The rules and colours are explained on how to play Rankle. In short: each item in exactly the right slot is one point, only greens count, and a perfect 4 out of 4 is a win.
The maths of four slots
Four items can be arranged in 24 different orders. If you put them in completely at random, you would score 1 point on average. Of the 24 orders:
- 1 scores 4 (the right answer)
- 6 score 2
- 8 score 1
- 9 score 0
You can never score exactly 3, because if three items are in place the fourth has nowhere else to go. More usefully, this table shows that a score of 2 is a decent result: it beats 17 of the 24 possible orders. A 0 does not mean you knew nothing, either. As the next section shows, some small misjudgements wipe out every point.
What each kind of mistake costs
Because only exact slots score, the cost of an error depends on how far it pushes other items out of place, not on how wrong your judgement was.
- Swapping two items that should be next to each other costs 2 points. You score 2.
- Putting one item two places away from where it belongs costs 3 points, because it shifts two other items as well. You score 1.
- Putting one item at the opposite end costs everything. If the right order is A, B, C, D and you write D, A, B, C, three of the items are only one place out, yet none is in its exact slot and you score 0.
- Reversing the whole order also scores 0. Always read the direction in brackets, such as shortest to longest, before you start.
The lesson is that one badly misplaced item hurts far more than a close pair the wrong way round. Spend your thinking on any item that could be far from where you have put it.
Where to put an item you cannot place
Suppose you are confident about the order of three items, but the fourth could genuinely belong anywhere. Where should it go? Working through all four possibilities gives a clear answer. Put it in one of the two middle slots and you average 2.25 points. Put it at the top or bottom and you average 1.75.
The reason is that an item placed at an end can be three places wrong, which costs all four points, while an item in the middle is never more than two places out. So if you truly have no idea, park the mystery item in the middle. If you have even a hunch that it is the biggest or the smallest, follow the hunch: the advantage of the middle only holds when every position is equally likely.
The other common situation is a close pair that you are sure sit next to each other. Then it is a straight coin toss between 4 and 2, and nothing about the slot choice helps. Settle everything else first, then give the pair your full attention.
Estimating habits that help
- Find an anchor. Before comparing four unfamiliar figures, think of one thing you do know on the same scale and place each item above or below it.
- Think in ratios, not differences. Our answer pages measure the closest call as how many times apart two figures are. Items ten times apart are easy to order even if you cannot name either figure.
- Convert to one unit in your head. Dates become centuries first and then decades; distances become miles; frequencies become a ladder of kilo, mega, giga.
- Read every word of the question. A typical value, a record and an average are different things, and the direction word decides which item goes at the top.
- Use your confidence to choose slots. Place the items you are surest of first, then fit the others around them.
Worked example: presidents' first terms
Rankle #141 on 23 October 2026 asked for the length of four US presidents' first terms, shortest to longest: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, John F. Kennedy and George Washington.
Start with the item you know best. Washington served two full terms, so his first term ran the full four years. Nobody can beat four years in a first term, so Washington goes at the bottom. Next, Harrison: if you remember one thing about him, it is that he died about a month after taking office, the shortest presidency there has been. He goes at the top. That already secures 2 points.
The middle pair is the real puzzle. Kennedy took office in 1961 and was assassinated in November 1963, so nearly three years. Taylor is harder. If you know he died in office in 1850 after taking office in 1849, he is clearly under two years and goes above Kennedy. If you do not know, both choices are a coin toss between 4 and 2, so you lose nothing by trusting a vague memory.
The revealed figures were 0.085 years for Harrison, 1.35 for Taylor, 2.84 for Kennedy and 4 for Washington. Interestingly, the closest call by ratio was Kennedy against Washington, about 41% apart, but anyone who knew Washington served full terms was never at risk there.
Worked example: the electromagnetic spectrum
Rankle #125 on 7 October 2026 asked for frequency, lowest to highest: AM radio, FM radio, a microwave oven and a medical X-ray. This is a puzzle you can solve from units alone. AM radio is tuned in kilohertz or around a megahertz, FM radio around a hundred megahertz, a microwave oven in gigahertz, and X-rays are far beyond visible light. Read straight off the ladder and you have the order.
The trap is the direction. If you think in wavelengths, radio waves are the longest and X-rays the shortest, and a wavelength order is exactly upside down for a frequency question. Upside down scores 0. The figures span a factor of about 30 billion, yet a careless reading of the question could still score nothing.
Speed and the leaderboard
The daily leaderboard ranks players by score first and time second, so a quick perfect beats a slow perfect, but a slow perfect beats a quick 2. Never trade accuracy for speed. Take the time you need, then submit as soon as you have decided.
Quick checklist
- Read the direction in brackets before you move anything.
- Place the items you are surest of first, usually the extremes.
- If one item could genuinely be anywhere, put it in a middle slot.
- Think in ratios and units, not exact figures.
- A swapped close pair still scores 2. A shifted list can score 0.
- Score comes before time, so do not rush.
Past puzzles can be played as practice from the archive in the game, and the Rankle answers page explains every finished one. For more estimating, try Shires, where distance and direction clues lead you to a UK area. Our Cluster strategy guide covers a very different kind of reasoning, and all our daily games are one tap away.