NYT Strands #936 Skips Sixteen on a Math Day

Friday’s NYT Strands puzzle, #936, hides five square numbers and the spangram SQUARENUMBER on a 48-letter grid that skips 16. The theme card reads “1 x 1, etc.” The theme words are FOUR, NINE, TWENTYFIVE, THIRTYSIX and EIGHTYONE.

That list fills Friday’s Strands puzzle on the Games site with no letters left over. A widely copied sheet still prints Thursday’s backyard gear under the same math heading, and those six words run four letters past the board.

Friday’s Clue Looks Like a Full Times Table

The card is doing arithmetic in public. “1 x 1, etc.” is the schoolbook way to start a square-number list: 1 times 1 is 1, 2 times 2 is 4, 3 times 3 is 9, and so on. Solvers who take the card at face value start hunting ONE, FOUR, NINE, SIXTEEN, TWENTYFIVE, in order, as if the grid were a poster on a classroom wall.

A square number, also called a perfect square, is a number made by squaring a whole number. The early ones are 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81 and 100. Friday’s board uses that family and then refuses to recite it in full, which is the whole gag and the whole trap.

Strands still works like the word search it grew out of, with one twist the help pages keep repeating: words may turn corners, every letter is used once, and one special answer has to span opposite edges. Tracy Bennett edits the daily content. The Games team first showed the prototype at its in-house Game Jam, then opened a beta on March 4, 2024, before putting the puzzle in the Games app on June 26, 2024.

This game offers a fresh take on word searches, with a unique twist that challenges solvers and keeps them coming back for more.

Jonathan Knight, head of Games, The New York Times, June 26, 2024 company announcement

Share cards for #936 show five blue theme words and one yellow spangram, the same six-answer shape, and a slice of those cards still carry a hint lamp on a math day.

Five Written Numbers Fill 48 Letters

The board is 6 columns by 8 rows, 48 letters, and the five theme words plus SQUARENUMBER add to 48 on the nose. FOUR is 4 letters and 2 times 2. NINE is 4 letters and 3 times 3. TWENTYFIVE is 10 letters and 5 times 5. THIRTYSIX is 9 letters and 6 times 6. EIGHTYONE is 9 letters and 9 times 9. The spangram is 12 letters.

SQUARE NUMBERS ON AND OFF THE BOARD

Add the five “Yes” rows to SQUARENUMBER and you get 4 + 4 + 10 + 9 + 9 + 12, which is 48. A minority write-up swapped in SIXTEEN and dropped EIGHTYONE, and that mix plus the spangram is 46 letters, two short of a finished grid.

Why Sixteen Never Makes the Grid

ONE cannot be a Strands theme word on this ruleset, because extra words and theme words are built from four or more letters. The theme card still opens at 1 x 1, so the first square is named in the clue and then barred from the letter paths. That is clean. SIXTEEN is the one that actually sting, because seven letters is a legal length and 4 times 4 is the next square after NINE.

Solvers who lock the theme and then walk the times table in order go hunting SIXTEEN after NINE and stall, because those letters were never packed. FORTYNINE and SIXTYFOUR would also have fit on length, at 9 letters each, and they are absent too. The board jumps from 6 times 6 to 9 times 9 and lands on EIGHTYONE, which is the longest remaining square-word that still lets the 12-letter spangram close the count at 48.

So the “etc.” on the card is not a promise of a complete list. It is a pointer at the operation, times itself, and then the grid keeps only the spellings that tile. Treat it as a consecutive worksheet and you spend the morning on a 7-letter ghost.

SQUARENUMBER Occupies Two Full Rows

The spangram is the phrase square number with the space pulled out. It starts on the S that sits four letters down in the far-left column, runs right across that row as SQUARE, then turns and runs back along the next row as NUMBER. Each of those words is 6 letters, and the board is 6 letters wide, so the two rows are a solid yellow belt from one side edge to the other, which is what the spangram rule demands.

The fifth row therefore prints as REBMUN until you trace it backward. Once that belt is claimed, the leftover letters sit in two pockets, a short cluster of number-words above the belt and the longer spellings below it. FOUR is the fastest confirm because it is only 4 letters and it matches the card without giving away EIGHTYONE.

STRANDS #936 AT A GLANCE

• Theme card: “1 x 1, etc.” on puzzle #936, September 25, 2026.
• Spangram: SQUARENUMBER, 12 letters, row 4 across and row 5 back.
• Theme words: FOUR, NINE, TWENTYFIVE, THIRTYSIX, EIGHTYONE.
• Company baseline: In June 2024 the Games team said 83 percent of Strands players found the spangram each day, with about 81 percent finishing the puzzle.

Those June 2024 rates are a company snapshot from the week the game hit the app, not a live leaderboard for #936, and they still explain why so many Friday share cards open with the yellow circle.

Thursday’s Backyard List Is Still Circulating

September 24, 2026, was Strands #935. The theme card was “Just outside your door,” the spangram was BACKYARD, and the six theme words were POOL, FORT, SWINGS, SANDBOX, TREEHOUSE and TRAMPOLINE. BACKYARD is 8 letters. The six play structures are 4, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 letters. That pack is 48.

At least one Friday answer sheet kept those six backyard words and stamped SQUARENUMBER on top of them. The math on that mash-up is 40 + 12 = 52, which is 4 letters past a legal board. You cannot clear a 48-letter grid with 52 letters of answers, and you cannot make a trampoline into 9 times 9.

WHICH LETTER COUNT ACTUALLY CLOSES

The copy-paste is easy to see once you line the two dates up. Thursday’s words are physical things in a yard. Friday’s words are spelled numbers. The only shared object is a 6-by-8 grid that has to sum to 48, and that test throws the backyard list out of September 25.

Spare Words Still Earn a Hint

If the theme will not click, the designed loophole is still the extra-word meter. You may string any valid words of four or more letters that are not the hidden answers, and every three non-theme words earn a hint that lights the letters of one theme word. You still have to read that highlighted path, because the hint does not type the answer for you.

On this board, BARE, FARE, FINE and TONE are among the spare strings that feed the meter. BEST, REST, THEY and STIR also show up in solver notes. Any other four-letter path you can actually trace will do the same job. Three of them buy one highlight; six buy two.

WAYS TO MOVE ON #936 WITHOUT THE FULL SPOILER

• Read the card as an operation: Look for numbers written as words, not for a complete 1 through 10 list.
• Grab the belt: Scan the fourth row for SQUARE, then reverse the fifth row into NUMBER.
• Bank the short confirms: FOUR and NINE are the 4-letter squares and they free letters for the long spellings.
• Stop hunting SIXTEEN: 4 times 4 is not packed; the jump after NINE is TWENTYFIVE, then THIRTYSIX, then EIGHTYONE.

The daily puzzle posts at midnight in each player’s timezone, and Strands #937 opens on September 26, 2026. Until then the #936 board is FIVE spelled squares, one 12-letter belt, and a 16 that never was.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is a Spangram in NYT Strands?

A spangram is the one special answer in every Strands puzzle that names the theme and must touch two opposite sides of the 6-by-8 board, either left and right or top and bottom. Theme words turn blue; the spangram turns yellow. It can be a short phrase with the space removed, which is why Friday’s answer is SQUARENUMBER rather than two separate words, and it does not have to start in a corner.

Do You Need a Subscription to Play Strands?

The daily Strands puzzle does not currently require a New York Times subscription on the web, in the Games app, or in the Games section of the News app. The Strands archive, which runs back to the March 4, 2024 beta launch, is limited to All Access, Home Delivery and Games subscribers, and finished archive puzzles cannot be replayed.

What Is a Perfect Square in Math?

A perfect square is another name for a square number: the product of a whole number multiplied by itself, such as 7 times 7 = 49. Zero counts as well, because 0 times 0 = 0, and the sequence then continues 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100. Friday’s theme uses that idea but only the spellings that fit 48 letters.

When Does the Daily Strands Puzzle Come Out?

A new Strands puzzle releases at midnight in your timezone, so players in different regions open the same numbered puzzle on local clocks rather than on a single New York cutoff. Puzzle #937, the next board after Friday’s square-number set, releases at midnight local time on September 26, 2026.

How Do Strands Statistics and Streaks Work?

Linked New York Times accounts now store Completed, Solve %, Current Streak, Max Streak, Spangram First and Solved Without Hints for puzzles played from July 8, 2025 onward. Playing old boards in the subscriber archive changes Completed, Solve %, Spangram First and Solved Without Hints, but it does not move streaks, and a puzzle finished after local midnight breaks the current streak with no reset option.