Digits, a daily puzzle on The New York Times

 

(Image: The New York Times)

Update 7/18/2023 - I was disappointed this morning when I went to the New York Times site to play Digits and it said the game would be no longer be available starting August 8, 2023. Here is a link to an article explaining the shut down of the game: The New York Times is shutting down Digits, its math-based puzzle game - The Verge. Perhaps fans might get to play Digits on another platform or play a similar game that will be developed by another site.

Original Post from 6/29/2023:

For over the past year, The New York Times has a popular on-line game called Wordle in which players guess what letters make up a five-letter word. It can best be described as a mix of Wheel of Fortune and the game, Hangman. 

About a year ago, The New York Times introduced a similar game called Digits. Players are presented with six clues (consisting of one-digit and two-digit numbers) and a target number. The object of the game is to combine any of the six clue numbers using the basic mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to reach the target number. Maximum points are achieved if one reaches the exact target number. One can also receive points for arriving at a final answer close to the final answer. 

I find the game to be similar in math challenge as the game Nerdle, which was reviewed in a prior post.

While I don't know the absolute best strategy for Digits, I generally use the larger number clues under the operation of multiplication to get close to the target number and then use the smaller number clues to fine-tune, under addition and subtraction, to reach the exact target number.