has proved how many moves the hardest one needs. For a person, the size itself is less of a problem than it looks: the method that solves the 4×4 also solves this, one more line at a time.

Start with the top row, then the left column, and keep peeling off rows and columns until a 3×3 corner is left. The tiles are tinted by the row they belong to, which helps a lot on a board this crowded: you can see where a stray tile has to go before you read its number. Placed tiles get a small dot, so a glance tells you how far you've come.

Because a single move costs so little here and there are so many of them, patience is worth more than speed. Take each tile home along the shortest path, and keep the gap away from the rows you've finished so you don't undo them.

Games on this page are never ranked. Your record of games, wins and fewest moves stays on this device, and the leaderboard belongs to the daily 4×4 on the main page.