Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #530 from November 22 is easier than yesterday's puzzle, and the Connections companion rated this puzzle 2.8 out of 5 for difficulty.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't enough, all four solutions are listed below, along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #529.

There are spoilers for connection 530. Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection.

Or see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, Connections' solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

If you need a hint to solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

These hints should at least help you find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

Here's a bigger tip: Familiarize yourself with shows and movies about the island, turn off your work DM, and consider your perspective when experiencing fame.

Now, the answer to today's game #530, Connections.

Drum roll please.

I don't know if other people's grids look the same as mine. This is because my approach is to just look at the first row and then look around to see what jumps out at me.

Fantasy was in the first frame, and as I looked around the grid, treasures jumped out at me, and I headed for the island. Love (Island) was also in the first row. It took me a while to find the last, but the shutters were hidden in the second row.

From there I quickly plunged into the blue category of work communication platforms. I start my day listening to Google Meet and use Slack every day; I have Zoom, of course, and Microsoft Teams, but I've never met anyone who actually uses them. Is it a good one?

And here I was stuck because of my own mental thoughts. I was so engrossed in the camera that I tried to piece something together with exposure, lens, angle, and perspective. No, this is a strike. By swapping exposure and position, I mean that the perspective I finally arrived at was off by one. To be fair, I should have known better, since the shutter was already taken in the island category. I could not see the trap.

As a result, the yellow category was my final selection. Publicity included Attention, Coverage, Exposure, and Press.

I read this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3.3 out of 5.

This must be the most trapped puzzle I have seen in a while. There are a lot of strings to pull in this group. But I got there.

Today's puzzle was not straightforward.

I caught flannel and oxford as the types of shirts. I found a polo and a t-shirt, so that solved it.

When I saw boba, I was already thinking of milk tea. Tapioca and pearls immediately jumped out at me, but it took a little while for the bubbles to hit the spot. For some reason, I wanted to force myself to go with jelly here.

Maybe this is what they were thinking, but Blue was thinking Sponge Bob, so we got sponges, stars (Patrick's kind), jelly, and coral. Yes, these are all marine invertebrates, but I was in middle school here.

I believe this is the second pasta mention I've seen this week as a purple category. Someone on the Connecticut staff must have been hungry when designing this week's group.

Anyway, today's was the beginning of the pasta names, with Fett(ucine), Penn(e), Torte(llini), Zit(i) ...