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15-Puzzle

Spatial

Fifteen tiles, one empty space, infinite headaches.

The 15-Puzzle is a sliding-tile puzzle: a 4×4 frame holds 15 numbered tiles and one empty space. Tiles adjacent to the empty space can be slid into it, and the goal is to arrange the tiles in numerical order. Mass-marketed in the 1880s, it caused the world's first global puzzle craze.

Original ruleset

The classic

Classic 4×4

Fifteen numbered tiles, one blank, slide-to-sort. The 1880s puzzle that started a global craze.

Medium 2-15 min spatial, sliding, classic, permutation

Modern variants

Reimagined

Image Sliding

Numbers become picture fragments — solve by reassembling the image. Adds visual intuition to the abstract puzzle.

Easy 2-10 min spatial, sliding, image, visual

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