Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #528 from November 20, the Connections companion rated this puzzle 2.8 out of 5 for difficulty, which is less difficult than yesterday's puzzle.

We update our Connections clues and hints 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, #527.

There are spoilers for connection #528. Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection.

Alternatively, 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, the 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.

There is a bigger clue. Practice your inner dog, don't let it flow to Twitch while you're making cocktails, and make your way through the corporate organization.

So what's the answer to today's connection in game 528?

Drum roll please.

After yesterday's brief existential crisis, I decided to tackle today by solving a puzzle before I type a word. Here is how.

At first glance I saw snarls and howls. Immediately I thought of wolf cries, then howls and bends. This is the yellow set.

Next, Stream and Play caught my eye, and Run and Air were natural finds as budding broadcast themes. Thus we had green.

I next concentrated on solving for blue; Garnish and Stir jumped out at me as part of the cocktail. Only Muddle and Strain made sense from there. Check out the blue. [Chain, ladder, pyramid, tree. In my mind, these were words for corporate structure, close enough to organizational structure.

It was fun trying to solve them without clicking, but it helped that today's puzzle was easier than yesterday's.

Late reading. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty was 3.7 out of 5.

Today's puzzle made me think, and not only because of the sudden increase in difficulty compared to yesterday's puzzle.

I recently watched a video of Hank Green solving Connections and he didn't solve it until he knew what all four groups meant. My solving method is very vibes oriented and uses what I can come up with from the board, such as chord symbols. In fact, I think my solving method is similar to finding connections by code names. How do you solve?

I got stuck at one point trying to make a game show connection between Wheel and Jeopardy, but it didn't work. This resulted in fingerprints, passwords, and pins starting a green category. Faces” was put together for how to unlock devices.

The board shifted so that Focus and Specialties were closer together. This revealed to me the expertise groups; Field and Concentration were quickly found from there.

I was stuck here because I was working through dribbling, wheels, elbows and basketball associations, but had to admit I was overthinking.

Nevertheless, the wheel and elbow stuck with me, and I finally made the pasta-noodle connection organically. For some reason, I can barely remember what pasta looks like. A wheel of cheese, an ear of corn, a ribbon of beef ....... From there I finally arrived at pasta.

Then double spy, double dribble, double jeopardy, and double standard became stuffing for memorization. Cute.