Searching for the Connections solution for Friday, March 28, 2025? You’ve come to the right place! This guide will provide you with hints, strategies, and finally, the answers across all four categories. We’ll also clarify some tricky terms and uncover how everything connects. Warning: Spoilers are included below for March 28, NYT Connections #656! Continue if you wish to gather clues (and eventually see the solutions) for today’s Connections game.

To easily return for daily Connections hints, bookmark this page. Previous hints are also available here, providing insights into puzzles you might have missed.

Initially, some subtle hints regarding today’s Connections answers are provided below. For the complete themes and solutions, scroll further down the page. Take your time and gather only the hints you require!

Credit: Connections/NYT

Hints for Today’s Connections Themes

Here are some hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle without revealing too much:

• Yellow category – A term for casually tossing something.

• Green category – What soldiers might do when converging on an objective.

• Blue category – If you notice a collection of these items near a grocery store, you may likely return home with boxes of Tagalongs or Thin Mints.

• Purple category – A fill-in-the-blank synonym for “corridor.”

Caution: Spoiler Alert!

The answers are about to be disclosed. Proceed with caution if you’d like to avoid spoilers. (The complete solutions are located further down.)

Noteworthy Challenges

SKIRT refers to a clothing piece, contrasting with its alternate meaning linked to SURROUND.

A BADGE can represent an achievement for a child in a specific group.

CHUCK operates as a verb.

BINGO should be associated with a venue where you might participate in that game.

Categories in Today’s Connections

• Yellow: HURL

• Green: BE ON BOTH SIDES OF

• Blue: PARTS OF A CLASSIC GIRL SCOUT UNIFORM

• Purple: ___ HALL

Double Caution: Solutions Ahead

Ready to uncover today’s Connections answers? They are detailed below.

Yellow Group Words

The yellow grouping is regarded as the most straightforward. Today’s theme is HURL, encompassing: CHUCK, PELT, PITCH, SLING.

Green Group Words

The green set is deemed the second-easiest. The theme for this category is BE ON BOTH SIDES OF, featuring: BOOKEND, BRACKET, FLANK, SURROUND.

Blue Group Words

The blue group is classified as the second-hardest. For this category, the theme is PARTS OF A CLASSIC GIRL SCOUT UNIFORM, including: BADGE, BERET, SASH, SKIRT.

Purple Group Words

The purple category is typically the most challenging. Today’s theme centers around ___ HALL, with words: BINGO, CITY, MONTY, STUDY.

Strategy for Solving Today’s Connections

SASH and SLING may both refer to items worn across the shoulder, but SASH naturally aligns with BERET, BADGE, and SKIRT, which all correlate with a Girl Scout uniform. Let’s connect those! 🟦 Excellent.

Terms like CHUCK, SLING, PELT, and PITCH can all denote throwing actions. 🟨

SURROUND, BRACKET, FLANK, and BOOKEND all describe positioning around something. 🟩

Lastly, we have STUDY, BINGO, CITY, and MONTY, which all fit with “hall”—STUDY hall, BINGO hall, CITY hall, and MONTY hall (associated with a notable television host and a brain teaser). 🟪 Today’s puzzle seemed more accessible than yesterday’s!

            Connections
            Puzzle #656
            🟦🟦🟦🟦
            🟨🟨🟨🟨
            🟩🟩🟩🟩
            🟪🟪🟪🟪
        

Instructions for Playing Connections

A comprehensive guide for playing Connections is available, but here’s a quick overview of the rules:

First, access the Connections game either on the New York Times website or via their Games app (previously the Crossword app). The game board presents 16 tiles, each displaying a word or phrase. Your objective is to select a cluster of four tiles that share a commonality. Frequently, they are categorized similarly (e.g., RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all forms of precipitation) but occasionally involve wordplay (for instance, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH represent lists: bucket list, guest list, etc.).

Choose four items and click on the Submit button. Should your selection be correct, the related category and color will appear. (Yellow is the most accessible, followed by green, blue, and then purple.) If your guess turns out incorrect, you will have another opportunity to reattempt.

Victorious completion occurs when all four groups are successfully identified. However, if four errors are made before achieving this, the game concludes, and the solutions will be unveiled.

Tips for Winning Connections

The key to succeeding in Connections lies in understanding that the groupings can be quite deceiving. Be prepared for overlapping categories. For example, one puzzle featured six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL, but BACON was actually part of an artist group alongside CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, whereas EGG belonged to a collection of items that typically come by the dozen (alongside JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). Thus, refrain from hitting “submit” until you confirm that your selected four exclusively consist of those items.

If you find yourself stuck, an alternative tactic is to examine the words that seem disconnected from others. If WHISTLER prompts thoughts of the famous painting titled “Whistler’s Mother,” you could be onto a clue! When this puzzle was tackled, searching for whether there was an artist named Close proved beneficial since Close also didn’t fit any obvious categories.

Another effective method for resolving quandaries is to peruse helpful hints, which is precisely why these pointers are shared daily. Be sure to return tomorrow for the next challenge!