Wednesday, August 5, 2026 · #2
Math Guess— Wednesday, August 5, 2026
About Math Guess
Math Guess hides a true eight-character equation — something like 12+35=47 or 96/8-4=8 — and gives you six attempts to reconstruct it. Each guess must itself be a true equation, and each one comes back marked tile by tile: green where a character is in exactly the right slot, amber where that digit or sign appears somewhere else in the answer, grey where it does not appear at all. It is deduction with numbers instead of letters, and it rewards a completely different kind of thinking.
Every published equation is checked before it ever reaches you. The generator enumerates the entire space of eight-character equations and keeps only those that are arithmetically true under standard order of operations, with no leading zeros, no division that leaves a remainder, no division by zero and no negative or fractional value at any intermediate step. If an equation is on the board, you can trust the arithmetic completely — the only thing you are missing is which one it is.
The daily pick is balanced on purpose. A raw enumeration is dominated by two-digit sums, which would make the game a week of addition, so the pool is capped per operator family and dealt round-robin: a day of pure multiplication, then a day mixing subtraction and division, and so on. Across the full cycle every equation in the pool is used exactly once before any of them returns, which works out at roughly fifteen years without a repeat.
How to play Math Guess
- 1The answer is exactly eight characters long: digits, one or two of the signs + - * / , and exactly one = sign.
- 2Type a complete eight-character equation of your own and submit it. Your guess has to be arithmetically true, or it will be rejected before it costs you a row.
- 3Read the tile colours: green means that character is correct and in the correct slot, amber means the character is in the answer but somewhere else, grey means it does not appear at all.
- 4Remember that the = sign is a tile like any other. Finding its slot tells you how many digits sit on each side, which is often the biggest single piece of information on the board.
- 5Use standard order of operations: multiplication and division resolve before addition and subtraction, so 3+4*5=23, not 35.
- 6Narrow the digits and signs down over your six guesses, and solve it before you run out of rows.
- 7A new equation appears after midnight UTC, and the archive holds every previous day.
Math Guess strategy
- Open with a guess that probes operators, not just digits. An opener like 12+35=47 tests a plus, an equals in slot six and five distinct digits at once. If the plus comes back grey you have eliminated the single most common operator in one move, which is worth more than any individual digit.
- Locate the equals sign early. It can only sit in slot five, six or seven of the eight, and its position tells you the shape of the whole equation: an = in slot seven means a one-digit result, which strongly implies division or subtraction is doing the work.
- Follow up with a different operator family. If your first guess used +, make your second use * and / — for example 48/6*2=16. Two guesses that share no signs cover four operators between them and leave you with a very short list of possible layouts.
- Use the digits you have, not the digits you like. An amber 7 with no green slots is more valuable than a fresh guess full of untested digits, because you already know it is in there; your job is to try it in a new position rather than to keep collecting unknowns.
- Small results imply division or subtraction. A single-digit number on the right of an eight-character equation almost never comes from addition, because two operands plus a one-digit answer needs five digits on the left. When you see the = land late, start thinking 96/8-4=8 rather than 1+2+3=6.
- On the last row, do the arithmetic rather than the pattern-matching. Write out every layout that satisfies your greens and ambers, then discard the ones that need a grey character or an inexact division. Usually only one candidate survives, and it is often not the one that looked prettiest.
Recent Math Guess puzzles
Every past puzzle is still playable, and each has its own hints and answer page.
Math Guess — common questions
Do I have to type a true equation every time?
Yes. Guesses are validated before they are scored: eight characters, exactly one equals sign, both sides equal under standard precedence, no leading zeros and exact division only. An invalid guess is rejected without costing you one of your six rows.
Does order of operations apply?
It does. Multiplication and division are resolved left to right first, then addition and subtraction. So 3+4*5=23 is a legal guess and 3+4*5=35 is not. Every hidden equation is generated under exactly the same rule.
Can the answer have negative numbers or fractions?
No. Math Guess lives entirely in the non-negative whole numbers. No step of the hidden equation ever goes negative or produces a fraction, so 3-8+9 will never be the left side even though it works out to 4, and 7/2 never appears because it is not exact.
Where can the equals sign be?
Anywhere from slot five to slot seven, because both sides need at least one character and the left side needs at least three to hold an operator. Pinning it down is usually the fastest route into the puzzle.
Is it always addition?
No, and that is deliberate. The candidate pool is capped per operator family and dealt round-robin, so a run of days will cycle through pure addition, pure multiplication, division, and the mixed families like multiply-and-subtract. Expect a different operator profile roughly every day.
How long until an equation repeats?
Around fifteen years. The balanced pool holds several thousand equations, and the deal uses every single one before it reshuffles, so a puzzle you have already played will not come back around during any realistic streak.
More daily puzzles
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