Games like LinkedIn Zip: play unlimited path puzzles

LinkedIn’s Zip gives you one puzzle a day: connect the numbers in order with a single line that fills every cell. It is a great five-minute habit, and its biggest limitation is the one puzzle. If you finished today’s and want another, you are looking for the wider family it belongs to.

What kind of puzzle Zip is

Zip is a Hamiltonian path puzzle: a single line must visit every cell of the grid exactly once, entering the numbered cells in increasing order and ending on the last number. The name comes from graph theory, where a Hamiltonian path is a route through a network that touches every node once. On a square grid with a few numbered waypoints, the problem becomes a satisfying deduction puzzle rather than a search.

Two things make a good puzzle in this family:

1. Exactly one solution. If two lines could work, you are guessing, not deducing. Good generators verify uniqueness with a solver before showing you the grid.
2. Few numbers, more walls. A grid cluttered with numbers is guided, not solved. Walls (thick lines you cannot cross) restrict the path without giving it away.

How to play Trail, our unlimited Zip-style puzzle

Trail is DailyLogic’s implementation of the same idea. The rules are identical: start on 1, visit the numbers in order, pass through every cell once, never cross a wall, finish on the highest number.

What differs from LinkedIn’s version:

• Unlimited mode at 5×5, 6×6 and 7×7, with a shareable code so a friend gets the exact same grid: Trail Unlimited.
• A daily puzzle with a leaderboard: everyone in the world gets the same numbered puzzle at midnight UTC, and your time is ranked against other players.
• Proven uniqueness. Every Trail is generated, then a solver counts its solutions; walls and numbers are added until exactly one path remains. You never need to guess.
• No account. Streaks and stats stay in your browser.

Strategy that carries over from Zip

• Dead ends first. A cell with only one free neighbour can only be an endpoint. If it is not the last number, the line must pass through it, which fixes the cells around it.
• Work backwards from the last number. Everything else must be filled before you reach it, so the cells next to it are usually forced.
• Walls make corridors. Find cells whose only access is a single opening and draw those segments before anything else.
• Parity. A line that visits every cell alternates between “light” and “dark” cells like a chessboard. On an even-sized grid, the start and end must be on different colours; if a partial route breaks that pattern, it cannot be completed.

Other puzzles in the same family

If you enjoy Zip-style puzzles you will probably like these related logic puzzles, all available daily on DailyLogic:

• Regions — one star per row, column and coloured region (the same idea as LinkedIn’s Queens).
• Duo — a binary puzzle with = and ✕ clues (the same idea as LinkedIn’s Tango).
• Pixel — nonograms: paint the picture from the numbers.
• Digits — a 6×6 mini sudoku.

DailyLogic is not affiliated with LinkedIn. Game names are mentioned only to describe the puzzle type.