NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, August 25 (game #540)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today's game' while others are playing ‘yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, August 24 (game #539).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #540) – hint #1 – today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Back to school

NYT Strands today (game #540) – hint #2 – clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

BACK
SOLO
STOKE
TALL
LAST
CORK

NYT Strands today (game #540) – hint #3 – spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 8 letters

NYT Strands today (game #540) – hint #4 – spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: right, 5th row

Last side: left, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #540) – the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #540, are…

LAPTOP
NOTEBOOKS
FOLDERS
BACKPACK
CALCULATOR
SPANGRAM: SUPPLIES

My rating: Hard
My score: Perfect

I had a bit of a back-to-front day today tapping out “top” and “lap” before I saw we were searching for LAPTOP and tapping out “book” and “note” before seeing NOTEBOOKS.

I just about got through without using a hint although I was sorely tempted after a slow start.

You will never need as many SUPPLIES for the rest of your life as you do at school. Well for your first day of school anyway. After the first week you wise up and realize you don’t have to fill your gigantic BACKPACK with every single piece of stationery item you may possibly need for the next decade.