Sliding Puzzle
The classic 15 puzzle, free in your browser. Pick 3x3, 4x4 or 5x5, numbers or a picture, and slide the tiles back into order. Every shuffle is solvable.
Stuck? Show solution works it out from wherever the tiles are now.
Enjoying the heist?
Get Match Heist — the full 3D car match puzzle from the same garage — free on iOS and Android.
This is a free sliding puzzle you can play right here: a square frame of numbered tiles with one gap, shuffled, and your job is to slide them back so they read in order with the gap in the bottom-right corner. The 4x4 board is the famous 15 puzzle. The 3x3 is a warm-up and the 5x5 is for people who find the 15 puzzle relaxing, which says something about them. No download, no signup, and nothing to unlock.
How to play the sliding puzzle
Only a tile next to the gap can move, and it moves into the gap. Tap or click it, swipe the board in the direction you want a tile to go, or use the arrow keys: the left arrow slides the tile to the right of the gap leftwards, and so on. Tap a tile further along the same row or column as the gap and the whole line between them slides in one go.
The move counter counts tiles, not taps, so sliding a line of three costs three moves, the same as doing it one tile at a time. That keeps your score comparable with the textbook numbers. The clock starts on your first move. Undo takes back your last slide as many times as you like, Restart puts the same shuffle back, and New shuffle deals a fresh one.
In Numbers mode, tiles already in their home square turn gold, so you can see at a glance what is done. Picture mode slices a night-time heist scene into tiles instead, with a small number in each corner for when the sky all looks the same. The thumbnail above the board shows the finished picture. Your best move count and best time for each size are saved in this browser.
Stuck? Press Show solution and the game works out a route from wherever the tiles are now, then plays it one move at a time, with Pause, Next and Stop. On the 3x3 that is always the shortest possible route. The 4x4 searches for the shortest and switches to the row-by-row method if the search runs long, and the 5x5 goes row by row from the start, much as a person would. A shuffle you have watched being solved no longer counts towards your best, Restart included, so press New shuffle when you want to play for the record.
A quick way to think about it
Work from the top down. Finish the top row, leave it alone, and do the next, until only two rows are left; then finish those a column at a time from the left, and the last three tiles fall in when you walk the gap round them. The one trick worth knowing now is that the last two tiles of a row go in together, never one by one. Our guide to how to solve a sliding puzzle has the full method for the 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5, move by move.
Why every shuffle here is solvable
Half of all possible arrangements cannot be solved. Swap two tiles on a finished board and no amount of sliding will put them back, because every move preserves a hidden count called parity. The game checks that count before it deals, so if you end up with 14 and 15 swapped here, it was a slip, not a trap. The sliding puzzle guide shows how to check parity by hand, which is handy for the plastic kind that has been prised apart and put back wrong.
Sliding puzzle FAQ
Is every shuffle solvable?
Yes. Half of all possible arrangements of a sliding puzzle cannot be solved, so the game checks the parity of every shuffle before you see it and fixes it if needed. Each board you get is a fair random pick from the solvable half, and we test that check against 1,000 random shuffles of each size.
What is the 15 puzzle?
The 15 puzzle is the 4x4 sliding puzzle: fifteen numbered tiles and one gap in a square frame, slid around until the numbers read 1 to 15 in order with the gap in the bottom-right corner. It caused a craze in 1880. The 3x3 version with eight tiles is called the 8 puzzle and the 5x5 version with 24 tiles is the 24 puzzle.
What is a good move count for a sliding puzzle?
Any 3x3 can be solved in 31 single-tile moves or fewer, and any 4x4 in 80 or fewer, but those numbers come from computer searches. A person using the row-by-row method will take noticeably more, and that is normal. The fairest target is your own record: the game keeps your best moves and best time for each size in this browser.
How do I solve the last row?
Do not solve the last row on its own. Once only two rows are left, solve them one column at a time from the left. On a 4x4, park 13 where 9 belongs with 9 just to its right, bring the gap underneath, then slide 13 down and 9 across. Do 10 and 14 the same way. When only a 2x2 square remains, walk the gap round it until all three tiles drop in.
Can the game show me the solution?
Yes. Press Show solution under the board and the game solves the position as it stands, then plays the moves one at a time, about three a second, with Pause, Next and Stop. The 3x3 answer is always the shortest possible. The 4x4 looks for the shortest route and falls back to the row-by-row method if that search runs long, and the 5x5 always uses the method. Once you have watched the solution, that shuffle no longer counts towards your best moves or best time.
Does the sliding puzzle work on my phone or offline?
It works in any modern browser on phones, tablets and computers. Tap a tile next to the gap or swipe the board, and the board shrinks to fit your screen. Once the page has loaded, the numbered puzzle runs entirely in your browser, so losing the connection mid-game does not stop it. Picture mode needs its image to have loaded once.
Is the sliding puzzle free?
Yes. It is free in your browser with no download and no signup. It is one of the browser games from Brightpoint Studios, the makers of Match Heist.
From the blog
Our step-by-step guide on how to solve a sliding puzzle walks through the 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 move by move, including the stacked-pair trick and the parity check. If you can already solve one and want to do it faster, read getting faster at Rush Hour-style puzzles, which covers the habits that cut your move count.
More free games
Prefer your sliding pieces with wheels on? Car Parking is a traffic jam puzzle where you slide parked cars aside to get the gold getaway car out, and Getaway Garage slides every vehicle in the yard with each swipe. The full list lives on our free games page, all playable in the browser.