Sources and verification

The reference: the app

The rules described on this site are those of the Mahjong Solitaire app, as read from its code: the tiles used, free tiles, pairs, getting stuck, layouts, and how deals are built. When the app’s built-in help and its code differ, the site follows the code.

Sources consulted

• Mahjong solitaire (new tab) (Wikipedia, in English): the basic idea of the game, free tiles, flowers and seasons, and the history of tile solitaire.
• Mahjong (new tab) (Wikipedia): the four-player game the tiles come from, their suits and groups, and their names.
• Mahjong tiles (new tab) (Wikipedia, in English): the contents of a tile set: three numbered suits, winds, dragons, flowers, and seasons.

Links checked on 30 October 2026.

How the examples are verified

Before each publication, two independent programs repeat all the calculations on the site:

• a tool connected to the app’s engine, without modifying it, generates each deal shown, replays the app’s winning sequence through player taps, and records the free tiles and playable pairs after each pair;
• it describes the app’s 90 layouts and checks that each of the 4 500 generated deals has a winning sequence that clears the board;
• it plays 200 deals in two simple ways to measure the effect of pair order;
• a second program, written separately, recalculates every free tile, every pair, and every position, and blocks publication if there is even the slightest discrepancy.

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