Logic15 min

Memory Stack

Look once. Remember the order. There is no second look.

A sequence appears, you get five seconds with it, and then it is gone and you are asked which item stood in one particular place. That is the whole game, and it is harder than it sounds the moment the sequence passes five items.

It is about order, not recognition. You will remember every item that was there — everyone does. What slips is which one was third.

Rounds never ask about the first or the last item, because everybody remembers those and they measure nothing. Eight rounds are drawn at random from a much larger set, so playing again is a genuinely different run.

How it works

A three-two-one count, so you are looking at the screen when it starts.
The sequence appears, numbered and one per line, for five seconds.
It disappears. Only then does the question arrive.
Pick the item that stood in the position it asks about.

Common questions

Why can I not see the question while the sequence is up?: Because then it would not be a memory game. If "which item was in position two?" is on screen next to the list, the answer can simply be read off rather than remembered. The question arrives only once the sequence has gone.
The sequence is a grid. Is position three across or down?: Neither, and that used to be a fair complaint. The sequence is now numbered and runs one per line on a phone, so position three is the one with a 3 beside it. There is nothing to infer.
Five seconds is not very long.: It is deliberately not. With ten seconds almost everyone can rehearse a six-item list into place and the game stops distinguishing anything. Five is enough to read the sequence once and not quite enough to drill it.
Do the same sequences come back?: Eight rounds are drawn from forty-six each time, so a repeat within one run cannot happen and a repeat across two runs is unlikely. A shared result link carries the exact eight it was made from.

This is a short game about holding an ordered list, which is one narrow slice of what memory does and not a measurement of memory in general. A bad run means you were distracted or the sequence was long, not that anything is wrong with you. Nothing is recorded anywhere except the scoreboard on your own device.

Okay, now pick another

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Common questions

Why can I not see the question while the sequence is up?

Because then it would not be a memory game. If "which item was in position two?" is on screen next to the list, the answer can simply be read off rather than remembered. The question arrives only once the sequence has gone.

The sequence is a grid. Is position three across or down?

Neither, and that used to be a fair complaint. The sequence is now numbered and runs one per line on a phone, so position three is the one with a 3 beside it. There is nothing to infer.

Five seconds is not very long.

It is deliberately not. With ten seconds almost everyone can rehearse a six-item list into place and the game stops distinguishing anything. Five is enough to read the sequence once and not quite enough to drill it.

Do the same sequences come back?

Eight rounds are drawn from forty-six each time, so a repeat within one run cannot happen and a repeat across two runs is unlikely. A shared result link carries the exact eight it was made from.