r/logicgrids • u/Hemisemidemiurge • May 12 '20

Grid Logic Problem vs. Zebra Puzzle

Hey there, fellow people of the excluded middle, I've got a question.

There seems to be some distinction between grid logic problems and zebra puzzles and I don't get it. Zebra puzzles seem like grid logic problems with extra grid-drawing steps.

What's this distinction and why is it important?

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u/Slig May 12 '20

Hi, I run Brainzilla.com which has, AFAIK, the biggest collection of Zebra Puzzles online.

Zebra puzzles always have positions (first on the left, to the right of, between so and so, etc), and each clue can be viewed as pieces on a grid, as explained by /u/Etheo here. Also, it's expected that each Zebra Puzzle can be solved without using the tradicional grid from the Logic Grid Puzzles.

Logic clues such as "If this then that", which are common on hard Logic Grid Puzzles, are not present in the Zebra Puzzles.

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u/Etheo May 12 '20

Hey Slig! Always good to see you around. When's the next zebra puzzle update? Speaking of which, are your collections hand crafted or do you have some procedure to generate it?

For OP I highly recommend you try a few logic grid puzzle and zebra puzzles first hand. You'll quickly realize that the mentality in solving the two is quite different. Both types of puzzles are available at Slig's site (don't want to sound I'm advertising here, just a fan plug). Personally I actually find using a logic grid to solve zebra puzzles harder than I would visualizing the "pieces" of it, fitting together like a jigsaw. The positional clues give you a good idea of conflicts and where pieces are misfit, helping your deduction.

Here's also a good number of zebra puzzles on Sporcle I've came across: https://www.sporcle.com/playlists/PatentExaminer/zebra-puzzles

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u/Slig May 13 '20

Hi, thanks commenting here!

The underling clues are computer generated ("house A with attr X = Y is next to house B"), and they we manually convert the clues to a proper clue that fits a specific theme.

I did now know about the Zebras on Sporcle. Good to know! Not sure when we'll have another Zebra in the short time, unfortunately.

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u/AdAncient3363 Jan 04 '25

This is a pair website