The Times’ Mini Crosswords
Statistics from doing the Times’ mini crossword puzzles
I enjoy doing crossword puzzles, and especially enjoy the daily mini crossword puzzles offered by the New York Times’ iPhone app. The mini crossword is a five-by-five daily puzzle that is usually quickly dispatched. Sometimes, however, there’s one word or two that I just can’t get right away. In that case, abandoning the puzzle and coming back to it after a spell allows my mind to approach it fresh and I’m able to finish it up. Once in a while, though, I just can’t get it, and have to avail myself of a hint. After a hundred puzzles or so, I began to wonder how I do on them and, of course, I started keeping track.
On Saturday, June 25, 2016, I was surprised to find the daily puzzle to be a “midi” (7x7). Thinking it was a mistake, I just skipped it. However, since that time, every Saturday has been larger than a “mini” in some way. As a result, the statistics have been split into “mini” and “midi”.
Below are various statistics of the puzzles from August 21, 2014 though and including December 4, 2018.
| Misc Stats (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Total Puzzles Attempted | 1444 |
| Total Completed | 1444 |
| Total Incomplete | 0 |
| Percent Incomplete | 0% |
| Total Completed with Help | 48 |
| Percent Completed with Help | 3% |
| Average to Complete | 1m 25s |
| Misc Stats (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Total Puzzles Attempted | 123 |
| Total Completed | 123 |
| Total Incomplete | 0 |
| Percent Incomplete | 0% |
| Total Completed with Help | 1 |
| Percent Completed with Help | 1% |
| Average to Complete | 2m 21s |
| 5 Most Frequent Time-To-Complete (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Time | Times Seen |
|
43s |
33 times |
|
49s |
32 times |
|
1m 4s |
31 times |
|
51s |
30 times |
|
48s |
28 times |
| 5 Most Frequent Time-To-Complete (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Time | Times Seen |
|
1m 54s |
5 times |
|
2m 5s |
3 times |
|
2m 46s |
3 times |
|
1m 53s |
3 times |
|
2m 0s |
3 times |
| 5 Fastest Puzzles (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Date | Time |
| May 25, 2018 | 10s |
| May 22, 2017 | 15s |
| August 15, 2016 | 17s |
| September 16, 2018 | 18s |
| November 2, 2017 | 19s |
| 5 Fastest Puzzles (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Date | Time |
| October 22, 2016 | 48s |
| March 3, 2018 | 56s |
| January 17, 2017 | 58s |
| October 7, 2017 | 59s |
| April 15, 2017 | 1m 07s |
| 5 Slowest Puzzles (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Date | Time |
| November 9, 2018 | 11m 4s |
| March 11, 2016 | 7m 55s |
| December 17, 2015 | 6m 57s |
| May 3, 2015 | 6m 46s |
| March 21, 2016 | 6m 15s |
| 5 Slowest Puzzles (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Date | Time |
| April 22, 2017 | 6m 18s |
| August 12, 2017 | 6m 8s |
| April 28, 2018 | 5m 35s |
| October 13, 2018 | 5m 16s |
| January 6, 2018 | 4m 58s |
| 10 Most Common Words (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Word | Frequency |
| obama | 25 |
| sky | 21 |
| yes | 19 |
| 18 | |
| elite | 17 |
| apps | 15 |
| ocean | 15 |
| aloha | 14 |
| spy | 14 |
| apple | 14 |
| 10 Most Common Words (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Word | Frequency |
| rna | 5 |
| one | 5 |
| eritrea | 4 |
| sad | 4 |
| art | 4 |
| ned | 4 |
| wed | 3 |
| oreilly | 3 |
| snoop | 3 |
| dre | 3 |
| Character Distribution (Mini) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Character | Frequency | Percent | |
| a | 7,026 | 11.02% | |
| b | 1,511 | 2.37% | |
| c | 1,892 | 2.97% | |
| d | 2,337 | 3.67% | |
| e | 7,630 | 11.97% | |
| f | 818 | 1.28% | |
| g | 1,334 | 2.09% | |
| h | 1,728 | 2.71% | |
| i | 3,860 | 6.06% | |
| j | 310 | 0.49% | |
| k | 983 | 1.54% | |
| l | 3,375 | 5.29% | |
| m | 2,025 | 3.18% | |
| n | 3,464 | 5.43% | |
| o | 4,628 | 7.26% | |
| p | 2,048 | 3.21% | |
| q | 78 | 0.12% | |
| r | 3,956 | 6.21% | |
| s | 5,339 | 8.38% | |
| t | 3,635 | 5.70% | |
| u | 1,812 | 2.84% | |
| v | 662 | 1.04% | |
| w | 898 | 1.41% | |
| x | 392 | 0.61% | |
| y | 1,674 | 2.63% | |
| z | 331 | 0.52% | |
| Character Distribution (Midi) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Character | Frequency | Percent | |
| a | 1,066 | 10.74% | |
| b | 221 | 2.23% | |
| c | 288 | 2.90% | |
| d | 406 | 4.09% | |
| e | 1,324 | 13.34% | |
| f | 122 | 1.23% | |
| g | 195 | 1.96% | |
| h | 234 | 2.36% | |
| i | 626 | 6.31% | |
| j | 16 | 0.16% | |
| k | 114 | 1.15% | |
| l | 488 | 4.92% | |
| m | 262 | 2.64% | |
| n | 655 | 6.60% | |
| o | 641 | 6.46% | |
| p | 293 | 2.95% | |
| q | 8 | 0.08% | |
| r | 757 | 7.63% | |
| s | 897 | 9.04% | |
| t | 721 | 7.26% | |
| u | 204 | 2.06% | |
| v | 56 | 0.56% | |
| w | 124 | 1.25% | |
| x | 35 | 0.35% | |
| y | 152 | 1.53% | |
| z | 20 | 0.20% | |
