Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #396 from July 11, a little easier than yesterday's answer, this puzzle from Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 2.4 out of 5.

We update our Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints are not enough, see the four answers below, along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #395.

There are spoilers for connection 396. 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 starting word in Wordle as the strategy, the Connections solution requires you to identify 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 will help 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:

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.

There is a bigger clue. I wanted to write something clever, but honestly. Think school, add a symbol at the end of the four words, think of a word that means sharing. And what's a word that means basic or necessary.

So what is the answer to today's connection in game #396?

Drum roll please.

If I hadn't done this puzzle before writing this, I might have forgotten about it. It slips my mind.

Strangely enough, that's why it took me so long to struggle with it, or rather, it took me so long; I'd put three words in one category and then stop for a second before the fourth word was clear.

In the process, 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.

In fact, the purple category came to mind next. In my mind, all I had to do was add 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 popped up next, moving things between people, giving, handing, passing, sending.

Green became memorization; all four words mean the basics: essential, key, principal, and staple. The last two words could be traps that remind one of 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.

I am reading this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty was 2.7 out of 5.

I don't think I was the last to win the yellow category. In my Connections career, I have been next to last several times, but never in the final completed category.

I chose Forecasts, Prospects, and Prospects first so I didn't have to. I don't know why I stopped, but as I was moving to the last "opportunity," yellow, I saw a back-talking connection. Instead, I cleared it and hit Attitude, Cheek, Lip, Sass. Very crossword-y.

I grew up wearing glasses because of my astigmatism, but instead of going back to yellow, I jumped to purple, which includes the parts of glasses: bridge, lenses, rims, and temples. It was pretty obvious.

The way the grid fell quickly became fukase, perch, and pike next to each other. After that, grabbing the bass was easy.

And of course, yellow became a memorized fill from there.