Zip

How to play zip

If you’ve played Zip on LinkedIn, you know the rules already. Draw one line from 1 to the highest number, pass every number in order, and fill every cell on the way. The line moves up, down, left or right, never crosses itself and never goes through a wall.

The catch is the last rule. Reaching the numbers is easy. Reaching them with no cell left empty is the puzzle.

Tips for faster zip solves

Draw the corners first

A corner cell has only two neighbours. Unless it holds 1 or the last number, the line comes in one side and leaves the other, so you can draw every empty corner straight away. Cells that walls box in to two ways out work the same.

Don’t take the short way

The line has to fill every cell, so a shortcut that leaves a pocket of cells behind is a dead end later. When two numbers sit close together, the line between them often goes the long way round.

Watch the cells next to the line

Every piece of line you draw takes a way out from the cells beside it. After each move, look for a cell that now has only two open sides. Its piece of the line is fixed, and drawing it often fixes the next one too.

A new zip puzzle every day

Owlpuzzles has a new zip puzzle every day at midnight in your time zone, and it gets harder through the week. Monday and Tuesday are small grids with the numbers close together. Midweek grids are bigger, with fewer numbers and a few walls. Friday to Sunday are the biggest, where you’ll plan several moves ahead.

When one a day isn’t enough, there are 300+ zip levels from easy to hard, unlimited zip, and the archive with the last 30 days. Every puzzle is checked by a solver, and only puzzles with exactly one solution go out.

Zip, number path and LinkedIn

The puzzle goes by a few names. Number path and one line puzzle are the older ones; LinkedIn launched its daily Zip game in March 2025 with the same rules. Puzzles on the idea also appear in print: Parade magazine runs one by Marilyn vos Savant where you fill a grid with a chain of consecutive numbers.

The idea is older still. A route that visits every cell exactly once is what mathematicians call a Hamiltonian path, after William Rowan Hamilton’s 1857 puzzle game about visiting every corner of a dodecahedron once.

Questions about zip

Is this the LinkedIn Zip game?

No. Owlpuzzles isn’t part of LinkedIn. The puzzle has the same rules: one line, the numbers in order, every cell filled.

Can I play zip unlimited?

Yes. Unlimited zip makes a new puzzle whenever you like, at easy, medium or hard, on top of the daily and 300+ levels.

Is zip the same as a number path puzzle?

Yes. Number path is another name for the same puzzle: one line from 1 to the highest number, through every cell, passing the numbers in order.

Is zip the same as a one line drawing puzzle?

They’re close relatives. A one line drawing puzzle asks you to trace every line of a shape without lifting your pen. Zip asks you to visit every cell of a grid once and pass the numbers in order.

Can the line go diagonally or cross itself?

No. The line moves up, down, left or right, visits each cell once, and never goes through a wall.

How do you solve a zip puzzle quickly?

Draw the empty corners and any cell with only two ways out first. Then plan each stretch between numbers so you never leave a pocket of cells you can’t get back to.

Does every zip puzzle have one solution?

Yes. A solver checks every puzzle before it’s published, and only puzzles with exactly one solution go out.

Is zip free?

Yes. It plays in your browser on a phone or a computer, with no download and no sign-up. A free account only keeps your streak and stats on every device.

More puzzles to try

The queens puzzle is the other LinkedIn favourite, with a new one every day. Arrows is another quick puzzle where order matters, and shikaku is a calm grid puzzle about splitting the board into rectangles.