**NYT Connections Puzzle Hints and Answers for Nov. 16**

For avid players of the New York Times Connections puzzle, here's a roundup of hints and answers for puzzle No. 524, dated Nov. 16. If you’re hooked on Connections and want some tips and solutions, stay tuned!

Unlike Wordle, which tests your vocabulary, Connections presents a brainteasing challenge. Players are given 16 words and must organize them into four separate groups based on their connections. While some groupings might be straightforward, the game’s editor, Wyna Liu, often crafts clever tricks by using words that could fit into multiple categories.

In addition to gameplay, there's also exciting news for Connections fans. The New York Times has introduced a Connections Bot. Similar to the bot for Wordle, this new feature will analyze your answers and give you a numeric score after you play. Players registered with the Times Games section can track their progress, including puzzles completed, win rate, perfect scores achieved, and their winning streak.

To play, you need to look at the 16 words and mentally categorize them into related groups of four. Each group is color-coded by difficulty, from yellow (easiest) to purple (most challenging). The key is to carefully analyze the words and identify terms that share a connection. Sometimes, connections hinge on a part of a word, as seen in past puzzles where words starting with band names were grouped together.

Here are today's hints, organized by difficulty:

- **Yellow group hint:** Protect from water.
- **Green group hint:** Baseball cap is one.
- **Blue group hint:** Golden Gopher is one.
- **Purple group hint:** Not stop, but...

To save you the suspense, the answers are as follows:

- **Yellow group:** Things that prevent leaks – cap, cover, plug, seal.
- **Green group:** Kinds of hats – beret, derby, pillbox, snapback.
- **Blue group:** College football team members – Gator, Sooner, Volunteer, Wolverine.
- **Purple group:** Go ____ – bananas, commando, figure, rogue.

Dive into the Connections challenge and see how quickly you can find common threads among the words. Happy puzzling!