Regexle

About Regexle

Regexle is a daily puzzle that turns a crossword into a test of regular expressions, made by Nathaniel Belles and Gable Brown. The board is a hexagon of cells, and instead of word clues each line has a regular expression written at its edge. A regular expression, or regex, is a pattern that describes which strings of characters are allowed, and here every line of cells, read in each of the hexagon's three directions, has to fully match the pattern on its edge.

You type alphanumeric characters into the cells, and empty cells count as spaces. As you fill the grid, each rule turns bold green when its line matches and red when it does not, so you work by making more and more rules go green at once without breaking others. Selecting a cell underlines the rules that run through it, and you can move around with Tab and Shift-Tab or click a rule to follow just its axis. Because the lines cross, a character has to satisfy several patterns at the same time, which is where the puzzle bites.

There is a hint mode on a lightbulb: it marks filled cells green if they match the intended solution and yellow if they do not, and it counts how many hints you used. The same numbered puzzle is shared by everyone each day, you can play the day at a larger or smaller board size, and a timer, streak and global solve stats track how you did. The game resets at local midnight.

It is free. It suits programmers and puzzle solvers who know some regex, or want to learn it; the makers point to regex101.com as a reference for what each token means.

How to play Regexle

1. Read the regular expression written at the edge of each line of the hexagon.
2. Type alphanumeric characters into the cells so each line fully matches its pattern; empty cells count as spaces.
3. Watch the rules: each turns bold green when its line matches and red when it does not.
4. Remember lines cross in three directions, so a cell must satisfy every pattern through it; move with Tab or by clicking a rule to follow its axis.
5. Make all the rules green to solve, using the lightbulb hint mode only if you get stuck.

Tips

• Start with the most restrictive patterns (fixed characters or short options) to lock in cells the crossing rules must agree with.
• Keep a reference like regex101.com open if you are rusty on what a token means.
• Use hint mode sparingly: it marks right cells green and wrong ones yellow but counts against you.
• Try a smaller board size first to learn the mechanics before the full puzzle.

Questions