Solve the fifteen puzzle with hints
Slide the tiles into order on a 4×4 board — scramble, count moves, and get a hint when stuck.
Tools used in this guide
The job
The 15 puzzle is the classic sliding tile game — order tiles 1–15 with one empty space. Half of all scrambles are mathematically unsolvable, which is why this game's shuffles always come from legal moves.
Slide and solve
Click or tap a tile next to the blank to slide it. Scramble starts a new board via a random legal walk, so every puzzle is solvable. Moves are counted; the hint button names a tile that reduces the board's Manhattan distance.
- Solve row by row top-to-bottom, then finish the last two rows together.
- A hint picks a good move, not necessarily the single best — think of it as direction, not oracle.
Worked example
A 60-move scramble usually takes a careful player 80–150 moves to unwind; hints keep the last-row frustration manageable.
Where it stops
One 4×4 board only — no other sizes, image tiles, or move-history replay. Solvability is guaranteed by construction, not checked per input. Scores and best times are not persisted.