The four groups

  • Git merge strategies

    OURS · THEIRS · RECURSIVE · OCTOPUS

  • Default-branch names through history

    MASTER · MAIN · TRUNK · DEVELOP

    GitFlow's develop, SVN-era trunk, classic git master, modern git main.

  • Git 'undo' verbs

    RESET · REVERT · CHECKOUT · RESTORE

  • Words paired with HEAD

    DETACHED · OVER · BULK · RED

    Detached HEAD (git state), overhead, bulkhead, redhead.

Why this puzzle works

DETACHED is the half-fake — it's *literally* a git state ('detached HEAD'), and that's exactly why it lands in the wordplay group. The puzzle author cheats by making the wordplay group's first member be a real technical term that happens to fit the pattern, then padding with three plainer compounds (overhead, bulkhead, redhead). Difficulty-4: blue's four undo verbs are easy to mistake for merge strategies if you've never run them, since they all 'undo something'.

How to read a Connectle without solving it

A code-themed grouping puzzle rewards counting as much as recognition. Start by listing every plausible group, then notice which tiles appear in two lists. Whichever group has exactly four unambiguous members is your anchor — solve it first and the rest of the board collapses by elimination. The hardest tier (purple) is almost always wordplay: tiles that share a prefix or suffix, not a concept. If a tile feels orphaned, ask whether the same word could follow or precede a common engineering word like root, stack, cache, or queue.