🧩 Spatial · Solve + Play
Slide Puzzle Solver
Enter the tiles of the puzzle you already have — or play a fresh shuffled one.
Screenshot or photo — sent to an AI service once to read the puzzle, never stored. Keep faces and personal info out of frame. Desktop: drag & drop or paste also works.
Or tap the grid: tapping a tile swaps it with the empty space — arrange it to match your puzzle.
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How the slide puzzle solver works
Type your tiles row by row (use 0 for the empty space) or tap the grid to arrange them, then hit Solve puzzle. The tool first checks your input for duplicates or missing tiles, then runs the inversion-count parity test — half of all random arrangements are mathematically impossible, and you get a plain-English message instead of a hang.
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Solving runs in a Web Worker using A* search with Manhattan distance plus linear conflict, so the page never freezes. On 3×3 you get an optimal (shortest) solution; on 4×4 and 5×5 the solver uses a weighted heuristic for a fast near-optimal answer with a progress indicator and a timeout that fails gracefully. The move list plays back step by step with play, pause, back, next, and speed controls. Tips: solve the top row first in play mode, keep the blank near the tiles you are placing, and never rotate a finished row back into the scramble.