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 |
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 | |
a | 7,020 | 11.02% | |
b | 1,511 | 2.37% | |
c | 1,888 | 2.96% | |
d | 2,337 | 3.67% | |
e | 7,628 | 11.97% | |
f | 818 | 1.28% | |
g | 1,332 | 2.09% | |
h | 1,724 | 2.71% | |
i | 3,860 | 6.06% | |
j | 310 | 0.49% | |
k | 983 | 1.54% | |
l | 3,375 | 5.30% | |
m | 2,025 | 3.18% | |
n | 3,460 | 5.43% | |
o | 4,624 | 7.26% | |
p | 2,048 | 3.21% | |
q | 78 | 0.12% | |
r | 3,952 | 6.20% | |
s | 5,335 | 8.37% | |
t | 3,635 | 5.71% | |
u | 1,810 | 2.84% | |
v | 662 | 1.04% | |
w | 896 | 1.41% | |
x | 392 | 0.62% | |
y | 1,670 | 2.62% | |
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% |