Wednesday, 18 February 2026

Freddie Hand

Today's puzzle is a Shortest Segment. It's a favourite on PuzzleDuel and appears nowhere else, as far as I'm aware.

Rules: Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of all cells. Clues to the right of the grid give the length of the shortest horizontal line segment in the corresponding row. Clues below the grid give the length of the shortest vertical line segment in the corresponding column.

Note
- There can be multiple line segments with the shortest length.
- For clarification, if there is a clue N in a row/column, there must be at least one line segment in that row/column with length exactly N.

Here's a little GAPP 101: If a row has a 3 clue (for example), make sure you don't draw any horizontal segments that cannot extend to a segment of length 3 in that row!

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 3:15 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 6:15 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Duelling Dulit Frogmouth 🐦

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/55xu2f2z
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/2n3a7w4b