How to play LinkedIn Zip
Unofficial hints. Not affiliated with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Zip hands you a grid with numbers dotted around it and asks for one continuous path. You begin on the cell marked 1, take the numbers in order, and fill every cell of the grid exactly once. Moves go up, down, left and right only, and some boards add walls between two cells that the path is not allowed to cross.
That makes it a planning puzzle rather than a counting one: the pleasure is in finding the route that leaves no cell stranded. Grids start around 6×6 and grow on the harder days, and difficulty climbs through the week, so a Monday board rarely feels like a Friday one.
LinkedIn Zip at a glance
- Board
- A square grid with numbered cells and sometimes walls
- Goal
- One path through every cell, taking the numbers in order
- New puzzle
- Every day at 12:00 AM (Los Angeles), 2:00 AM (New York), 7:00 AM (London), 12:30 PM (New Delhi) All reset times
- Where to play
- LinkedIn app and website, in the Games section
- Price
- Free with a LinkedIn account
The rules
- Start on the cell marked 1.
- Visit the numbered cells in order — 1, 2, 3 … up to the last number, where the path ends.
- Move up, down, left or right; never diagonally, and never through a wall.
- Fill every cell of the grid exactly once.
How a game goes, step by step
- Scan the whole board before you draw anything. Note where each number sits, where the walls are, and any stretch of the grid with only one realistic way through it.
- Look at the corners and at any cell with only two open neighbors. A cell like that has to be entered from one side and left by the other, so those two connections are settled before you begin.
- Work from both ends at once: forward from the 1, and back from the highest number, which is where the path has to finish. That narrows the middle far faster than pushing forward alone.
- Before you commit a move, look past it at the cells it would cut off. If the move seals a pocket you still have to fill, it is wrong, because every cell has to be visited.
- Treat each number you reach as a checkpoint. Pause, compare the empty cells left with the numbers left, and fix a stranded section now rather than ten moves later.
Three tips for your first games
- Walls are information, not just obstacles. A wall beside a numbered cell usually leaves that cell only one or two ways out, which fixes part of the route for you.
- On a big board, color the grid like a chessboard in your head. Every move changes color, so a route that would land on the same color twice can often be ruled out without tracing it.
- When you get stuck, retrace only as far as the last numbered cell instead of starting over. The mistake is nearly always a pocket you sealed off since then.
Questions about LinkedIn Zip
Does the Zip path really have to fill every cell?
Yes, and that is where the difficulty lives. A route that takes the numbers in the right order but leaves one cell untouched is not a solution, so most of the thinking goes into where the path has to bend to pick up the awkward cells.
Can the Zip path cross itself?
No. Every cell is used exactly once, so the path never doubles back through a cell it has already visited and never branches. If you find yourself wanting to cross an earlier stretch, the earlier stretch is in the wrong place.
Why do I keep getting stuck near the end of a board?
Almost always because an earlier move sealed off a pocket of cells. A pocket with a single entrance has to be entered at the one moment you can also leave it again, so checking the far side of a move before you make it saves the whole board.
Are Zip puzzles harder later in the week?
They tend to be. The difficulty climbs through the week and peaks on Friday, and grids get bigger on the harder days, so the same habits — corners first, no sealed pockets — simply take longer to apply.
When does a new LinkedIn Zip puzzle come out?
LinkedIn releases every game's new puzzle at midnight Pacific Time. Right now that is 12:00 AM (Los Angeles), 2:00 AM (New York), 7:00 AM (London), 12:30 PM (New Delhi). The puzzle is the same for every player in the world and stays up until the next reset.
Is LinkedIn Zip free?
Yes. LinkedIn Zip is free to play with a LinkedIn account, in the LinkedIn app and on the website. You'll find it in the Games section.
What happens to my streak if I miss a day?
A streak counts consecutive days on which you finished the puzzle, so a missed day starts it again from zero. Playing soon after the reset is the safest way to keep it; if you're stuck, our daily page reveals one hint at a time so you can finish without seeing the whole solution.
Can I play older LinkedIn Zip puzzles?
LinkedIn only shows the current day's puzzle. Our archive keeps the hints and the solution for every past puzzle we covered, so you can check a day you missed.