How to Solve Cryptogram: Beginner Strategies Step by Step

How to solve a cryptogram is a question with a short answer: do not guess at random, follow a routine. This article gives a five-step routine for beginners and then applies it to one real puzzle, move by move. If you do not know the rules yet, start with the cryptogram rules; this page is about method.

Before you start

You need three things: a pencil with an eraser, the page, and a minute to look at it before you write anything.

On a LogikLand page, each letter of the sentence has a short line above it and a small code under it. The given letters, if there are any, are already written on the lines. Below the sentence is a table of 26 boxes: the top row is the code, the bottom row is for the letter you find. Use the table as your notebook.

The five-step routine

1. Read the given letters. They are the most frequent letters of the sentence, so each one is written in many places. Look at which words are almost complete.
2. Find the one-letter words and the apostrophes. A word of one letter is A or I. After an apostrophe a single letter is almost always S.
3. Find the three-letter words. The commonest are THE and AND. If a three-letter code appears several times, try THE first.
4. Look for double letters. A doubled code is usually LL, EE, SS, OO or TT.
5. Fill and re-read. Every time you find a letter, write it in all the places and in the table. Then read each word again: new words are now almost complete.

The order matters. Steps 1 to 4 find the first letters without any guessing. Step 5 makes the new letters work for you, and you loop back to step 2 with a new view of the page.

The routine on a real puzzle

This is a medium cryptogram from the LogikLand generator: two letters, E and A, are given. The sentence has 66 letters. The solution is shown beside it, but cover it and try to follow the steps on the puzzle.

1. Read the given letters. E and A are given. E is written above the code P and A above the code H. Notice the single code H in the middle of the first line: a one-letter word, and A is a one-letter word. The puzzle already agrees with us.
2. Apostrophe. The first long word ends in Q'I. After the apostrophe, one letter: almost always S. So I = S.
3. Three-letter words. GHI now reads ? A S, which is HAS: G = H. WGP appears twice and ends in the given E, with G now H: ? H E is THE, so W = T. HJK starts with the given A and comes after a comma: A ? ? is AND, so J = N and K = D.
4. Double letters. IOPPW is S ? E E T with a double E and the S and T we know. The natural fit is SWEET (SHEET is impossible, because H already has its code), so O = W. IAPXX is S ? E ? ? with a double X: SMELL fits, so A = M and X = L.
5. Fill and re-read. The long first word YQHJKALWGPQ'I now reads ? ? A N D M ? T H E ? 'S, which is GRANDMOTHER'S: Y = G, Q = R, L = O. The two-letter word AT has A = M, so it is MY. The word CJ ends in N, and AN and ON are out because A and O are placed, so it is IN: C = I. The rest of the sentence falls into place.

When you are stuck

Go back to the table

Look at the letters of the alphabet you have not used. If you are stuck on a word with one missing letter, ask which unused letters can complete it. Often only one works.

Change word, not method

If a word will not give way, leave it. Another word, with another shape, will often give you a letter that unlocks the first one. Our suggestion, not a rule: if you have not placed a new letter in five minutes, change to a different word and come back later.

Check the rules

In LogikLand cryptograms with a letter code, a letter is never coded by itself. If you have written A over the code A, something is wrong, and you can rub it out.

A practice path

Learn the routine on puzzles with helping letters, then take the helpers away.

• Easy: four letters given. Use it to practise steps 1 to 3. The printable easy cryptogram puzzles are made for this.
• Medium: two letters given, as in the example above.
• Hard and expert: no letter given. The techniques in advanced cryptogram techniques start from counting codes.

To make your own practice pages, use the free cryptogram maker: it creates one puzzle at a time, with up to five hint letters. To make a full book of puzzles with levels and themes, create a free account and use the Cryptogram assistant: create a free account.

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