Zero Float: Project Puzzles

Trace a critical path. Read the run-rate. Find the line that will not reconcile. One sheet a day, the same one for everyone, and it shows its working win or lose.

One new puzzle every day, the same one for everyone, solved in about five minutes.

Zero Float is a daily puzzle built from the work planners, schedulers and project controls people actually do. Trace the critical path through a network. Buy days back for the least money. Read a status date and say whether the forecast still holds. Find the ledger line that disagrees with the report, the dashboard panel you wouldn't sign off, the record that fails validation.

You don't need a qualification to play. You need to think clearly.

EVERY SHEET SHOWS ITS WORKING

Get it wrong and the app doesn't just mark you down. It opens the full working: the critical path picked out with the float on every other task, the earned value arithmetic line by line, the rule applied row by row. That's the whole point. Most puzzle games test what you already know. This one teaches you something on the days you get it wrong.

NINETEEN PUZZLES, FIVE DISCIPLINES

Schedule — Critical Path, Float, Crash It, Ripple, Level, Rebaseline, Health Check Cost and value — Variance, Forecast, Portfolio Reporting and data — Sign-off, RAG, Commentary, Reconcile, Data Quality, Trend Risk — Risk ROI, Outturn General — Connections

THE SAME SHEET AS EVERYONE ELSE

The puzzle is generated from the date, so every player gets the identical board. That means a score is worth something. Compare a solve with a colleague and you're comparing like with like — and the share card carries the solved board underneath your score, so the claim is checkable.

FIVE LEVELS THAT ARE ACTUALLY DIFFERENT

Practise from Intro to Expert. The levels bite four ways: bigger networks (an Expert Critical Path deals twelve tasks, larger than any daily), fewer tries, tighter par times, and working aids that show at Intro and Easy and vanish above them. The app recommends a level from how you've actually been performing, not from what you tell it.

GRADE AND CURRENCY

Two numbers, tracked separately. Grade is what you reached, and it never decays — you did not get worse at cost forecasting because you had a busy fortnight. Currency is whether you're still sharp, and it does decay; one sheet restores it. Book annual leave and every window freezes, because nobody should lose their standing to a holiday.

RUN YOUR MONTH LIKE A PROJECT

Set a baseline for the month, earn against it, and watch your own SPI. There's an S-curve of what you've earned against plan, float you bank by turning up, and a close-out when the month ends.

NO ACCOUNTS, NO ADS, NO TRACKING

No sign-up, no advertising, and the app collects nothing. Your progress lives on your device and follows your own iCloud if you want it on more than one. Game Center is optional and handled entirely by Apple.

Built for planners, schedulers, project managers, quantity surveyors, cost engineers and PMO staff — and for anyone studying for APM or PMP who would rather practise than revise.