About Mini #405
Mini #405 is the daily 5×5 for Monday, November 9, 2026. Its grid has six black squares, laid out as three-square L-shapes in the top-left and bottom-right corners, which leaves 19 white squares for ten answers: five Across and five Down. By length, that's two five-letter, four four-letter and four three-letter answers.
The shortest clue is 3-Down, “An untruth”, at two words; the longest is 1-Down, “Clark ___, star of 'Gone with the Wind'”, at eight words. Clues worth knowing about before you start:
- Fill-in-the-blank: 4-Across, “Salvador ___, surrealist painter of melting clocks”; 1-Down, “Clark ___, star of 'Gone with the Wind'”
Fill-in-the-blank clues are often the quickest way in, so 4-Across, “Salvador ___, surrealist painter of melting clocks”, is a good first stop. Some clues lean on a name or title, such as 5-Across, “Holy book of Christianity” and 1-Down, “Clark ___, star of 'Gone with the Wind'”; 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 351 daily 5×5 puzzles in our library dated up to November 9, 2026. The layout is rotationally symmetric: turn the grid upside down and the black squares land in the same places. That's two black squares more than the day before (November 8, 2026), which had four.
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 November 9, 2026
Stuck? The hints for November 9, 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 #404 (November 8, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Birthday present”; the day after, Mini #406 (November 10, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Places to grab a drink”.