How many?

Tally 0

How to play Countly

Countly is a free daily counting visual puzzle. Everyone gets the same line figure each day and the same question: how many triangles, how many squares, or how many rectangles? Count every one, including the big shapes made of smaller ones and shapes that overlap.

How the puzzle works

Look carefully, then type your count (or use − and +) and press Submit. If it's wrong you're told whether the real answer is more or fewer, and that try uses up one of your six. Submitting a number you've already tried, or something that isn't a number, never costs a try. A tally counter beside the figure helps you keep track as you count; it doesn't check anything. Figures change from day to day: a big triangle cut by lines, a box with diagonals and middle lines, or a grid with some lines missing. On grid days that ask for rectangles, squares count too, because a square is a kind of rectangle. Every answer is worked out by the game in two completely different ways that must agree, so it's always exactly right.

Each day is Easy, Medium or Difficult, shown on the badge. About half of all days are easy, with 6 to 12 shapes to find. About a third are medium, with 13 to 20. Roughly one day in seven is difficult, with 21 to 35. Mondays are always easy, and difficult days mostly land at the weekend.

Scoring and the helper

Get it right first time and you earn 12 points; each wrong count knocks it down to 10, 8, 6, 4 and then 2. A sixth wrong count ends the day. Stuck? The helper tells you how many of the smallest, single shapes there are (the ones with no line running through them), leaving the bigger combined ones for you. It halves the day's score and is only available until your third wrong count.

Streaks and badges

Your play streak counts the days in a row you've played, and your solved streak counts the days in a row you've solved the puzzle. Play seven days running and you earn a 7-point bonus, or 14 points if you solved all seven. Miss a day and the streaks start again. A new puzzle arrives every day at midnight UTC.

Accessibility (colour-blind friendly play)

Countly is lines on a white background, so nothing depends on colour, and feedback is written in words with ↑ and ↓ arrows. Turn on High contrast to draw the figure in thick black lines. Your setting is remembered. There's no clock, and nothing moves on screen.

Tips

Count in sizes: all the single small shapes first, then shapes made of two, then three, and so on up to the biggest.

Don't forget the outline itself: the whole figure is often one of the shapes.

For triangles, pick one corner and count every triangle that uses it, then move to the next corner.

What Countly trains

Systematic counting. Counting shapes by size or by corner so none are missed.

Visual attention. Spotting big shapes made from smaller pieces.

Patience. Double-checking pays off, because hidden shapes are easy to skip.

Did you know?

A triangle split into four by joining the midpoints of its sides contains five triangles: four small ones and the big one.

Counting by size, smallest first, is one of the most reliable ways to avoid missing shapes.