Friday's New York Times Connections puzzle mixes a straightforward photography group with a tricky set of household red herrings and a wordplay category that left even experienced solvers puzzled.

Puzzle No. 1237 challenges players to sort 16 words into four groups of four. Hints come first, followed by the full answers.

How Connections works

In Connections, players look at a grid of 16 words and try to find four groups of four that share a common link. Players can make up to four mistakes before the game ends.

Each group is color-coded by difficulty:

Yellow: easiest Green: moderate Blue: harder Purple: hardest, often involving wordplay

The words in Friday's grid are:

DEMON, PIT, HANDS, WINGS, SHUTTER, GLUM, CURTAIN, SHADE, DRAPE, FLASH, RUG, GRANGE, LENS, PILLOW, BACKDROP, VIEWFINDER

Watch out for the red herring

The biggest trap in Friday's puzzle is a group of window coverings. SHUTTER, CURTAIN, SHADE and DRAPE all look like they belong together, but none of them ends up in the same group.

Forbes puzzle writer Kris Holt said........

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