LinkedIn Patches #133 Answer & Analysis

The top-left 5 is a corner clue, so it is naturally forced into a horizontal strip along the top row. The nearby 5 in the upper-middle also wants horizontal space, so the first two rows become stacked 5-cell bands without overlap.

The red 5 in the middle row also resolves as a horizontal strip, which creates a clean three-band pattern at the top of the grid. At the same time, the 5 on the far right is forced into a vertical corridor, because that is the only connected 5-cell space left on the edge.

The 3 in the lower-left corner area is forced straight down the left edge, because turning it inward would steal space from the other lower patches. That leaves two compact 2x2 regions in the center: one for the green 4 and one for the purple 4. This is the key step that divides the lower half of the board cleanly.

The last 5 is the easiest cleanup step. Once the left edge and the center are occupied, the only way to place the bottom-right 5 is as a horizontal strip across the bottom row, filling the remaining five cells and completing the grid.

The solved layout is valid because every numbered patch has the correct size, each patch stays connected, no two patches overlap, and the entire 6x6 board is filled. In the final answer, the top three rows form three horizontal 5-cell bands, the right edge becomes a vertical 5-cell strip, the lower-left becomes a 3-cell strip, the center holds two 2x2 4-cell blocks, and the bottom row finishes the last 5.