Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #535 on November 27, a little harder than yesterday's puzzle, this puzzle from Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 2.7 out of 5.

We update our Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints aren't enough, all four solutions are listed below, along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #534.

There are spoilers for connection 535. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on.

Alternatively, see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

If you need a hint to solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

These hints should at least give you an idea of how to find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

Here's a bigger hint: ignore the rhyme, take in the band from the car as long as it's moving, and remember to hire a sitter.

Now for the answer to today's game #535 Connection.

Drum roll please.

The rubber baby buggy bumper at the top was cute.

I thought each of the four rhymes were in different collections because it was an obvious clue at the top.

I saw glitchy and started with buggy; Erratic and spotty are similar enough to complete the yellow grouping.

Rim and bumper caught my attention and at first I was thinking edge. However, I ended up with the grille and mirrors.

Here I almost struck out on the day. I stuck with tribute (band), wedding (band), and house (band) and coupled it with boy (band). It didn't work, so I added Pet (band) which I can't explain well. Strike two; I refused to accept Rubber (band) when the other three clues were music based. I am still angry about this. I thought it was less tricky than being angry at the symmetry.

Anyway, Blue had to memorize things like babies, houses, pets, plants, etc., that I would hire a sitter for. If I hadn't been so adamant about band groupings, I might have seen this sooner.

I read this much later in the day. According to the Connection Companion, this is the Connection solution to game #534, which had a difficulty score of 2.3 out of 5.

It was relatively easy today, but it is really hard to move quickly through the other categories if you don't know what the purple groups refer to.

Fortunately, I had these items down. Start with bonuses and equity, then move on to promotions and raises as good things to get at work.

Once I thought about hotel groups with Overlook, Ritz, and Plaza, but couldn't find #4. overlook led to IGNORE, so I thought the looked down on category would apply to DISCOUNT, but forgot a bit I forgot a bit.

I got stuck here for a moment because I didn't know what purple was, but club sandwich came to mind, which led to ritz crackers. I don't know why, but I was able to flip it over to animal crackers and goldfish.

As for purple, Eloise, especially “Eloise at the Plaza,” has been around since the 1950s, and author Kay Thompson and illustrator Hilary Knight have created four Eloise books. After I finished solving the puzzle, I looked into the book and found nothing about it. The book looks interesting enough. But if, like me, you never came across these books as a child or with your own children, purple may be a headache for you. Again, I'm glad I was able to knock out the other three groups and use this one book as a memorization filler.