Deduce #74: The car show — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 27, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Laura, Kira, Gary and Derek — and three things to work out about each: their car, paint and row. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Derek is the one who brought the roadster.
2. The one with the orange paint is in a lower-numbered row than the one who brought the limo.
3. Derek is exactly 3 rows after the one with the purple paint.
4. Gary is not the one who brought the limo.
5. The one who brought the sedan is not the one in row 2.
6. Derek is not the one with the mint paint.
7. Kira is the one with the orange paint.

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, “Derek is the one who brought the roadster”: roadster comes off Laura, Kira and Gary. That settles it: Derek’s car is roadster.

Clue 3, “Derek is exactly 3 rows after the one with the purple paint”: purple comes off Derek; row 1, row 2 and row 3 come off Derek. That settles it: Derek is in row 4.

Clue 4, “Gary is not the one who brought the limo”: limo comes off Gary.

Clue 6, “Derek is not the one with the mint paint”: mint comes off Derek.

Clue 7, “Kira is the one with the orange paint”: orange comes off Laura, Gary and Derek. That settles it: Kira’s paint is orange and Derek’s paint is yellow.

Round 2

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

Yellow is Derek’s, so it comes off Laura and Gary.

row 4 is Derek’s, so it comes off Laura, Kira and Gary.

Clue 2, “The one with the orange paint is in a lower-numbered row than the one who brought the limo”: limo comes off Kira; row 1 comes off Laura; row 3 comes off Kira.

Clue 3, “Derek is exactly 3 rows after the one with the purple paint”: purple comes off Laura; row 2 and row 3 come off Gary. That settles it: Laura’s paint is mint and Gary is in row 1.

Round 3

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

Nobody but Laura can still have limo, so Laura’s car is limo.

Mint is Laura’s, so it comes off Gary. That settles it: Gary’s paint is purple.

row 1 is Gary’s, so it comes off Kira. That settles it: Kira is in row 2.

Nobody but Laura can still have row 3, so Laura is in row 3.

Clue 5, “The one who brought the sedan is not the one in row 2”: sedan comes off Kira. That settles it: Kira’s car is coupe.

Round 4

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

Coupe is Kira’s, so it comes off Gary. That settles it: Gary’s car is sedan.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #73 (Mon, Oct 26) · Next: Deduce #75 (Wed, Oct 28) · 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.