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Five puzzles a day, the same five for everyone

Every one of them is a real position off this year's American Mahjong card, generated fresh at midnight and identical for every player, so a score is worth comparing. Free, no account, and none of them takes long.

Why they are all the same for everyone

American Mahjong is not played to any winning hand you can make. Each year the National Mah Jongg League prints a card of about eighty specific hands, and yours has to be one of them, tile for tile. Every puzzle here is built from that card, so practising them is practising the only thing that decides a real game: how well you can read it.

Giving everybody the same position is what makes a result worth sending to somebody. It also means the answer has to be the answer, so each puzzle is checked against every hand on the card rather than against the one it was built from.

They are all in the app as well, on one card on the Today screen, alongside the lessons and a full table to play at. Get the app if you want them in your pocket, or start with the lessons if the card is still a wall of text.

What each one asks of you

Mahjong MiniName the section, race the clock.
Five real hands off this year's card, and one question about each: which section does it come from? You cannot lose. A wrong tap rules that section out and adds ten seconds, so the only thing at stake is the clock, and the only way to be fast is to know the card.
One Tile OffSomebody called mahjong. It isn't one.
Three claimed hands a day, each laid out in its groups beside the line it says it completes. Thirteen tiles are right and one is not: the wrong suit, the wrong number, or a joker standing somewhere no joker may stand. One tap each, and you are told what kind of mistake it was.
The Daily DiscardOne line, and three tiles that can never fit it.
Fourteen tiles and a single printed line. Exactly three of the tiles cannot be part of it, and you have three tries to say which. After each guess you are told how many of your three were right, never which, so the second guess is a better-informed one than the first.
The DailyThirteen tiles, and the pass that keeps the most doors open.
The same deal as everybody else today. Choose the three tiles to pass in the Charleston, and your choice is scored against every hand on the card at once. This is the decision that quietly settles most games, made before anyone has told you what to aim at.
Mahjee DangerFive tables, and everyone else is already calling.
Three seats have exposed and you have one tile to throw at each. Par is the safest tile on the board, and you are scored in strokes over it. This is the half of the game people skip: what is already face up tells you what is left to be drawn.