Hoop Sort Puzzle Solver

Stuck stacking colored rings? Drop in your poles and the hoops on each, click Solve, and we'll return the shortest sequence of moves to leave every pole holding a single color.

Start Solving

Stuck? Enter Your Puzzle

Select the focused tube then tap a color — or use number keys. Hit ✨ Solve when ready.

⚠️Add some colors to your tubes to start solving.

Puzzle Board

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What Is a Hoop Sort Puzzle?

Hoop Sort (also marketed as Ring Sort, Color Ring Sort, Hoop Stack, or Hoop Stack Sort) is a color-sort variant where colored rings or hoops are threaded onto vertical poles. Like Ball Sort, you move one hoop at a time from the top of one pole to another — the destination has to be empty or have a matching color on top, and there must be room on the pole. The visual theme is closer to a ring-toss carnival game than the chemistry-flask vibe of Water Sort, but the underlying logic is identical to the rest of the color-sort family. ChromaOracle treats Hoop Sort with the same engine that solves Water Sort, Ball Sort, and Nut Sort — the math is the same; only the skin changes.

How Do You Solve a Hoop Sort Puzzle Online?

  1. 1Add as many poles as the level shows you. Most Hoop Sort levels use uniform-height poles, but a few variants mix shorter and taller ones in the same puzzle — match what your game gives you so the solver works with the right capacity per pole.
  2. 2For each pole, tap a color or press 1–9 to thread a hoop on from bottom to top, in the order they're stacked in your game. If a hoop is hidden or shown without a clear color, press ? — Mystery Mode will resolve it.
  3. 3Click Solve. ChromaOracle returns the minimum number of single-hoop moves needed to leave every pole holding one color. Step through the playback to see which hoop moves to which pole, exactly as it will play out in your game.

Hoop Sort Strategy: Keep a Pole Free

Try to keep at least one pole empty as workspace for as long as you can. Hoop Sort levels rarely give you more than one or two free poles, so burning the empty too early to consolidate a color is the most common reason a level looks stuck.
Sort one color at a time. Pick the color with the most fragmented spread across poles and consolidate it onto whichever pole already has the longest run of that color on top. Then move on to the next.
When a hoop is hidden — covered by a fog indicator or unrevealed bottom layer — mark it ? and let Mystery Mode handle it. The solver tests every possible identity for the unknown hoop and returns only the moves that are correct regardless of what's underneath.

Hoop Sort Solver FAQ

What's the rule for moving hoops in Hoop Sort?

You move one hoop at a time from the top of one pole to the top of another. The destination must be empty, or its top hoop must match the color of the moving hoop, and the destination pole must have at least one open slot. The rules are mechanically identical to Ball Sort; only the visual theme changes from balls in tubes to hoops on poles.

How is Hoop Sort different from Ball Sort?

Mechanically, it isn't — the same one-move-at-a-time rule, the same color-matching constraint, the same per-pole capacity. The differences are aesthetic (rings on poles vs. balls in tubes) and incidental (some Hoop Sort games animate the ring sliding down the pole; some let you tap-and-drag while Ball Sort tends to be tap-source-then-tap-dest). The math is the same, which is why one solver handles both. If you've gotten good at Ball Sort, every strategic instinct transfers directly.

Can I move multiple same-color hoops at once?

Most Hoop Sort apps move a single hoop per tap, like Ball Sort. A few hybrid variants let you 'pour' consecutive same-colored hoops the way Water Sort does — but this is rarer. ChromaOracle's default mode moves one hoop per step, which matches the majority of Hoop Sort implementations on the major app stores. If your game allows multi-hoop pours, the single-move solution will still be correct, just longer than the in-game move count.

Is the Hoop Sort solver free? Does it work for Ring Sort and Hoop Stack too?

Free, no sign-up, no install, no ads — and yes, it works for every game in this family. Hoop Sort, Ring Sort, Color Ring Sort, Hoop Stack, and Hoop Stack Sort all share the same underlying mechanics. ChromaOracle treats them identically: enter your poles and hoops, click Solve, get the optimal solution regardless of which app you're playing.

How do I solve Hoop Sort levels with hidden hoops?

Use Mystery Mode. Mark any hidden hoop with ? (typically the bottom layers covered by a fog or lock indicator), then click Solve. ChromaOracle generates every possible arrangement of the unknown hoops, runs the solver against each, and returns the moves that are guaranteed safe across all permutations. Make those moves, reveal the next layer in-game, then re-solve.

Why does Hoop Sort feel harder on some levels?

Two reasons. First, level designers tend to give Hoop Sort tighter empty-pole budgets than Ball Sort — sometimes only one workspace pole on harder levels, which dramatically shrinks your options. Second, some Hoop Sort games introduce 'locked' poles that release after a condition is met (e.g. a specific color completes), which is mechanically equivalent to a constraint that's hidden until satisfied. ChromaOracle's solver handles standard Hoop Sort directly; locked-pole mechanics can be approximated by entering the puzzle in stages as constraints unlock.

Can a Hoop Sort puzzle be unsolvable?

Yes, in theory — particularly in user-generated content where pole capacities and hoop counts aren't validated. Official levels in published apps are nearly always solvable by design (developers run automated solvers during level generation). If ChromaOracle reports a level as unsolvable, double-check that the bottom-to-top hoop order matches your game exactly and that you've entered the right number of poles with the right capacity.

Does ChromaOracle find the shortest Hoop Sort solution?

Yes. The solver uses breadth-first search, which guarantees the absolute minimum number of moves rather than just any working solution. Hoop Sort's per-pole capacity is part of the move generator, so the search space already excludes capacity-violating moves before they're considered. Search time scales with board size; very large layouts (16+ poles) may take a few seconds to fully explore.

Learn More

Ball Sort Strategy Guide

Beginner to advanced techniques for mastering Ball Sort.

Color Sort Puzzle Variants

Compare Water Sort, Ball Sort, Nut Sort, and more in one place.

Also solves Nut Sort, Ball Sort, and Water Sort