LinkedIn Zip game: one path, every cell, numbers in order — the rules and the way to think about it

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.

LinkedIn does not publish a uniqueness guarantee, but we tested it: for each of the 37 boards in our archive (3 September to 10 October 2026), an exhaustive search for paths that start at 1, take the numbers in order and cover every cell found exactly one. So this counting, plus the walls, determines the path. 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; unless the corner holds 1 or the last number (where the path starts or stops), the path through it 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 the worked board below, the first two segments between them sweep all twenty perimeter cells.

A worked board: Zip #550, 6×6, eight numbers, no walls

Zip #550 ran on 18 September 2026. Counting rows from the top and columns from the left: 1 at row 6 column 3, 2 at row 1 column 4, 3 at row 5 column 2, 4 at row 3 column 5, 5 at row 2 column 5, 6 at row 4 column 2, 7 at row 4 column 4, 8 at row 3 column 3. No walls. Thirty-six cells.

Read the numbers first. 1 is on the bottom edge and 2 on the top edge; everything from 3 to 8 sits in the 4×4 interior. The last number, 8, is an interior cell, so the path ends in the middle. Once the path reaches 3 it is working among interior numbers, which is a strong hint that the perimeter has to be collected before then — by the segments 1→2 and 2→3.

The two outer sweeps. 1→2 leaves 1 to the right, runs along the bottom row to the bottom-right corner, climbs the whole right column to the top-right corner and turns left along the top row into 2 — ten steps. 2→3 continues left along the top row to the top-left corner, descends the whole left column to the bottom-left corner, steps right along the bottom row and up into 3 — ten more. Each of the four corners is passed through using both of its neighbours, exactly as the corner rule requires.

The interior. 3→4 runs right along row 5 to column 5 and climbs to 4 (five steps); 4→5 is a single step up; 5→6 runs left along row 2 to column 2 and drops to 6 (five steps); 6→7 and 7→8 are two steps each, finishing on the last interior cells. From 3 onwards the path never touches the edge again.

Check the count and the parity. 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 2 = 35 steps, which is 36 cells: every cell, every number in order. 1 and 2 sit on the same chessboard colour, so 1→2 must take an even number of steps (it takes ten); 3 and 4 sit on opposite colours, so 3→4 must be odd (it is five). The path for #550 is drawn in the archive.

Then the numbers, from the end

Players naturally start at 1 and push forward. It often helps 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. (Think backwards, but draw forwards: LinkedIn's instructions have you start the drag on 1.)

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. The ranges below are from our archive of 37 boards (3 September to 10 October 2026).

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. LinkedIn's help page says you erase by clicking, tapping or dragging back to a cell, and the Undo button reverts your last move, so retracing is cheap. On a phone, rotate the board mentally rather than the phone. Trace the perimeter and pockets in your head before you begin — a few seconds of looking saves a lot of erasing.

Zip launched on 18 March 2025 as LinkedIn's fifth game, after Pinpoint, Queens and Crossclimb (April 2024) and Tango (October 2024). It is no longer the newest: Mini Sudoku followed in August 2025, Patches — which LinkedIn's announcement calls Zip's "puzzle-loving sibling" — in March 2026, and Wend in June 2026.

Zip since March 2025

LinkedIn announced Zip on 18 March 2025 in a newsroom post titled "Our 5th Thinking-Oriented Game", which also reported that 84% of people who play LinkedIn's games one day play again the next. The help page describes the rules in three lines: draw a single path that fills every cell, follow the numbered cells in order, and do not cross walls, which appear as bolded lines between cells. Puzzle numbers count up by one a day: our archive has #535 on 3 September 2026, which is consistent with #1 on launch day. A year after launch LinkedIn built Patches on Zip's popularity, describing it as Zip's puzzle-loving sibling.

Reader questions

"My path hit every number but the puzzle didn't finish." A cell is unvisited — the rules require the path to fill every cell. Look for a single empty cell; corners and cells beside walls are the usual places.

"Can the path go diagonally?" No. Every step in all 37 solutions in our archive moves to an orthogonal neighbour — up, down, left or right.

"Does the path have to end on the last number?" It starts on 1 — the help page says to begin on the cell numbered 1 — and in all 37 archived solutions it ends on the highest number.

"Is there a way to see the whole path after I've solved it?" The answer page here draws it for today's board, and the archive draws every board since 3 September 2026.

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?" You can't go through one: the help page says the path cannot pass a wall, so route around it.

"Is there a hint?" Yes. According to LinkedIn's help page, Hint erases the path up to your first mistake and reveals the next correct step.

A weekly rhythm

LinkedIn has not published a weekly schedule, but our archive of 37 boards (3 September to 10 October 2026) shows a clear pattern. Every Monday and Wednesday board was 6×6, and 16 of the 21 Monday-to-Thursday boards were 6×6. None of the ten Saturday and Sunday boards was 6×6: six were 7×7 and four 8×8, and three of the five Sundays were 8×8. Number counts did not shrink at the weekend — the 8×8 boards carried 8 to 20 numbers — so the extra difficulty is the size and the walls. On a big board, plan each segment by counting the cells it must sweep before drawing it.

Undo, retrace, and the cost of erasing

Zip lets you erase by dragging back along the line — the help page says to click, tap or drag back to a cell — and has an Undo button that reverts your last move. Both are cheap, but every redraw costs time, 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

Recent Zip answers

Every past puzzle is in the Zip archive. New here? Start with the Zip guide.