Hello scholars! I am stoked to share my debut puzzle for the NYT!
Coming from LA, I am a 16-year-old high school Sophomore heading into my Junior year. I discovered crosswords just a year ago, thanks to a YouTube video about the "Aha" moment I love. I got loads of great advice from constructors like John Kugelman, who helped me knock out an effective puzzle and know what people love. It felt like an advanced AP Crossword class!
Factoring in the time to build wordplay is rough with a busy student schedule, but I always have a blast. It has been my goal to get my name in the paper ever since. Stress still hits me eye-to-eye every time I see "SAT" as an entry! For this puzzle, I used fun, modern entries in the fill. I chose words that I know and love, so apologies if you are in a different age demographic! I have only submitted around seven crosswords, so I was excited when the editors loved my theme, because I was losing some hope. It took me about three days to come up with the concept. I loved that each themer worked out cleanly without needing a revealer, and the fill is super neat. I hope you all enjoy it!
– puzzle by Mason Hyunjin Lee
Thu 7/9/2026
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Brad: Just for the record, I did NOT write a computer program to find today's theme answers. That would be cowardly and shameful. Instead, I made this puzzle the good old-fashioned way: I asked Nat to write a computer program.
Nat: Here are a few other words forgone in this puzzle: CRASSNESS, CROSSNESS, STRESSES and MASSLESS. S seems to be the most easily forgone letter. A little more of a stretch are PUTT-PUTT, TATER TOT, SOB SISTERS, PLOP PLOP and ROLL CALL/CALL ROLL. One "five-gone" is EERIE FEELING.
– puzzle by Brad Wiegmann and Nat Wiegmann
Fri 7/10/2026
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Bharati: I am a writer and activist from Mumbai. I write ad campaigns, screenplays, and lyrics. I have been solving and setting cryptic crosswords from decades and run a few lively crossword groups on facebook. I discovered NYT Crosswords around 2025.
Here's my music video:
– puzzle by Gus Bloxham and Bharati Hemmady
Wed 7/15/2026
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Jonathan: I've had the honor and pleasure of publishing a bunch of puzzles with Jeff in various venues, but it's wonderful to make our New York Times debut as co-constructors!
We (but mostly me) were stuck on a rebus concept for SPEED CUBER for a good while, with MPH in each 'cube' representing speed. But, frankly, that idea lacked ooMPH, and no one wants to be bummed out by eMPHysema at their breakfast table. Luckily, this implementation gained traction when we eventually hit on a fun and apt double meaning for TURNING PRO and noticed that ERNO RUBIK has the correct number of letters for a cube face.
Zhou Zhang: I felt so sure this was a Wednesday puzzle that I titled our shared cluing spreadsheet "LEGS - Wednesday Difficulty". Hah — joke's on us! Note to self: I guess the Times is really short on non-rebus Thursdays.
We did rewrite and submit new clues for many of the answers to attempt to toughen it up to make it more Thursday-appropriate. Even so (or maybe because of that?), this was one of my most heavily-edited puzzles in terms of clues changed. Only half are our original clues, and my personal favorite that didn't make the cut was for LOLCAT: [Meme that might say "I LUV CROSWORDZ"]. Sadly, I guess that was just a bit too low-brow.
– puzzle by Zhou Zhang and Mallory Montgomery
Fri 7/17/2026
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Once upon a time, I completed a crossword in the New York Times with nine 15-letter spanner answers, divided into three triple-stack sections. I thought "that was fun; I'd love to make a puzzle like that!" Then I attempted to do so, and this crossword was the result! How cool is it that my puzzle can now stand alongside the puzzle that inspired it on the esteemed XWord Info record stacks page?
Even themeless puzzles need to have a touch of the creator's spirit, so there is a bit of a culinary vibe in the clues/answers in this puzzle, as I'm a foodie. The main foodie clue changed in the editing process was for AERO, as I had initially clued both AERO and SKOR as simply [Candy bar brand].
My favorite clues of my own in this puzzle are for MADE A CLEAN BREAK, SETUP and ERODED, and I particularly enjoyed the clue the NYT team came up with for ORDERED A LA CARTE
– puzzle by Coz Berlin
Sat 7/18/2026
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I made this puzzle toward the end of my five-month super-long summer after my college graduation last year, and it was accepted a couple weeks after I started my current job at Trader Joe's. Many times, I have told someone I JUST WORK HERE, and I think of this puzzle every time that happens. Who knows, maybe I've been trying to put that phrase in people's brains to help them solve this puzzle when it comes out.
– puzzle by Ryan Judge
Sun 7/19/2026 Raising Capital
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Tue 7/21/2026
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This puzzle was an excuse to get BADA BING BADA BOOM into a grid.
This is a 16-letter entry that doesn't fit in a normal-sized 15 x 15 grid, so my top priority with this puzzle was to take advantage of this 16 x 15 shape with fun grid spanners. It was a little different for me to try ending with an entry like RED WINE SUPERNOVA, since the ending SUPERNOVA is longer and more unique than the BANG, BLAST, and BURST endings. It can add spice and emphasis to end a themeset with an entry that stands out, which is a quality I've admired in other puzzles and always wanted to try implementing into my own work. What theme could be better to GO OUT WITH A BANG?