Deduce #72: The market — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 25, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Kofi, Jude, Ines and Petra — and three things to work out about each: their fruit, hat and stall. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The grapes seller is at a lower stall than the one in the fur hat.
2. Petra is exactly 3 stalls after the dates seller.
3. The melons seller is the one in the fur hat.
4. The one in the fur hat is the one at stall 5.
5. Ines is the one in the velvet hat.
6. The one in the canvas hat is at a lower stall than Petra.
7. Kofi is the one at stall 3.

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, “Petra is exactly 3 stalls after the dates seller”: dates comes off Petra; stall 3, stall 4 and stall 5 come off Petra. That settles it: Petra is at stall 6.

Clue 4, “The one in the fur hat is the one at stall 5”: fur comes off Petra.

Clue 5, “Ines is the one in the velvet hat”: velvet comes off Kofi, Jude and Petra. That settles it: Ines’s hat is velvet.

Clue 6, “The one in the canvas hat is at a lower stall than Petra”: canvas comes off Petra. That settles it: Petra’s hat is silk.

Clue 7, “Kofi is the one at stall 3”: stall 3 comes off Jude and Ines. That settles it: Kofi is at stall 3.

Round 2

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

Silk is Petra’s, so it comes off Kofi and Jude.

stall 6 is Petra’s, so it comes off Jude and Ines.

Clue 1, “The grapes seller is at a lower stall than the one in the fur hat”: grapes comes off Jude and Petra; fur comes off Kofi. That settles it: Kofi’s hat is canvas.

Clue 2, “Petra is exactly 3 stalls after the dates seller”: dates comes off Jude and Ines.

Clue 3, “The melons seller is the one in the fur hat”: melons comes off Kofi, Ines and Petra. That settles it: Jude’s fruit is melons, Petra’s fruit is kiwis and Jude’s hat is fur.

Clue 4, “The one in the fur hat is the one at stall 5”: stall 5 comes off Ines. That settles it: Jude is at stall 5 and Ines is at stall 4.

Round 3

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

Kiwis is Petra’s, so it comes off Kofi and Ines. That settles it: Ines’s fruit is grapes.

Nobody but Kofi can still have dates, so Kofi’s fruit is dates.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #71 (Sat, Oct 24) · Next: Deduce #73 (Mon, Oct 26) · 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.