Sock Sort is a free online sock matching puzzle that runs in the browser with no download and no account. Socks leave the dryer in a fixed order and you decide which peg each one goes on. A sock landing on top of its twin pairs off and both come down; anything else stacks and has to wait its turn. You can see the next three socks coming, so nothing is hidden — the whole puzzle is where to put things, because the sock you bury is the sock you cannot reach. Pegs are only so deep, and a load with sixteen pairs and five pegs leaves very little slack. Every load is built by playing it through first, so a way to clear it always exists, and undo is unlimited if the way you chose turns out not to be it.
How to play Sock Sort
- The sock in the highlighted box is the one coming out of the dryer now. The three smaller socks beside it are what follows, in order.
- Tap a peg to hang the current sock there. Pegs fill from the bottom, and the sock you just hung sits on top.
- If the sock you hang matches the one already on top of that peg, the pair comes down straight away and frees the slot. Pegs with a waiting twin are outlined green.
- A peg that is full and does not have the matching sock on top will refuse the move and give a shake. That is not a penalty — nothing is lost.
- The load is done when the dryer is empty and every peg is bare. Empty dryer with socks still hanging means the load cannot close from here.
- Undo steps back one move at a time, as far as you like. Retry restarts the same load from the beginning; New Load deals a different one.
- Socks differ by colour and by pattern — plain, striped and spotted — so a red striped sock is not a match for a red plain one.
- A solve with no undos is three stars, up to five undos is two.
Tips
- Keep one peg clear if you can. An empty peg is the only thing that can absorb a sock you did not plan for, and losing the last one is usually where a load goes wrong.
- Look at the three socks ahead before you commit. If the twin of the sock you are holding is two places behind it, hanging both on the same peg wastes a slot.
- Stack same-kind socks deliberately. Two of a kind arriving back to back can go on the same peg and cancel immediately, costing nothing at all.
- Never bury a sock whose twin is already hanging. If the red spotted sock is waiting on peg two, dropping something on top of it means finding somewhere else for its partner later.
- A peg holding one sock is far more flexible than a peg holding three. Spread the early socks out rather than building a tower on the first peg you tapped.
- When the dryer count gets low, count what is hanging. If more socks are on the pegs than are still to come, some of them will not find a partner and it is time to undo.
- Retry costs nothing but a fresh start. If you can see the load has gone wrong five moves back, restarting with what you have learned is quicker than undoing through it.
FAQ
Is Sock Sort free to play?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no download, no sign-up and nothing to buy. All twelve levels are included and unlock in order.
Is every load solvable?
Yes, and by construction. Each load is created by playing it through — the builder hangs and pairs socks itself and writes down the order they came out in — so a working sequence of pegs exists before you ever see the queue.
How is this different from the tile matching games here?
Mahjong Solitaire, Mahjong Connect and Tile Match all give you a board to hunt through for a legal pair. Here there is no hunting: the socks arrive in a fixed order you can see in advance, and the entire puzzle is choosing where to put them so the twins meet. It is a stacking problem, not a searching one.
What happens when I get stuck?
Nothing is lost. Undo is unlimited, so you can step back as far as you need, and Retry restarts the load from the beginning. There is no fail state and no timer.
How do I tell two socks apart?
Every sock has a colour and a pattern — plain, striped or spotted. Both have to match for a pair, so a blue striped sock and a blue spotted sock will happily sit on top of each other and stay there.
Why can I only see three socks ahead?
It keeps the puzzle to a scale you can actually plan. Showing all sixteen at once turns the strip into wallpaper nobody reads; three is enough to make a genuine decision about the sock in your hand.
Does the pattern matter or is it just decoration?
It matters. From level three there are more sock kinds than there are colours, so the pattern is the only thing telling two of the same colour apart.
Does Sock Sort work on a phone?
Yes. The pegs are tall columns that suit a portrait screen, and each peg is one large tap target regardless of how many socks are on it.