Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 2, #936
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 2 #936.
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Today's NYT Connections puzzle has a very challenging purple category that requires the ability to mentally add in a letter that's not there. 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: Get me a pen.
Green group hint: Hokey.
Blue group hint: This is a level to meet.
Purple group hint: Garden produce, with a twist.
Answers for today's Connections groups
Yellow group: Write.
Green group: Shtick.
Blue group: Benchmark.
Purple group: Vegetables minus starting letter.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today's Connections answers?
The completed NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 2, 2026.
NYT/Screenshot by CNET
The yellow words in today's Connections
The theme is write. The four answers are jot, log, note and record.
The green words in today's Connections
The theme is shtick. The four answers are bit, gag, number and routine.
The blue words in today's Connections
The theme is benchmark. The four answers are bar, example, metric and standard.
The purple words in today's Connections
The theme is vegetables minus starting letter. The four answers are ale (kale), eek (leek), hive (chive) and quash (squash).
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