This week marks the public launch of CrosswordRace.com. To set expectations, this is a silly side project website, not a groundbreaking innovation in the world of crosswords. I’m also under no delusions that the puzzles on this site are of the caliber you’d find from independent crossword creators or the NYT. That said, I think CrosswordRace.com offers a fun and engaging way to solve puzzles without dedicating 30+ minutes to a puzzle or being a professional speed solver. It’s also free to play and doesn’t require you to create an account, which is nice. It’s a bummer that many puzzles are locked behind paywalls or limited to a few per day (though I understand why).

With that preamble out of the way, here are the answers to some of the questions I’ve received from early users of the site.

Why'd You Build This?

Just for fun, really. In my day job, I’m a software engineer at a big company. I usually have a couple of side projects cooking to keep my development skills sharp and learn new things. I’m also into puzzles, so combine these things and you get CrosswordRace.com.

Where Do You Get the Puzzles?

The short answer is that the puzzles are AI-generated. There is a longer article describing the reasons and methods behind the puzzle generation that I will link below.

Some of the Clues Aren't Very Good

Thanks. I’m still fine-tuning the crossword generation software to incorporate more QA into the clues. Also, I built this website with a broad audience in mind, and everyone's idea of a good crossword clue is different. What’s too easy for some may be too difficult or esoteric for non-competitive solvers.

In the meantime, if you’d like, you can click the "Flag Content" button in the arena to let me know that a clue is bad. I’ll probably just pull the puzzle out of rotation entirely.

How Do I See the Answers?

You can’t view the answers in the live arena. To see the answers to a past puzzle, you’ll need an account. Once logged in, check under "Activity" in your user profile to view your past games. Click on a game to see the puzzle, your results, and the results of other players. User activity is public, so you can also click on any user in the leaderboard or community pages to view their past activity.

I Have a Suggestion to Improve Play

Nice! Please let me know your suggestions. You can start a thread on the community page, send it via the Contact Us page, or use the "Flag Content" feature.

Many features of this site, like the ability to adjust input settings on the grid, came directly from user feedback.

This Site Sucks!

You suck.

Conclusion

Thanks for checking out CrosswordRace.com! I hope you enjoy the fun, casual nature of the puzzles here. User feedback is invaluable as I continue to refine the site, so please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts.