Deduce #2: The flats — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from August 16, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 6 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Gwen, Ana, Hugo and Eve — and three things to work out about each: their pet, instrument and floor. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The cat owner is exactly 3 floors after the drums player.
2. The parrot owner is the one on floor 3.
3. Ana is the one on floor 2.
4. Hugo is the banjo player.
5. The harp player is exactly 3 floors after Eve.
6. The gerbil owner is on a lower floor than Ana.

The walkthrough

A round is one pass over the clues. Each round applies what the last one settled; every step below is an elimination the clues force, in the order a solver would take them.

Round 1

Start with every possibility open, and take the clues in order.

Clue 3, “Ana is the one on floor 2”: floor 2 comes off Gwen, Hugo and Eve. That settles it: Ana is on floor 2.

Clue 4, “Hugo is the banjo player”: banjo comes off Gwen, Ana and Eve. That settles it: Hugo’s instrument is banjo.

Clue 5, “The harp player is exactly 3 floors after Eve”: harp comes off Ana and Eve; floor 3 comes off Gwen and Eve; floor 1 comes off Gwen; floor 4 comes off Eve. That settles it: Gwen is on floor 4 and Eve is on floor 1.

Clue 6, “The gerbil owner is on a lower floor than Ana”: gerbil comes off Gwen and Ana.

Round 2

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Nobody but Gwen can still have harp, so Gwen’s instrument is harp.

floor 4 is Gwen’s, so it comes off Hugo.

floor 1 is Eve’s, so it comes off Hugo. That settles it: Hugo is on floor 3.

Clue 1, “The cat owner is exactly 3 floors after the drums player”: cat comes off Ana, Hugo and Eve; drums comes off Ana. That settles it: Ana’s instrument is flute.

Clue 2, “The parrot owner is the one on floor 3”: parrot comes off Gwen, Ana and Eve. That settles it: Ana’s pet is tortoise and Hugo’s pet is parrot.

Round 3

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Tortoise is Ana’s, so it comes off Gwen and Eve. That settles it: Gwen’s pet is cat and Eve’s pet is gerbil.

Flute is Ana’s, so it comes off Eve. That settles it: Eve’s instrument is drums.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #1 (Sat, Aug 15) · Next: Deduce #3 (Mon, Aug 17)

About Deduce

Deduce is Noggin’s daily logic grid: four people, three things to work out about each, and clues that never hand you an answer. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be finished by crossing off alone. How to play Deduce, or play today’s.