Deduce #11: The market — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from August 25, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Jonah, Nadia, Vic and Hugo — and three things to work out about each: their fruit, hat and stall. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The one in the straw hat is the one at stall 5.
2. Hugo is the one in the paper hat.
3. The pears seller is the one in the wool hat.
4. Nadia is the plums seller.
5. Jonah is not the one at stall 2.
6. Vic is not the cherries seller.
7. Jonah is not the one at stall 5.
8. Vic is exactly 2 stalls after the figs seller.

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 2, “Hugo is the one in the paper hat”: paper comes off Jonah, Nadia and Vic. That settles it: Hugo’s hat is paper.

Clue 3, “The pears seller is the one in the wool hat”: pears comes off Hugo.

Clue 4, “Nadia is the plums seller”: plums comes off Jonah, Vic and Hugo. That settles it: Nadia’s fruit is plums.

Clue 5, “Jonah is not the one at stall 2”: stall 2 comes off Jonah.

Clue 6, “Vic is not the cherries seller”: cherries comes off Vic.

Clue 7, “Jonah is not the one at stall 5”: stall 5 comes off Jonah.

Clue 8, “Vic is exactly 2 stalls after the figs seller”: figs comes off Vic; stall 2 and stall 3 come off Vic. That settles it: Vic’s fruit is pears.

Round 2

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

Pears is Vic’s, so it comes off Jonah.

Clue 1, “The one in the straw hat is the one at stall 5”: straw comes off Jonah; stall 5 comes off Hugo.

Clue 3, “The pears seller is the one in the wool hat”: wool comes off Jonah and Nadia. That settles it: Jonah’s hat is felt and Vic’s hat is wool.

Round 3

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

Felt is Jonah’s, so it comes off Nadia. That settles it: Nadia’s hat is straw.

Clue 1, “The one in the straw hat is the one at stall 5”: stall 5 comes off Vic. That settles it: Nadia is at stall 5 and Vic is at stall 4.

Clue 8, “Vic is exactly 2 stalls after the figs seller”: figs comes off Jonah; stall 3 and stall 4 come off Hugo. That settles it: Jonah’s fruit is cherries and Hugo is at stall 2.

Round 4

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

Cherries is Jonah’s, so it comes off Hugo. That settles it: Hugo’s fruit is figs.

stall 4 is Vic’s, so it comes off Jonah. That settles it: Jonah is at stall 3.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #10 (Mon, Aug 24) · Next: Deduce #12 (Wed, Aug 26)

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.