By Nick
Tango has three rules, and almost everyone learns them in a minute. No three alike in a row. Three of each in every row and column. An = means same, a × means different. So why do some boards take you two minutes and others take ten?
It's rarely the rules. It's habits. Most slow solves come from the same handful of mistakes, and each one has a simple fix. The boards below use cats and dogs from Cats & Dogs, our free daily version of the puzzle, but every tip works the same with LinkedIn's suns and moons. If you need the rules first, start with our guide to LinkedIn Tango.
In each board, grey squares were already there, and a ring marks a square the move fills in.
1. Missing the pairs
What it looks like: two cats sit side by side, and you move on to look for something harder.
Why it happens: a pair doesn't look like a clue. It looks like progress that's already done.
The fix: every pair forces both of its ends. Two cats together means the square on each side must be a dog, or you'd have three cats in a row. This is the most common move in the game, and it often fires two or three times from one placement. Each time you place an animal, check if it made a pair, then fill the ends.
2. Skipping the sandwich
What it looks like: a row reads dog, gap, dog, and the gap stays empty.
Why it happens: the two dogs aren't touching, so they don't catch your eye the way a pair does.
The fix: a single gap between two of the same animal must hold the other one. Dog, gap, dog means the gap is a cat. If it were a dog, you'd have three dogs in a row. Train your eye to look for "same, gap, same" as hard as it looks for pairs. Between them, these two moves solve most Easy boards on their own.
3. Forgetting to count
What it looks like: a row already has its three cats, but you're still hunting for pairs in it.
Why it happens: pairs and sandwiches feel like "real" moves. Counting feels like bookkeeping.
The fix: each row and column holds exactly three of each. Once a line has three cats, every empty square left in it is a dog, and the other way round. In the board below, only one of the three dogs comes from a sandwich. The other two come from counting alone. Make it a habit: when a line is half full, count it.
4. Reading the signs one at a time
What it looks like: you fill in one square from an = or ×, then go back to scanning the whole grid.
Why it happens: each sign looks like a single fact about two squares.
The fix: signs chain. When you fill one end of a sign, the other end is fixed too, and that square may sit on another sign. Follow the chain until it stops. In the board below, one dog sets off four squares: a × gives a cat, an = gives a second cat, that pair forces a dog on the end, and a × above that cat gives a dog in the row above. Signs run up and down as well as across, so check both.
5. Only scanning the rows
What it looks like: you read every row left to right, find nothing, and decide you're stuck.
Why it happens: we read across. Columns get half the attention, but they hold half the clues.
The fix: every rule works the same way down a column. Pairs, sandwiches and counts all apply. When a row scan comes up empty, do a full column scan before anything else. It's often where the next move has been waiting.
6. Guessing when you feel stuck
What it looks like: nothing jumps out, so you drop a cat somewhere and see what happens.
Why it happens: guessing feels faster than looking. Sometimes it even works.
The fix: a good board never needs a guess. Every Cats & Dogs board has one answer you can reach by logic, so there is always a square you can prove. A wrong guess can sit unnoticed for many moves, and then you have to undo half the board. Instead, scan each row and column once more for pairs, sandwiches, counts and signs. If you still can't find it, press Hint. It shows you the next square you can work out and why, so the next time you see that pattern you'll spot it yourself.
7. Rushing the last line
What it looks like: the board is nearly done, you fill the last row fast, and it comes back wrong.
Why it happens: the end feels close, so you stop checking. The last row looks like it only has to balance itself.
The fix: the last row is decided by the columns above it, not by the row. Each column already has five animals, so its last square is whatever that column is missing. Read the row square by square, from each column, and it will balance itself. If you fill it by "three and three" alone, you can end up with a row that looks fine but breaks a column.
Practice one habit at a time
You don't need to fix all seven at once. Pick one, play today's Easy board, and think about only that habit. Then move up to Medium and Hard. If you want more boards to practise on, Endless mode deals a new one each time you finish. Stuck on one board? Copy it into the Tango solver and it explains the next step. For every technique in order, from pairs to the moves Hard boards need, read our Tango strategy guide. New to the game? Here's how Cats & Dogs works.