In this post we’re going to take a closer look at the Snake logic puzzle and do a walk through of how to solve one. For more information about Snake Logic Puzzles see HERE.
Like many of the best logic puzzles, the rules are deceptively simple! Here are the rules for Snake logic puzzles:
- The puzzle is played on a rectangular or square grid.
- Two cells are marked, one of which is the head of the snake and the other is the tail.
- The goal is to draw a single line that connects the head and tail of the snake. The line cannot touch itself, not even diagonally.
- Numbers outside the grid indicate the number of cells in the snake that must be in that row or column.
Note: The numbers represent the total numbers of squares marked as part of the path in that row/column and this can be broken down into smaller parts. For example 5 marked outside the row could be 5 cells marked consecutively or could be, for example, 2 and 3.
Snake Puzzle Walkthrough
We’re going to walk through a Snake logic puzzle. If you would like to join in, you’ll find the puzzle used in this walkthrough below:
Snake Puzzle SolvealongLet’s get started!
1/ Look at the Head and Tale
You will see the head and tale clearly marked on the grid. These are your start and end points.
Take a look and see whether there are any obvious dead ends. On the face of it, it appears there are three options for starting the path looking at the cell marked on the left hand side. It appears the path could go up, to the right or straight down. However, are each of these valid options…?
2/ Eliminate the Dead Ends
I asked above if these were all valid options and the answer is no! They are not all valid options.
You will see when working through the options that some just won’t work. Think about the implications of your moves. In the example below, we know this move won’t work because we know that there should be two cells marked as part of the path in the lefthand column, however, if we completed the path as shown below, we’d end up with an odd single cell in this column. Because the column to the right of it can contain only one cell marked as the path, we know this would in incorrect.
We also know that this is incorrect as we have used both the 1 which I’ve circled at the bottom and the 2 I’ve circled at the side, meaning we couldn’t move from here.
2/ Keep Eliminating the Dead Ends
We know that the snake can’t go immediately to the right – so how about going up?
We can see that the path cannot go straight up either. We have used the two cells given to us in the clue at the bottom, therefore we can’t go up again in this column – however we can’t go to the right as we’ve used the cell given to us for this row. Therefore we need to eliminate this move!
3/ Keep Following The Clues
Now we know which cells we need to complete to start the path, we can move further forward as we know only one cell can be marked in the next two columns.
Therefore we can confidently move forward 4 cells to the cell I’ve marked as 4 below. Now it looks as though we have an option. We could go up here – or we could continue straight on.
However – when you work through the options we can’t go up at this point because we have used 4 of the 5 cells given to us on the bottom row. This means there would be one odd cell left which it would be impossible to join with any others.
Therefore, we can eliminate this as an option.
4/ Remember the Rules!
The rules will help to keep you on the correct path 🙂 Looking at the image below, we know we cannot go to the right at this point otherwise we’ll be breaking the rule that says the path cannot touch itself, even diagonally.
Follow Through To The End
As you progress you will remove some of the options and the path to the end will become clear!
Next Step – Starter Puzzle
Before you jump into our many free printable PDF snake puzzles we have waiting for you, if you want to break yourself in gently, you’ll find a starter puzzle below where we’ve marked the first two moves for you.
Snake StarterTips for Solving Snake Puzzles
Here are some tips for solving Snake logic puzzles:
The number one tip for solving any logic grid based puzzle like this is, in the words of Sherlock Holmes, to eliminate the impossible first!
- Start by looking at the numbers outside the grid. These will give you essential clues about the length of the snake and where it must go.
- If there are any cells with circles in them, these must be part of the snake.
- Be careful not to make the snake too long. The snake must fit within the grid and it cannot touch itself.
- If you get stuck, try drawing the snake in different ways and see if you can find a solution.
