’ Connections puzzle on April 18 was not too difficult if you loved a fizzy drink. Puzzle No. 1042, which resets after midnight, asked players to sort 16 words into four categories, and the solved board leaned hard into soda branding.
That is the kind of game Connections has become: a quick daily challenge built around finding the common threads between words, with up to four mistakes before the board closes. Players can shuffle the grid, rearrange the words and keep trying until the set gives way.
The easiest path in No. 1042 came with the yellow category, Look at with awe: GOOGLE, MARVEL, STARE, WONDER. Another group was Basic electricity terms: AC, DC, POWER, VOLTAGE. The remaining answers were Unexpected winner: DARK HORSE, LONG SHOT, SLEEPER, UNDERDOG, and Starting with soda brands: CRUSHWORTHY, FANTAGRAPHICS, FRESCAPE, PEPSINOGEN.
That final set was the clue that made the day feel unusually playful. The words did not name soda brands directly, but each began with the name of a familiar soft drink, a twist that fit the game’s habit of hiding obvious links in plain sight.
Connections is one of ’ most popular word games, and the Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping create it and bring it into the Games section. It can be played on web browsers and mobile devices, and each puzzle can draw from categories as broad as book titles, software and country names.
The tension in Connections is always the same: the board looks simple until one grouping refuses to snap into place. That is why the game has kept its audience. On April 18, the puzzle rewarded players who spotted the soda pattern early, while anyone still searching had to spend their mistakes carefully before the game ended.
After April 18, the board moved on. Connections reset after midnight, replacing No. 1042 with a fresh set of 16 words and four new categories for the next round of solvers.
