What is a Domino Search?

A complete set of dominoes is laid out in a rectangle and the boundaries between the pieces are rubbed out, leaving only the pips. Your job is to draw the boundaries back in so that every piece of the set appears exactly once. That last rule is the whole puzzle: it is what makes one arrangement right and all the others wrong.

Is this Domino Search generator free?

Yes. Pick a set, generate a puzzle and print it with its answer, with no sign-up and no watermark. It is free for classroom, home and personal use.

What is the checklist under the grid?

A tick box for every piece of the set, with the pip values along the top and down the side. Cross each piece off as you place it. It is not decoration: knowing which pieces you have already used is usually what rules out the next candidate, and a double-eight board asks you to track forty-five of them.

How do I start solving one?

Look for a piece that can only go in one place: a double, or any pair of values that sit beside each other only once on the whole board. Draw it in, cross it off, and the squares it took are now unavailable to everything around it. When that runs out, switch to asking which cells have only one uncovered neighbour left.

Does every puzzle have one solution?

Yes, and that is harder than it sounds here. Most random layouts of a domino set can be split more than one way, which does not make them harder, it makes the printed answer wrong. Measured across thousands of layouts, between one in forty and one in two hundred pins a single answer. Every puzzle here is one of those, checked by the same solver our Publisher Studio uses.

What size are the pages?

The free tool prints at 8.25 by 11 inches, a popular large-print size. Our Publisher Studio will export the same book at any KDP trim, from 5.06 by 7.81 up to 8.27 by 11.69, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior.

Free tool

Free Domino Search generator, with the answer

Pick a set and generate a Domino Search puzzle, then print it with its answer and a checklist of the whole set. Every puzzle splits exactly one way, with no sign-up and no watermark. It runs on the same engine as our KDP Publisher Studio.

Difficulty

A bigger set is harder, and each grade picks the layout with the longest chain of deductions. Every puzzle splits exactly one way.

double-6 set, 7×8. Every piece of the set is in the grid once, with the boundaries rubbed out. Draw them back in.

Two pages: the puzzle and its answer. Every puzzle is proved to have exactly one answer by the same engine as our KDP studio.

Want the whole book?

This makes one puzzle. Sign up to turn it into a full Domino Search book for Amazon KDP: hundreds of graded puzzles at any trim, as print-ready PDFs.

Build the full book

Free to build · pay once to export

Preview

The puzzle and its answer, as they print.

Domino Search Hard

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Domino Search Hard · Solution

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How to make a Domino Search puzzle

1Pick a difficulty. Choose a set. Harder grades use a bigger set and a layout with a longer chain of deductions.
2Generate the puzzle. Press Generate puzzle. You get a fresh grid, proved to split exactly one way.
3Print the two pages. Press Print / save PDF. You get two pages: the puzzle with its checklist on page one, and its answer on page two.

How to solve a domino search

Every piece of a complete domino set is laid out in the grid with the boundaries rubbed out. Draw them back in so that each piece appears exactly once, which is the only rule there is.

The method

1Start with the pieces that only fit one way. Run down the checklist and ask where each piece could possibly go. A double, or any pair of values that sit next to each other only once on the whole board, is settled before you have drawn anything.
2Then look at cells rather than pieces. Each cell has to belong to some domino. When all but one of its neighbours have been taken, the one left is forced, whatever piece it turns out to be. This is the move that keeps a board going after the obvious pieces are gone.
3Cross each piece off as you place it. That is what the checklist under the grid is for. It is not bookkeeping, it is the solve: a piece you have already used cannot be used again, and that is usually what rules out the next candidate.
4Watch for a cell being cut off. If a cell ends up with no uncovered neighbour, something earlier is wrong. The same goes for a piece whose every position has been built over. Both are worth checking before you go further.

The one rule people get wrong: A piece is used once and only once. Two 4-6s in the finished grid is not a near miss, it means a boundary somewhere else is in the wrong place.
What the answer page shows: The same grid with every domino outlined.
How the grades differ: A bigger set, and a layout chosen for a longer chain of deductions. Most random layouts of a set have more than one answer; the ones printed here are the small minority that have exactly one.
Good for: Anyone who likes crossing things off a list as they go.

Publishing a whole book?

This tool makes one puzzle for home or the classroom. To make a Domino Search book you can sell on Amazon KDP, Publisher Studio generates hundreds of graded puzzles across a difficulty curve, at any KDP trim, as a print-ready interior and solutions PDF.

See the KDP Domino Search maker

Questions

What is a Domino Search?: A complete set of dominoes is laid out in a rectangle and the boundaries between the pieces are rubbed out, leaving only the pips. Your job is to draw the boundaries back in so that every piece of the set appears exactly once. That last rule is the whole puzzle: it is what makes one arrangement right and all the others wrong.
Is this Domino Search generator free?: Yes. Pick a set, generate a puzzle and print it with its answer, with no sign-up and no watermark. It is free for classroom, home and personal use.
What is the checklist under the grid?: A tick box for every piece of the set, with the pip values along the top and down the side. Cross each piece off as you place it. It is not decoration: knowing which pieces you have already used is usually what rules out the next candidate, and a double-eight board asks you to track forty-five of them.
How do I start solving one?: Look for a piece that can only go in one place: a double, or any pair of values that sit beside each other only once on the whole board. Draw it in, cross it off, and the squares it took are now unavailable to everything around it. When that runs out, switch to asking which cells have only one uncovered neighbour left.
Does every puzzle have one solution?: Yes, and that is harder than it sounds here. Most random layouts of a domino set can be split more than one way, which does not make them harder, it makes the printed answer wrong. Measured across thousands of layouts, between one in forty and one in two hundred pins a single answer. Every puzzle here is one of those, checked by the same solver our Publisher Studio uses.
What size are the pages?: The free tool prints at 8.25 by 11 inches, a popular large-print size. Our Publisher Studio will export the same book at any KDP trim, from 5.06 by 7.81 up to 8.27 by 11.69, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior.

Short of ideas? Browse our ready-made printables for this puzzle and print one today.