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 3, 2018.

 

Misc Stats (Mini)
Total Puzzles Attempted 1443
Total Completed 1443
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 0s
3 times
1m 39s
3 times
1m 40s
3 times
1m 17s
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
email 18
elite 17
ocean 15
apps 15
spy 14
apple 14
gas 14
10 Most Common Words (Midi)
Word Frequency
rna 5
one 5
eritrea 4
ned 4
sad 4
art 4
act 3
has 3
bmw 3
seine 3

 

Character Distribution (Mini)
Character Frequency Percent
a7,02011.02%
 
b1,5112.37%
 
c1,8882.96%
 
d2,3373.67%
 
e7,62811.97%
 
f8181.28%
 
g1,3322.09%
 
h1,7242.71%
 
i3,8606.06%
 
j3100.49%
 
k9831.54%
 
l3,3755.30%
 
m2,0253.18%
 
n3,4605.43%
 
o4,6247.26%
 
p2,0483.21%
 
q780.12%
 
r3,9526.20%
 
s5,3358.37%
 
t3,6355.71%
 
u1,8102.84%
 
v6621.04%
 
w8961.41%
 
x3920.62%
 
y1,6702.62%
 
z3310.52%
 
Character Distribution (Midi)
Character Frequency Percent
a1,06610.74%
 
b2212.23%
 
c2882.90%
 
d4064.09%
 
e1,32413.34%
 
f1221.23%
 
g1951.96%
 
h2342.36%
 
i6266.31%
 
j160.16%
 
k1141.15%
 
l4884.92%
 
m2622.64%
 
n6556.60%
 
o6416.46%
 
p2932.95%
 
q80.08%
 
r7577.63%
 
s8979.04%
 
t7217.26%
 
u2042.06%
 
v560.56%
 
w1241.25%
 
x350.35%
 
y1521.53%
 
z200.20%