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 October 8, 2018.
| Misc Stats (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Total Puzzles Attempted | 1395 |
| Total Completed | 1395 |
| Total Incomplete | 0 |
| Percent Incomplete | 0% |
| Total Completed with Help | 47 |
| Percent Completed with Help | 3% |
| Average to Complete | 1m 25s |
| Misc Stats (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Total Puzzles Attempted | 115 |
| Total Completed | 115 |
| Total Incomplete | 0 |
| Percent Incomplete | 0% |
| Total Completed with Help | 1 |
| Percent Completed with Help | 1% |
| Average to Complete | 2m 22s |
| 5 Most Frequent Time-To-Complete (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Time | Times Seen |
|
43s |
32 times |
|
1m 4s |
31 times |
|
51s |
30 times |
|
49s |
29 times |
|
48s |
28 times |
| 5 Most Frequent Time-To-Complete (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Time | Times Seen |
|
1m 54s |
5 times |
|
2m 17s |
3 times |
|
1m 27s |
3 times |
|
2m 5s |
3 times |
|
2m 46s |
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 |
| March 11, 2016 | 7m 55s |
| December 17, 2015 | 6m 57s |
| May 3, 2015 | 6m 46s |
| March 21, 2016 | 6m 15s |
| February 16, 2015 | 6m 9s |
| 5 Slowest Puzzles (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Date | Time |
| April 22, 2017 | 6m 18s |
| August 12, 2017 | 6m 8s |
| April 28, 2018 | 5m 35s |
| January 6, 2018 | 4m 58s |
| April 14, 2018 | 4m 51s |
| 10 Most Common Words (Mini) | |
|---|---|
| Word | Frequency |
| obama | 25 |
| 18 | |
| yes | 18 |
| sky | 18 |
| elite | 16 |
| apps | 15 |
| apple | 14 |
| olive | 13 |
| spy | 13 |
| eyes | 13 |
| 10 Most Common Words (Midi) | |
|---|---|
| Word | Frequency |
| rna | 5 |
| one | 4 |
| eritrea | 4 |
| art | 4 |
| sad | 4 |
| wed | 3 |
| oreilly | 3 |
| has | 3 |
| bmw | 3 |
| seine | 3 |
| Character Distribution (Mini) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Character | Frequency | Percent | |
| a | 6,774 | 11.00% | |
| b | 1,479 | 2.40% | |
| c | 1,818 | 2.95% | |
| d | 2,239 | 3.64% | |
| e | 7,400 | 12.02% | |
| f | 774 | 1.26% | |
| g | 1,292 | 2.10% | |
| h | 1,648 | 2.68% | |
| i | 3,754 | 6.10% | |
| j | 304 | 0.49% | |
| k | 939 | 1.53% | |
| l | 3,265 | 5.30% | |
| m | 1,957 | 3.18% | |
| n | 3,368 | 5.47% | |
| o | 4,460 | 7.24% | |
| p | 1,970 | 3.20% | |
| q | 78 | 0.13% | |
| r | 3,814 | 6.19% | |
| s | 5,155 | 8.37% | |
| t | 3,515 | 5.71% | |
| u | 1,759 | 2.86% | |
| v | 634 | 1.03% | |
| w | 876 | 1.42% | |
| x | 386 | 0.63% | |
| y | 1,595 | 2.59% | |
| z | 315 | 0.51% | |
| Character Distribution (Midi) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Character | Frequency | Percent | |
| a | 991 | 10.69% | |
| b | 200 | 2.16% | |
| c | 269 | 2.90% | |
| d | 378 | 4.08% | |
| e | 1,238 | 13.35% | |
| f | 114 | 1.23% | |
| g | 183 | 1.97% | |
| h | 226 | 2.44% | |
| i | 589 | 6.35% | |
| j | 14 | 0.15% | |
| k | 108 | 1.16% | |
| l | 448 | 4.83% | |
| m | 240 | 2.59% | |
| n | 610 | 6.58% | |
| o | 600 | 6.47% | |
| p | 277 | 2.99% | |
| q | 8 | 0.09% | |
| r | 694 | 7.48% | |
| s | 854 | 9.21% | |
| t | 679 | 7.32% | |
| u | 192 | 2.07% | |
| v | 54 | 0.58% | |
| w | 116 | 1.25% | |
| x | 32 | 0.35% | |
| y | 140 | 1.51% | |
| z | 20 | 0.22% | |
