Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle 397 on July 12, which was a slight level up from yesterday's answer, with a difficulty level of 3 out of 5 for the Connections Companion.

We update the Connections clues and hints daily. If the hints are not enough for you, we have also included the answers to all four questions, the category names, and the related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #396.

There are spoilers for connection 397. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on.

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 help you solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

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

Here's a bigger clue: school rooms, various words with geese, Las Vegas subordinates, hotel stays, these are the things associated with pigeons.

Now for the answer to today's game #397 connection.

Drum roll please.

For the second day in a row, we have a yellow category about schools: it's July, so why put the word "school" anywhere near it?

July means lazy summer heat, grilling, days at the beach, and turning on 40 fans in the bedroom so you can sleep. Not school. Let's go to school in August and September.

Anyway, I got the yellow category first because I saw the auditorium first and immediately looked for other rooms, gym, lab, library.

As soon as I wrapped up yellow, I saw Golden and the first thought in my head was Goose. It was a bit of a hunt to find the gray, mother, and silly.

Red and black jumped out at me and Vegas popped into my head before I saw the odd and even numbers. It worked. It would look great on the "Alice in Wonderland" set.

When I saw the title of the blue category, I thought, okay, but I was a little miffed at "dove" because doves and pigeons are relatively the same kind of bird. Still, it's a cute category and a nice way to end after all the shenanigans at school.

If I could include a school category in my Saturday puzzles, I would be quite disappointed.

I'm reading this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.4 out of 5.

Had I not tried this puzzle again before writing this, I would have forgotten about it. It would have slipped from my mind.

Strangely enough, that's why it took me so long to struggle, or rather, it took me so long: three words go into one category, and then I stop for a bit before the fourth word is clear.

In the midst of all this, the yellow category with the school supplies motif was the first one that jumped out at me. Of course, I was looking at my work desk and saw that all four items - pens, rulers, scissors, and tape - were within reach.

Actually, the purple category came to mind next. In my mind, I simply added the word symbol after each word. I did not think that they would all light up. But the clapping, exiting, recording, and walking all worked.

The blue category jumped out next, moving things between people, give, hand, pass, send.

Green became memorization; all four words mean the basics: essential, key, principal, and staple. The last two words could be traps if tied to school. I forgot to mention that I chose staple over tape, so I took the strike, but then it was an easy mistake to correct.