Deduce #69: The road trip — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 22, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 6 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Nora, Imani, Brady and Jesse — and three things to work out about each: their snack, job and time. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The one with the pretzels is the one in charge of the motel.
2. Imani is earlier than the one with the licorice.
3. Nora is earlier than the one with the jerky.
4. The one in charge of the dog is exactly 2 hours after the one with the licorice.
5. Brady is the one driving at 7am.
6. Imani is the one in charge of the weather.

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, “Imani is earlier than the one with the licorice”: licorice comes off Imani; 9am comes off Imani.

Clue 3, “Nora is earlier than the one with the jerky”: jerky comes off Nora; 9am comes off Nora.

Clue 5, “Brady is the one driving at 7am”: 7am comes off Nora, Imani and Jesse. That settles it: Brady is driving at 7am.

Clue 6, “Imani is the one in charge of the weather”: weather comes off Nora, Brady and Jesse. That settles it: Imani’s job is weather.

Round 2

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

Nobody but Jesse can still have 9am, so Jesse is driving at 9am.

Clue 1, “The one with the pretzels is the one in charge of the motel”: pretzels comes off Imani.

Clue 4, “The one in charge of the dog is exactly 2 hours after the one with the licorice”: licorice comes off Nora and Jesse; dog comes off Nora and Brady.

Round 3

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

Nobody but Brady can still have licorice, so Brady’s snack is licorice.

Nobody but Jesse can still have dog, so Jesse’s job is dog.

Clue 1, “The one with the pretzels is the one in charge of the motel”: pretzels comes off Jesse; motel comes off Brady. That settles it: Nora’s snack is pretzels, Nora’s job is motel and Brady’s job is gas.

Clue 2, “Imani is earlier than the one with the licorice”: 8am comes off Imani. That settles it: Imani is driving at 6am.

Clue 3, “Nora is earlier than the one with the jerky”: jerky comes off Imani. That settles it: Imani’s snack is donuts.

Round 4

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

Donuts is Imani’s, so it comes off Jesse. That settles it: Jesse’s snack is jerky.

6am is Imani’s, so it comes off Nora. That settles it: Nora is driving at 8am.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #68 (Wed, Oct 21) · Next: Deduce #70 (Fri, Oct 23) · 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.