LinkedIn Patches #73 Answer & Analysis

Begin with the pieces that have the least freedom. The left edge supports the tall 6-cell patch, the top-right area holds the 3-cell patch on the top border, and the far-right column becomes the long 6-cell vertical strip. These placements immediately remove most of the board’s uncertainty.

Next, place the 3-cell patch in the upper-left column and the 4-cell patch beside it. They fit together cleanly only if the 4-cell region occupies the compact 2-by-2 space across the top-middle, leaving the red 3-cell region to stay vertical on the left side.

The middle of the board is divided by a small 2-cell patch and two tall 4-cell strips. The 2-cell patch sits directly under the upper blocks, while the vertical 4-cell regions occupy the center-right columns without overlapping the edge strips.

With the vertical strips in place, the center-left 6-cell patch is forced into the wide open middle rows. Below it, the gray 5-cell band stretches horizontally across the lower middle, using the only continuous five-cell run available there.

The bottom row becomes a final 6-cell horizontal patch once the lower-middle band is fixed. At this point the board is fully partitioned into connected patches with no overlaps, and every numbered region has the correct size.