Tower of Hanoi
Puzzle · 16 playsTower of Hanoi
Move the whole tower, one disc at a time — never big on small.
About Tower of Hanoi
The mathematician's puzzle from 1883, still the cleanest brain-teaser ever built. Shift the entire tower of discs to the right-hand peg, moving one disc at a time and never placing a larger disc on a smaller one. Three discs take seven moves; each extra disc doubles the job. Climb from three discs to eight and feel your brain learn the pattern. Free to play in your browser — no download, no sign-up.
How to Play
Tap a peg to pick up its top disc, tap another to drop it. A disc may never sit on a smaller disc. Rebuild the whole tower on the right peg in as few moves as possible.
Tips & Strategy
The recursive insight: to move a tower of N, move the top N-1 out of the way, shift the big base disc, then bring the N-1 back on top of it.
First move matters: with an odd number of discs, move the small disc to the target peg; with an even number, to the spare peg. Get it wrong and perfection is gone.
A slick shortcut: move the smallest disc every second turn, always cycling it in the same direction. The in-between moves are then forced.
The minimum is 2ⁿ−1 moves — 7, 15, 31, 63… Matching it on five discs from memory is a genuine feat.