Deduce #81: The tailgate — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from November 3, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 6 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Dean, Angie, Rudy and Joel — and three things to work out about each: their ride, cooler and spot. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The minivan driver is exactly 2 spots after Dean.
2. The one with the black cooler is exactly 3 spots after the limo driver.
3. Rudy is the sedan driver.
4. Dean is the one with the silver cooler.
5. The sedan driver is in a lower-numbered spot than Angie.
6. Angie is the one with the tan cooler.

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, “The minivan driver is exactly 2 spots after Dean”: minivan comes off Dean; spot 5 and spot 6 come off Dean.

Clue 2, “The one with the black cooler is exactly 3 spots after the limo driver”: black comes off Dean.

Clue 3, “Rudy is the sedan driver”: sedan comes off Dean, Angie and Joel. That settles it: Rudy’s ride is sedan.

Clue 4, “Dean is the one with the silver cooler”: silver comes off Angie, Rudy and Joel. That settles it: Dean’s cooler is silver.

Clue 5, “The sedan driver is in a lower-numbered spot than Angie”: spot 3 comes off Angie; spot 6 comes off Rudy.

Clue 6, “Angie is the one with the tan cooler”: tan comes off Rudy and Joel. That settles it: Angie’s cooler is tan.

Round 2

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

Clue 2, “The one with the black cooler is exactly 3 spots after the limo driver”: limo comes off Angie and Joel; spot 4 comes off Dean and Joel; black comes off Rudy; spot 3 and spot 5 come off Joel. That settles it: Rudy’s cooler is pink, Dean is in spot 3 and Joel is in spot 6.

Round 3

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

Nobody but Dean can still have limo, so Dean’s ride is limo.

Pink is Rudy’s, so it comes off Joel. That settles it: Joel’s cooler is black.

spot 3 is Dean’s, so it comes off Rudy.

spot 6 is Joel’s, so it comes off Angie.

Clue 1, “The minivan driver is exactly 2 spots after Dean”: minivan comes off Joel; spot 4 comes off Angie. That settles it: Joel’s ride is wagon and Angie is in spot 5.

Clue 5, “The sedan driver is in a lower-numbered spot than Angie”: spot 5 comes off Rudy. That settles it: Rudy is in spot 4.

Round 4

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

Wagon is Joel’s, so it comes off Angie. That settles it: Angie’s ride is minivan.

The answer

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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.