Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Well, happy April Fools' Day from the New York Times! Today's NYT Connections puzzle reminded me of the rebus puzzles my friends and I used to enjoy solving as kids. They're puzzles that combine pictures and letters and placement to make you guess a word or phrase, like if you type the word HEAD over the word HEELS to create the common phrase, "head over heels." Read on for clues and today's Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time
Hints for today's Connections groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Cheers!
Green group hint: Rock out!
Blue group hint: Enjoy the show.
Purple group hint: Windy City is another one.
Answers for today's Connections groups
Yellow group: Beer brands.
Green group: Rock bands.
Blue group: Movies.
Purple group: U.S. city nicknames.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today's Connections answers?
In case you need to see those rebus puzzles again, here they are.
Here's the unsolved, completed NYT Connections puzzle for April 1, 2026.
NYT/Screenshot by CNETAnd here's the grid after the answers have all been sorted.
The completed NYT Connections puzzle for April 1, 2026.
NYT/Screenshot by CNETThe yellow words in today's Connections
The theme is beer brands. The four answers are Blue Moon, Dos Equis, Miller High Life and Red Stripe.
The green words in today's Connections
The theme is rock bands. The four answers are Green Day, Pink Floyd, Three Doors Down and U2.
The blue words in today's Connections
The theme is movies. The four answers are Back to the Future, Blue Velvet, Singin' in the Rain and Top Gun.
The purple words in today's Connections
The theme is U.S. city nicknames. The four answers are Big Apple, Big Easy, Mile High City and Second City.
Toughest Connections puzzles
We've made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they'll help you see patterns in future puzzles.
#5: Included "things you can set," such as mood, record, table and volleyball.
#4: Included "one in a dozen," such as egg, juror, month and rose.
#3: Included "streets on screen," such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.
#2: Included "power ___" such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.
#1: Included "things that can run," such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.
