If your Twitter feed has recently become cluttered with yellow and green squares shared by overly egotistical people, congratulations - you've seen Wordle

This online puzzle game has gone viral over the past week as people around the world have realized that it's a) awesome and b) an easy way to assert your mental superiority over others

I like puzzle games in general, and I welcome the chance to show off how smart I am But what is Wordle? How does it play? Why is it addictive? Read on to find out everything you need to know about Wordle

Wordle is a very simple game Your challenge is to guess a five-letter word in six attempts Each time you guess, it will show you which of the letters you chose is in the target word and if it is in the correct position That's it

The game can be played from the Wordle website, has no ads, and can only be played once each day Yes, you don't have to waste three hours of your time at work solving Wordle There is only one puzzle per day, and everyone completes the same one It resets every day at 7 PM EST, but the wait is already long Still, I can at least fill my time with Wordle substitutes

One of the main drivers of Wordle's success is that social media sharing is encouraged, but in a way that doesn't spoil the surprise for those who haven't played the puzzle that day When you click on the share button, a grid of yellow and green squares appears showing the path you followed, but not the actual letters

Wordle was created by developer Josh Wardle He is the same person who previously worked on Reddit projects "The Button" and "Place," each of which were similarly brilliant (and brilliantly simple) experiments in behavior on the Internet

Wordle is a simple game, with few rules But here goes:

* Not really

Full disclosure: I'm no genius; I discovered Wordle over Christmas and have only played it a few times However, I do have an almost unscientific theory about how to play and win

1 pick a good starter word; AZYGY is a clever word and might be a good choice in Scrabble, but it is unlikely to be the answer here, and there are not many common letters I tend to start with TEARS every time; TEARS has an 'A' and an 'E' and three more common consonants in their proper places

2 Pressing the Enter key will tell you which letter is either completely or partially correct, ie, in the target word but in the wrong place In this case, I was lucky The "T" was immediately correct, and the answers included "E" and "R"

3 Now consider another word that contains all the letters you already said were correct The letters may be in the word more than once, but at this stage, limit yourself to one entry for each, unless you have a really good reason to think you know what that word is

Use other common letters at this stage as well - avoid Q, Z, X, and even K, H, J, etc Stick to scrabble and low-value letters and you'll be fine In this case, I used 'D' and 'I' and made 'TRIED' in addition to the 'T', 'E', and 'R' I already knew

4 The 'E' was in the right place and the 'I' was somewhere else Using another common letter, 'M', I then created 'TIMER'

5 Not quite there, but more letters were identified

6 among the few remaining answers I chose TIGER

7 and got it right in 4/6 moves Apparently average

It can be done But of course you shouldn't do it

But if you really want to fool yourself and your poor social media friends, open Wordle in a secret browser window, go as many times as you need to complete it, return to the window where you are signed in to your profile and type in the correct word It is very easy to

See, you made it in one guess That's smart

Wordle is not much different from many word games available on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, but it shows a fresh attitude toward you, your time, and your money

I play quite a few word games, most of which are ruined by copious amounts of ads and repeated (if not coerced) prompts to spend money on in-app purchases Lifeless Keep playing For only £299 you can buy another chance to win Bad luck - but don't worry, you'll get this free sticker

But Wordle doesn't - Wordle doesn't try to make money from you, nor does it try to get you to play for hours on end

"I'm a little suspicious of mobile apps that send you push notifications to get your attention," Wordle told the BBC

Indeed, that's also a refreshing point: binge-culture is very realistic, and like most people, I regularly finish a Netflix show or game in one long stretch over a day or two; Wordle doesn't do that, though one puzzle a day is very little, It means the games are always fresh

Will I still be playing Wordle this time next year? Maybe not But I certainly haven't played enough yet