Deduce #83: Bonfire Night — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from November 5, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Bea, Ida, Eve and Cora — and three things to work out about each: their food, scarf and time. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Cora is earlier than the one eating sausages.
2. The one eating chili is not the one arriving at 6pm.
3. Ida is the one in the purple scarf.
4. Bea is the one eating toffee.
5. Eve is the one eating chili.
6. The one eating sausages is earlier than the one in the blue scarf.
7. The one in the yellow scarf is earlier than Cora.

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, “Cora is earlier than the one eating sausages”: sausages comes off Cora; 9pm comes off Cora.

Clue 3, “Ida is the one in the purple scarf”: purple comes off Bea, Eve and Cora. That settles it: Ida’s scarf is purple.

Clue 4, “Bea is the one eating toffee”: toffee comes off Ida, Eve and Cora. That settles it: Bea’s food is toffee.

Clue 5, “Eve is the one eating chili”: chili comes off Ida and Cora. That settles it: Eve’s food is chili and Cora’s food is soup.

Clue 6, “The one eating sausages is earlier than the one in the blue scarf”: 9pm comes off Ida.

Clue 7, “The one in the yellow scarf is earlier than Cora”: yellow comes off Cora; 6pm comes off Cora.

Round 2

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

Soup is Cora’s, so it comes off Ida. That settles it: Ida’s food is sausages.

Clue 1, “Cora is earlier than the one eating sausages”: 6pm and 7pm come off Ida; 8pm comes off Cora. That settles it: Ida is arriving at 8pm and Cora is arriving at 7pm.

Clue 2, “The one eating chili is not the one arriving at 6pm”: 6pm comes off Eve.

Clue 6, “The one eating sausages is earlier than the one in the blue scarf”: blue comes off Cora. That settles it: Cora’s scarf is red.

Clue 7, “The one in the yellow scarf is earlier than Cora”: yellow comes off Eve; 7pm, 8pm and 9pm come off Bea. That settles it: Bea is arriving at 6pm.

Round 3

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

Red is Cora’s, so it comes off Bea and Eve. That settles it: Eve’s scarf is blue.

Nobody but Bea can still have yellow, so Bea’s scarf is yellow.

8pm is Ida’s, so it comes off Eve.

7pm is Cora’s, so it comes off Eve. That settles it: Eve is arriving at 9pm.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #82 (Wed, Nov 4) · Next: Deduce #84 (Fri, Nov 6) · 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.