Deduce #47: The flats — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from September 30, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

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

1. Sam is the parrot owner.
2. Sam is not the harp player.
3. The piano player is exactly 2 floors after Lena.
4. Eve is the dog owner.
5. The flute player is exactly 3 floors after the rabbit owner.
6. The piano player is on a lower floor than the tortoise owner.
7. The dog owner is the piano player.

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 1, “Sam is the parrot owner”: parrot comes off Eve, Lena and Wes. That settles it: Sam’s pet is parrot.

Clue 2, “Sam is not the harp player”: harp comes off Sam.

Clue 3, “The piano player is exactly 2 floors after Lena”: piano comes off Lena; floor 3 and floor 4 come off Lena.

Clue 4, “Eve is the dog owner”: dog comes off Lena and Wes. That settles it: Eve’s pet is dog.

Clue 5, “The flute player is exactly 3 floors after the rabbit owner”: flute comes off Lena.

Clue 7, “The dog owner is the piano player”: piano comes off Sam and Wes. That settles it: Eve’s instrument is piano.

Round 2

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

Clue 3, “The piano player is exactly 2 floors after Lena”: floor 1 and floor 2 come off Eve.

Clue 6, “The piano player is on a lower floor than the tortoise owner”: tortoise comes off Lena; floor 4 comes off Eve; floor 1, floor 2 and floor 3 come off Wes. That settles it: Lena’s pet is rabbit, Eve is on floor 3 and Wes is on floor 4.

Round 3

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

Rabbit is Lena’s, so it comes off Wes. That settles it: Wes’s pet is tortoise.

floor 3 is Eve’s, so it comes off Sam.

floor 4 is Wes’s, so it comes off Sam.

Clue 3, “The piano player is exactly 2 floors after Lena”: floor 2 comes off Lena. That settles it: Lena is on floor 1.

Clue 5, “The flute player is exactly 3 floors after the rabbit owner”: flute comes off Sam. That settles it: Sam’s instrument is cello.

Round 4

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

Cello is Sam’s, so it comes off Lena and Wes. That settles it: Lena’s instrument is harp.

Harp is Lena’s, so it comes off Wes. That settles it: Wes’s instrument is flute.

floor 1 is Lena’s, so it comes off Sam. That settles it: Sam is on floor 2.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #46 (Tue, Sep 29)

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.