About Mini #366
Mini #366 is the daily 5×5 for Thursday, October 1, 2026. Its grid has two black squares, laid out as single squares in the top-left and bottom-right corners, which leaves 23 white squares for ten answers: five Across and five Down. By length, that's six five-letter and four four-letter answers.
The shortest clue is 2-Down, “Home, sweet home”, at three words; the longest is 8-Across, “Passed a test with flying colors”, at six words. None of the ten clues is a fill-in-the-blank, a quotation, a question-mark clue or a marked short form.
There's no fill-in-the-blank this time, so a good first stop is the shortest slot: 1-Across has only four letters. Some clues lean on a name or title, such as 1-Across, “New York City taxis” and 5-Across, “City with the Burj Khalifa”; if one is unfamiliar, work its crossing answers first. For more ways in, see the solving tips.
How this grid compares
This layout appears in 93 of the 312 daily 5×5 puzzles in our library dated up to October 1, 2026. The layout is rotationally symmetric: turn the grid upside down and the black squares land in the same places. It keeps the same black-square layout as the day before (September 30, 2026).
Like every daily 5×5 in our library, it was generated at our “easy” difficulty setting. The same date also has a 6×6 with 12 clues and a 7×7 with 16 clues.
More for October 1, 2026
Stuck? The hints for October 1, 2026 give three hints per clue, the answer key reveals one answer at a time, and there's a printable copy for solving on paper. The day before, Mini #365 (September 30, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Woe is me!”; the day after, Mini #367 (October 2, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Vehicles in a garage”.