Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #500 of October 23, a little harder than yesterday's puzzle, this puzzle from the Connections companion has a difficulty rating of 2.8 out of 5.

We update our Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four answers along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I've included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #499.

There are spoilers for Connections #500. Only those who want to know the answer to today's Connections 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 solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

These hints should at least give you an idea of how to find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

There are larger clues. Add yellow, green, blue, or purple before each word to find the way.

Now for the answer to today's connection in game #500.

Drum roll please.

Welcome to the Connections 500 puzzle, and while Wordle hasn't been around that long since we hit the 1200 mark, it's still amazing how far we've come.

Now, how did the Connections crew treat us at #500?

I think some people look at this puzzle and finish it as fast as they tap the letters. I think some people will see this puzzle and finish it as quickly as tapping on a word.

I was the latter type and looked at the puzzle blankly. From it came Green Goblin (I'm famous for Spiderman), Green Salad, and Green Thumb.

Then Yellow Cab, Yellow Jacket, Yellow Journalism (most headlines these days), and Yellow Pages (which still exists).

Here was a coin flip, but I saw Purple Haze first, followed by Purple Pros, Purple Rain, and Purple Heart; two songs (Jimi Hendrix's “Haze” and Prince's “Rain”) are cited, so these are the last two groups It is easy to see why they were considered difficult in the division. Nevertheless, these are quite well-known singles.

Finally, Blue Jay, Blue Jeans, Blue Moon, and Blue Whale rounded out the group.

Like I said, it was a very cute puzzle, and once it clicked, I enjoyed solving it.

500 puzzles to go.

I read it late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.5 out of 5.

As I think I have mentioned before, it is always satisfying to go down the line from yellow to purple or vice versa. Today we go from easy to hard.

To start things off, the yellow category was looking for designer, haute, high-end, and luxury labeled “brand name.” I think this title is wrong, but the groupings make sense together.

From there we put together a green look at engineer and hatch, Concoct and mastermind grabbed it right from there.

We remembered Viking, Voyager, and Pioneer, but had completely forgotten Galileo, NASA's launch to study Jupiter and its moons.

It was a coin flip between purple and blue, but I was about to go down that line.

So I was surprised that purple was a game and not a spaceship. But then again, Bingo, Marco Polo, tag, Uno, etc., are all games that you play while saying the name of the game.