How Does LinkedIn Pinpoint Work?
The mechanics behind the daily cycle, how five clues share one answer, and what the game accepts when you submit.
The daily cycle
One puzzle publishes per day on LinkedIn's schedule. When the new round goes live, yesterday's becomes historical: still playable through LinkedIn's own history if available, and mirrored on sites like this one through permanent answer URLs.
Your progress is per day. Opening the game tomorrow does not continue today's clue set. That reset is intentional; it is what makes streaks mean something and what keeps the game inside a two-minute slot.
Timezones matter at the edges. If you and a friend disagree about which puzzle is 'today', check puzzle numbers, not vibes. Numbers do not care which coast you are on.
How five clues share one answer
The clues are not five trivia questions with a common trivia subject. They are five true statements about one word, written from different angles so the word stays hidden as long as possible.
Angles include: different dictionary senses of the same word, both halves of familiar compound pairs, members of a category, things that share a property, or names that hang off a common headword. Our Patterns section names the eight shapes that cover almost everything you will see.
Clue order is editorial. Early clues can be the vague ones and late clues can be gifts, or the reverse. Do not treat clue one as more important than clue five. Treat the set as a jumble until your candidate covers every line.
Why the first guess is usually wrong
English words have busy neighborhoods. Lock makes people think door when the puzzle wants music. Bank makes people think money when the puzzle wants river or tilt. The editors know the busiest path and often put you on it on purpose.
Second readings and third readings are where rounds get solved. When clue one feels too easy, that is information, not safety. Ask what else the clue could mean before you type the first comfortable word.
What the game accepts
The submit path wants the answer the puzzle has in mind. Exact spelling of the intended word is the safe bet. Capitalization is generally flexible, and near variants sometimes work depending on how the day's answer is stored.
If a synonym fails, you were probably close but not on the stored word. Try the plainer, shorter, more literal version of your idea first. Pinpoint answers lean common, not thesaurus.
Multi-word answers are rarer but they exist. If the clues read like a fixed phrase (two words people always say together), try the phrase before you force a single word that only half fits.
Where this site fits
This site does not play the game for you in the background. It stores each day's record (clues, hints, answer, explanations, tags) so you can check a miss, study a pattern, or find a round by date.
Search, calendar, and archive are navigation, not a substitute for the game. Most people who use this well still play first on LinkedIn, then open a page here when they want the why.