Zip is the LinkedIn game that looks like a doodle and plays like a proof. A grid — 6×6 most days, sometimes 7×7 or 8×8 — with a handful of numbered cells and, on harder boards, some walls between cells. Draw a single continuous path that starts at 1, passes through 2, 3, and so on in order, ends at the highest number, and visits every cell exactly once without crossing a wall. That last condition is the puzzle: plenty of paths hit the numbers in order; only one also fills the board.
The path for today's board is drawn on the LinkedIn Zip answer today page. The Zip solver will find the path for any board you set up. This page explains how to see the path before you draw it, which mostly means learning to look at the board's edges and pockets instead of its numbers.
What 'every cell' really means
The instruction to fill every cell turns Zip from a connect-the-dots into a Hamiltonian path puzzle, and it gives you a tool the numbers don't: counting. Between consecutive numbers, the path must cover a fixed number of cells — whatever is left in that part of the board. If 1 and 2 are two cells apart but there are eleven cells in that corner of the grid, the path between 1 and 2 must wander through all eleven. Conversely, if the region around 2 is enclosed, the path can only enter and leave it once.
Every Zip board is designed so that this counting, plus the walls, determines the path uniquely. If two routes both seem to work, one of them strands a cell.
Start from the pockets, not from 1
A pocket is a set of cells with only one way in: a dead-end corridor, a corner cell whose neighbours are walled, a cell boxed in on three sides. Because the path can't teleport, a pocket must be entered and exited through its single opening — which means the path goes *in*, turns around at the end, and comes *out* the same way, sweeping every cell. Pockets are the most constrained parts of the board and should be traced first.
Corners are pockets by default. Each corner cell has two neighbours; the path through a corner must use both. That fixes two segments per corner before you've thought about a single number.
Edge cells have three neighbours; if one is walled off, the edge cell behaves like a corner. Walk the perimeter of the board and mark every forced segment. On many boards the perimeter is half the solution.
A worked board: 6×6, six numbers, no walls
Numbers at: 1 in the top-left corner, 2 at row 2 column 1, 3 at row 6 column 6, 4 at row 1 column 6, 5 at row 4 column 3, 6 at row 3 column 4. No walls. Thirty-six cells.
Perimeter first. Top-left corner is 1: the path leaves it going right or down. 2 is directly below it, so the path goes down to 2 — one step. Now the top row from column 2 to column 6 must be swept by some later segment, since nothing else can reach those cells except from row 2.
The ends. 6 is the last number, at row 3 column 4 — an interior cell. The path ends there, so its final approach comes from one of its four neighbours, and all other cells must be done. 3 is in the bottom-right corner: the path enters and leaves the corner through its two neighbours, which means the segment 2→3 arrives along either the bottom row or the right column, and the segment 3→4 leaves along the other.
Count the segments. 2→3 must sweep the bottom-left: from row 2 column 1 down the left column, across the bottom row to the corner — that's 4 + 5 = 9 cells if it hugs the edges, but then the interior cells of rows 3–5, columns 2–5 are stranded. So 2→3 snakes: down column 1, right along row 6, up column 2? No — 5 is at row 4 column 3 and must be visited *after* 3 and 4. So 2→3 sweeps only the outer L: column 1 down (rows 3–6) and row 6 across (columns 2–6). Nine cells.
3→4 climbs the right column, rows 5 to 1, then 4 is at row 1 column 6 — five cells. 4→5 sweeps the top row leftward to column 2, drops into row 2 (columns 2–5), then row 3 columns 2–3, down to 5 at row 4 column 3 — that's the big sweep, twelve cells. 5→6 takes the remaining pocket: row 5 columns 2–5, row 4 columns 4–5, row 3 column 5, ending at row 3 column 4. Nine cells. Total 1 + 9 + 5 + 12 + 9 = 36. Every cell, every number in order. The answer page draws exactly this.
Then the numbers, from the end
Players naturally start at 1 and push forward. It's usually better to look at the last number first. The path *ends* there, so the last number is a dead end by definition; the cells around it must be swept before the path arrives. Ask: which neighbour of the last number is the path's final step, and what does that force? Then do the same for the second-to-last number, working backwards until the path meets the forced perimeter segments.
Numbers in the middle of the board carry less information than numbers on edges, because an edge number has fewer ways to be approached. When two numbers are adjacent, the path between them is a single step and everything else must route around.
Walls: read them as pockets you can't see yet
A wall removes one adjacency. That sounds minor, but a single wall next to an edge makes a pocket, and two walls can turn an open area into a corridor. When a board has walls, redraw the neighbour count for the cells beside them before doing anything else. The forced segments those walls create are, on hard boards, the only foothold.
Sizes, walls and difficulty
Zip's difficulty comes from three dials: grid size, number count (fewer numbers means longer free segments) and walls.
| Size | Numbers | Walls | What makes it hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6×6 | 4 – 8 | 0 – 4 | Long free segments when numbers are few |
| 7×7 | 6 – 10 | 2 – 8 | Parity: odd cell count changes the endpoint colours |
| 8×8 | 8 – 12 | 6 – 14 | Walls create pockets that must be sequenced correctly |
The parity check that catches a wrong path early
Colour the grid like a chessboard in your head. Each step of the path moves from a light cell to a dark cell or back. On a 6×6 board (36 cells, 18 of each colour) a path covering every cell has 35 steps and must start and end on *opposite* colours. If 1 and the last number are on the same colour, no complete path exists — which tells you that board is 7×7 (odd cells, same-colour endpoints) or that you've misread a number. The same trick tells you, mid-solve, whether the cells left in a region can be swept by a path entering where you think it does: a region with two more light cells than dark cannot be covered by a path that enters and leaves on light cells.
Practical habits
Draw with the finger or mouse in one motion where you can; Zip lets you backtrack by retracing, and the undo is fast. On a phone, rotate the board mentally rather than the phone. The timer starts on the first touch, so trace the perimeter and pockets in your head before you begin — fifteen seconds of looking saves a minute of erasing.
Zip launched in March 2025 and is the youngest of the original LinkedIn games; its board sizes and wall density have crept up since, which is why the older strategy posts you'll find elsewhere describe an easier game than the one that runs now.
Zip since March 2025
Zip launched in March 2025 as the fifth LinkedIn game and the first that isn't a grid of symbols. Early boards were 6×6 with four to six numbers and no walls; walls arrived within a couple of months, and 7×7 and 8×8 boards followed. The drawing interaction has been refined — retracing to undo, a clearer 'connected / not connected' state — and the arrow-key controls on desktop were added for accessibility. The puzzle count on the results page (#534 on 3 September 2026) counts from launch.
Reader questions
"My path hit every number but the game says not connected." A cell is unvisited. Look for a single white cell — it's usually in a corner or beside a wall.
"Can the path go diagonally?" No. Orthogonal moves only.
"Does the path have to end on the last number?" Yes, and it must start on 1.
"Is there a way to see the whole path after I've solved it?" The results screen shows it, and the answer page here draws it.
Glossary
Terms as used on this site.
- Pocket — cells with a single opening; the path enters and exits through it.
- Segment — the part of the path between two consecutive numbers.
- Wall — a blocked edge between two cells.
- Parity — the checkerboard colour argument that tells you whether a region can be swept.
Reader questions, second round
"Can I start drawing from a number other than 1?" No — the path begins at 1.
"What if I draw through a wall by accident?" The game won't let you; the path stops at the wall.
"Is there a hint?" Yes — it draws the next segment for you and is recorded on the results card.
A weekly rhythm
Zip's weekday boards are 6×6 with six to eight numbers and few walls — the perimeter-and-pockets method finishes them in a minute. Weekend boards go to 7×7 and 8×8 with fewer numbers and more walls, and the parity check earns its keep. If a Sunday 8×8 has only four numbers, expect the segments between them to be long sweeps and plan them by counting cells before drawing.
Undo, retrace, and the cost of erasing
Zip lets you retrace the path backwards to undo — drag back along the line and it shortens — and has an Undo button that removes the last segment. Neither costs time on the clock directly, but both cost the seconds it takes to redraw, and on an 8×8 those add up. The habit that avoids most erasing is planning the segment between the next two numbers completely — counting its cells against the pocket it must sweep — before drawing it. A segment drawn from a count is right; a segment drawn from a feeling is redrawn.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Zip path have to fill every cell?
Yes. A path that hits every number in order but leaves a cell empty is not a solution.
Can the path cross itself?
No. It's one continuous line that visits each cell once.
What are the walls?
Thick lines between two cells that the path can't cross. They appear on harder boards.
Recent Zip answers
- Sep 2, 2026 · #534 — 6×6 board · full solution + walkthrough
Browse the full Zip archive or go back to today's puzzle answers across every game on HintSheet.