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This question is part of the best-puzzle award series

What are your nominations for the best puzzles, here on Puzzling.SE, of the first quarter (January/February/March) 2026?

Suggested guidelines for nomination:

  • Nominate each individual puzzle in a separate answer, so they can be upvoted/downvoted separately.

  • No more than 3 nominations per person.

  • Don't nominate your own puzzles.

  • Before you nominate a puzzle, check to see if someone else has already nominated it. If they have, then add to that nomination as a comment (or edit it) instead of nominating the same puzzle again.

  • In your nomination, explain what it is that (in your opinion) makes the nominated puzzle such a good one.

Some lists to help jog your memory (your nomination doesn't have to be from these lists):

Algorithmically selected "best of":

Best by votes/views:

The author of the puzzle in the highest-voted answer to this question will receive the Quartermaster badge.

Meta-meta issues:

Q: Is this kind of thing allowed on SE?
A: Yes, Photography SE and Sci-Fi & Fantasy SE do something very similar.

Q: What's the point?
A1: To highlight and encourage good practice in a way that goes beyond upvotes.
A2: To work towards building a 'hall of fame' of some of the best puzzles on the site (perhaps to reside on a future puzzling.SE blog) - think of it as our 'greatest hits album'.
A3: To prompt members to put forward their own reflections on what makes a high-quality puzzle.

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The Animation Story by Beastly Gerbil

The sheer amount of effort that went in to these excellent animations, wow. An amazing presentation. Did I mention all the animations? Plus a making-of answer to pass on those skills to others.

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  • $\begingroup$ One of the most impressively crafted puzzles I've seen in a while - an absolute highlight aesthetically, for sure... $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 5 at 11:22
  • $\begingroup$ Appreciate the nomination, glad everyone enjoyed as much as I enjoyed making it :) $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 5 at 21:45
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Oops!... I Did It Again by Stiv

If I had a nickel for every time Stiv commemorated a major milestone of his by taking nine of his previous 99 puzzles, cleverly transforming each of them into a new piece of a greater whole, and wrapping it up into a brilliant megapuzzle with an all-too-fitting meta answer, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but I'm in awe that it's happened twice.

Not only is it impressive just to have posted 200 puzzles (and quite a few more since), but to have authored such a variety of puzzles that they can be reworked in this form without any of them feeling like duplicates of one another - and then to actually go and pull that feat off - is nothing short of amazing.

Stiv keeps saying (justifiably) that he doesn't plan to do this again, but selfishly, I hope he once again reneges on that promise, because these past two have been fantastic and I want more :)

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"That’s fine, because… qatayef" by bobble

An exquisite puzzle that fits on a single screen. The trick is fair and very clever. Knowing the solution one rereads the puzzle to discover a remarkably natural conversation loaded with hints.

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