Does the April 15, 2026 (#1039) edition of NYT Connections have you stumped? Save your winning streak with these hints and clues.

Connection by The New York Times is a daily word created by Wyna Liu. The objective of this popular puzzle is to create groups of four from a given set of 16 different words. Although the words may look unrelated, they are connected by some hidden themes. To solve the puzzle, players must identify these themes within four guesses and sort words accordingly into their respective groups. Moreover, the game also provides a “one away…” hint.

The four groups are Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple. They are color-coded according to their level of difficulty. Yellow is often the easiest to figure out, while Purple is the trickiest.

Check out the hints and answers for the April 15 Connections puzzle below.

Connections hints for April 15

All 16 words in today’s puzzle are:HASSLE, SHALLOW, CHORE, GRIND, TASSEL, CROWN, CAP, CASTLE, GOWN, FLIP, HORSE, TRITE, MITER, FACILE, DIPLOMA, and TRIAL.

Here are some hints for each group:

Yellow Group: The items in this group are related to graduation day.
Green Group: This collection features words that are related to a boring task.
Blue Group: This set includes words related to something extremely simple.
Purple Group: This group includes objects that are associated with a popular board game.

What are the Connections answers for today, April 15?

Without further ado, here are the answers for the April 15, 2026, NYT Connections puzzle:

Yellow Group: Graduation Gear – CAP, DIPLOMA, GOWN, and TASSEL.

Green Group: Tedious Undertaking – CHORE, GRIND, HASSLE, and TRIAL.

Blue Group: Oversimplistic – FACILE, FLIP, SHALLOW, and TRITE.

Purple Group: Shapes Of Chess Pieces – CASTLE, CROWN, HORSE, and MITER.

Besides Connections, The New York Times Games also include Wordle, Strands, Pips, Sudoku, and the NYT Crosswords, to name a few. Alternatively, fans can also download the official NYT Games app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.