About Mini #381
Mini #381 is the daily 5×5 for Friday, October 16, 2026. Its grid has four black squares, laid out as stacked pairs in the top-left and bottom-right corners, which leaves 21 white squares for ten answers: five Across and five Down. By length, that's four five-letter, four four-letter and two three-letter answers.
The shortest clue is 1-Across, “Guides for road trips”, at four words; the longest is 6-Across, “Boy's name shared by Monty Python's ‘Life of ___’”, at nine words. Clues worth knowing about before you start:
- Fill-in-the-blank: 6-Across, “Boy's name shared by Monty Python's ‘Life of ___’”
- Marked as a short form: 6-Down, “‘By the way,’ in texting shorthand”
Fill-in-the-blank clues are often the quickest way in, so 6-Across, “Boy's name shared by Monty Python's ‘Life of ___’”, is a good first stop. Some clues lean on a name or title, such as 5-Across, “Rights-focused org. with ‘Civil Liberties’ in its name”, 6-Across, “Boy's name shared by Monty Python's ‘Life of ___’” and 1-Down, “‘The Sound of Music’ heroine”; 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 29 of the 327 daily 5×5 puzzles in our library dated up to October 16, 2026. The layout is rotationally symmetric: turn the grid upside down and the black squares land in the same places. The day before (October 15, 2026) also had four black squares, arranged differently.
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 14 clues.
More for October 16, 2026
Stuck? The hints for October 16, 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 #380 (October 15, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Shark's dorsal feature”.