Deduce #62: The movies — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 15, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Cindy, Floyd, Pedro and Hank — and three things to work out about each: their snack, movie and show. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Pedro is the one at the 5pm show.
2. Cindy is earlier than the one with the cookie.
3. The one with the soda is the one at the 5pm show.
4. Cindy is not the one at the 3pm show.
5. Hank is the one seeing the comedy movie.
6. The one seeing the romance movie is the one at the 3pm show.
7. Floyd is not the one with the hot dog.
8. The one seeing the disaster movie is the one at the 4pm show.

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, “Pedro is the one at the 5pm show”: 5pm comes off Cindy, Floyd and Hank. That settles it: Pedro is at the 5pm show.

Clue 2, “Cindy is earlier than the one with the cookie”: cookie comes off Cindy; 6pm comes off Cindy.

Clue 3, “The one with the soda is the one at the 5pm show”: soda comes off Cindy, Floyd and Hank. That settles it: Pedro’s snack is soda.

Clue 4, “Cindy is not the one at the 3pm show”: 3pm comes off Cindy. That settles it: Cindy is at the 4pm show.

Clue 5, “Hank is the one seeing the comedy movie”: comedy comes off Cindy, Floyd and Pedro. That settles it: Hank’s movie is comedy.

Clue 6, “The one seeing the romance movie is the one at the 3pm show”: romance comes off Cindy and Pedro; 3pm comes off Hank. That settles it: Floyd’s movie is romance and Floyd is at the 3pm show.

Clue 7, “Floyd is not the one with the hot dog”: hot dog comes off Floyd.

Clue 8, “The one seeing the disaster movie is the one at the 4pm show”: disaster comes off Pedro; 4pm comes off Hank. That settles it: Cindy’s movie is disaster, Pedro’s movie is heist and Hank is at the 6pm show.

Round 2

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

Clue 2, “Cindy is earlier than the one with the cookie”: cookie comes off Floyd. That settles it: Floyd’s snack is peanuts.

Round 3

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

Peanuts is Floyd’s, so it comes off Cindy and Hank. That settles it: Cindy’s snack is hot dog.

Nobody but Hank can still have cookie, so Hank’s snack is cookie.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #61 (Wed, Oct 14) · Next: Deduce #63 (Fri, Oct 16) · All Deduce solutions

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.