Know the Week
WSJ Crossword Difficulty, Day by Day
The WSJ crossword publishes six days a week, Monday through Saturday, and the difficulty climbs in a deliberate curve. Knowing what each day asks of you is half the strategy: it tells you when to build streaks, when to expect tricks, and when to clear an hour.
Monday & Tuesday: the on-ramp
Early-week grids are 15×15 with direct, dictionary-style clues — “Poker stake” is ANTE, no games. Themes are light and obvious. If you're new to crosswords or protecting a solving streak, these are your days: most solvers finish in ten to twenty minutes, and speed solvers in under five.
Wednesday & Thursday: the turn
Midweek is where the puzzle starts playing with you. Clues pick up question marks (“Cast parties?” is rarely about actors), themes get a layer of misdirection, and answers lean on wordplay instead of definitions. Thursday especially is the constructors' playground — expect rebus squares, puns, and answers that read one way in the clue and another in the grid.
Tip: A question mark at the end of a clue is a formal promise that the obvious reading is wrong. Look for the pun first.
Friday: the contest meta
Friday brings the famous WSJ contest crossword. You solve the grid normally — but hidden inside it is a “meta” answer, usually teased by the puzzle's title and a prompt like “the answer to this week's contest is a five-letter word.” Finding it means noticing a pattern across the theme entries: first letters, hidden words, or answers that point at other answers. Solvers can submit the meta answer to WSJ for a chance at a prize. It's the hardest mental leap of the week, and the most satisfying.
Saturday: the big grid
Saturday's puzzle grows to 21×21 — roughly double the clue count, often 134 or more. The cluing sits around Wednesday level, so it's a marathon rather than a sprint: nothing individually brutal, but a lot of it. Work region by region, and expect it to take about twice your usual time.
Planning your week
Build habits Monday through Wednesday, treat Thursday as sparring practice, give Friday's meta a real attempt before peeking, and budget a lazy hour for Saturday. Whenever a day defeats you, the full answer list is here, and the pattern solver can rescue a single stubborn corner without spoiling the rest. For the fundamentals, start with the complete solving guide.