People Snake & Ladder – Online Board Game for 2 to 4 Players

How to Play Snake & Ladder

Snake & Ladder is a race to square 100. You roll a die, move your token that many squares, climb any ladder you land on and slide down any snake. This guide covers the rules, the ways to play on this site, and a few ideas to get more out of each game.

The goal of the game

Every player starts off the board (or on square 1, depending on the version) and tries to be the first to reach square 100, the last square on the board. The board is a 10 × 10 grid numbered from 1 in the bottom-left corner. The numbers run left to right along the bottom row, then right to left along the next row up, and so on in a zig-zag until the top row ends at 100.

What you need

• A board with 100 numbered squares, a handful of ladders that join a lower square to a higher one, and a handful of snakes that join a higher square to a lower one.
• A die that gives a number from 1 to 6. In the online game the dice roll is made for you when you press the dice.
• A token for each player. Two to four players is the most common number, though more can join in the physical game.

How a turn works

1. Roll the die. The number you roll is the number of squares you move.
2. Move your token forward that many squares, following the zig-zag numbering.
3. Check where you landed. If you stop at the bottom of a ladder, climb up to the square at its top. If you stop on the head of a snake, slide down to the square at its tail. If the square is plain, nothing happens.
4. Pass the turn to the next player.

Only the square where your token stops counts. Passing over the foot of a ladder or the head of a snake in the middle of a move has no effect.

Snakes and ladders

These two features are what make the game exciting, because a single roll can change who is winning.

Finishing the game

In the classic rules you must land exactly on square 100 to win. If your roll is too high, you stay where you are and try again on your next turn. For example, if you are on square 97 you need a 3, and any roll of 4, 5 or 6 leaves you in place. Some families play a looser version in which any roll that reaches or passes 100 wins. Many versions also give an extra roll when you throw a 6. Rules can differ slightly from one version to the next, so the board and the messages you see during an online game are always the ones that apply.

Ways to play on this site

Tips to enjoy the game more

Snake & Ladder is mostly a game of luck, since the die decides every move. That is also why it works so well for mixed groups of children and adults: everyone has a real chance of winning. A few things still make a difference to how much you enjoy it:

• Learn the board. Take a moment at the start of each game to look at where the long ladders and the big snakes are. It helps you follow the race and see which squares to cheer for.
• Keep count out loud. Counting each square as you move prevents mistakes and is good number practice for younger players. See our article on teaching children with Snake & Ladder.
• Agree on the finishing rule before you start, especially in a physical game. Decide whether an exact roll is needed and whether a 6 earns an extra turn.
• Play for the story. A snake right before the finish is part of the fun. If you want to know how the luck really works, read the maths behind the game.

Frequently asked questions

The History of Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders looks like a simple children’s race, yet it has been played for centuries and began life as a way of teaching right from wrong. Here is how it travelled from India to the rest of the world.

Moksha Patam: the original game

The game is generally traced back to ancient India, where it was known by names such as Moksha Patam (also written Moksha Patamu) and Gyan Chauper. The word moksha refers to liberation, the release from the cycle of birth and rebirth in several Indian religious traditions. The board was a picture of a spiritual journey, and reaching the final square stood for reaching liberation.

Exactly when and where the game began is hard to say. Some traditions credit the thirteenth-century Marathi saint-poet Dnyaneshwar with inventing it as a teaching tool, while other accounts place its origins in earlier centuries. Historians do not agree, and the early boards were painted on cloth or paper that rarely survived, so the earliest history remains uncertain.

Virtues and vices

On the traditional boards, ladders represented virtues such as generosity, faith and humility, which lift a person upward. Snakes represented vices such as anger, greed and theft, which drag a person down. Many boards carried more snakes than ladders, a reminder that the path of virtue is harder than the path of vice. The number of squares, and the placement of each snake and ladder, varied from one painted board to another, and some boards used different themes for different regions and schools of thought.

The die (or, in the earliest versions, cowrie shells and dice sticks) added the element of fate. A player could be doing everything right and still be sent backward by one unlucky throw, which was precisely the lesson: effort and good conduct matter, but life also contains chance.

Arrival in Victorian England

The game reached Britain in the late nineteenth century, brought back by British families who had lived in India. British manufacturers adapted it for the Victorian nursery. The name became Snakes and Ladders, the board was printed in colour, and the moral message was kept but softened into a lesson about good behaviour for children. Many early British boards showed small scenes of good deeds beside the ladders and misbehaviour beside the snakes.

Chutes and Ladders in America

In 1943 the American company Milton Bradley released a version called Chutes and Ladders. The snakes were replaced by slides, and the board showed children climbing ladders after good deeds and sliding down chutes after bad ones. The change is often explained by the idea that slides were friendlier to young players than snakes. The game became one of the best-known children’s games in North America and is still sold today.

Why the game lasts

Few games are as easy to learn. A child who can count to six can play, and the large swings in fortune keep every player hopeful until the end. It has also become a favourite example in classrooms and textbooks, where it is used to illustrate probability and a branch of mathematics called Markov chains. If you are curious about that side of it, read our article on the odds and strategy of Snakes and Ladders.

From the board to the browser

Today the game has moved on to phones and computers, where the dice rolls and the counting are handled for you and you can play with friends and family wherever you are. The idea at its heart, a race made exciting by sudden ups and downs, is the same one that players enjoyed hundreds of years ago. Ready to try it? Play People Snake & Ladder or read the rules.

Snakes and Ladders Odds: Is There Any Strategy?

The short answer is no: in the classic game every move is decided by the die. The longer answer is more interesting, because the maths of Snakes and Ladders explains why games feel so swingy and when choices can matter.

Why the classic game has no strategy

A strategy is a way of choosing between options. In classic Snakes and Ladders you roll, you move exactly that far, and any snake or ladder you land on is applied automatically. You never choose a direction, a piece or a square. That means two players of very different skill have the same chance of winning, apart from the small advantage of moving first.

This is a big part of the appeal. A five-year-old and a grown-up are on equal terms, so the game is a good one for families.

How long does a game last?

Without any snakes or ladders, a die averages 3.5 per roll, so a single player would need about 29 rolls to cover 100 squares (100 ÷ 3.5), and slightly more if an exact finish is required. Snakes and ladders change that average. On the well-known Milton Bradley Chutes and Ladders board, the commonly quoted average for one player is about 39 turns, which is longer than the plain track because the slides cost more than the ladders gain. Other boards give different answers, because the length of a game depends on where each snake and ladder is placed.

Why it feels unfair

Our brains look for patterns, and the game produces dramatic ones. A long ladder can lift a player forty or fifty squares in one turn, and a long snake can undo most of a player’s progress. Because the average roll is small and the board is large, one lucky or unlucky square can outweigh many ordinary turns. Players then feel the game is rigged for or against them, when it is simply having the kind of big swings the board was designed to produce.

A well-known way of studying this is a Markov chain. You list every square as a state, work out the probability of moving from each square to every other square in one roll, and then calculate how long the game lasts and how often each square is landed on. Because the player’s next position depends only on the current square and the next roll, the board fits the method perfectly. This is why the game appears so often in university probability courses.

Does going first help?

Yes, slightly. The first player gets the first chance to reach the end, so in a two-player game the first mover wins a little more than half of games. The edge is small enough that you will not notice it in a single game, but it shows up when thousands of games are simulated.

When strategy does appear

Strategy becomes possible only when the rules give players a choice. Here are some common variants:

• Optional ladders: you may decline a ladder. This rarely helps, though, since a ladder is nearly always good.
• Two dice, choose one: you roll two dice and pick which result to use, which lets you aim for ladders and avoid snakes.
• Moving other players: a house rule in which a player may send another back a few squares.
• Power-ups and cards: modern digital variants sometimes add items that change the dice or shield you from a snake.

In variants like these, the smart move is to calculate which squares are one roll from a ladder and avoid squares that are one roll from a long snake. Our classic game keeps to the simple, luck-based version described on the how to play page.

The takeaway

Snakes and Ladders is a game of chance, and that is the reason it works. There is nothing to master and nothing to resent, so you can concentrate on the fun of the race. If you would like to see how the luck plays out, play a game now and count the turns.

Teaching Children with Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders is more than a way to pass a rainy afternoon. For young children it is a gentle workout for counting, number recognition, patience and handling disappointment. Here is how parents and teachers can get more from a game.

Counting and number sense

• Count every square. Ask the child to touch each square as they move and say the number aloud. This builds one-to-one correspondence, the understanding that each number matches exactly one step.
• Recognise the dice dots. Encourage the child to say the number without counting the dots. This skill, known as subitising, comes naturally with practice.
• Learn to 100. A 10 × 10 board is a picture of the hundred square used in many classrooms. Point out patterns: every number in the last column ends in 0, and each row adds ten.
• Add and subtract. Ask “you are on 41 and rolled a 4, where will you land?” For older children, ask how far a ladder takes them or how many squares a snake costs.

Ordinal words and early maths language

The game is full of words that children need: first, next, last, higher, lower, more, fewer. Narrate as you play. “You are ahead of me. I am three squares behind you. If I climb this ladder I will be higher up than you.”

Turn-taking and patience

Waiting is difficult at four or five years old. A game with clear turns gives lots of low-pressure practice. A few ideas:

• Let the child be the “dice keeper” on other players’ turns, so they have a job while waiting.
• Say “your turn” and “my turn” clearly, and name the next player before each roll.
• Keep games short for younger children. Use a smaller board or agree to play until the first token reaches the top row.

Handling a slide down a snake

For many children the first big slide down a snake is a real disappointment. It is also a safe place to learn to cope. Acknowledge the feeling (“that is frustrating”), then model a calm response yourself. When you land on a snake, say “oh no, down I go!” with a smile, and keep playing. Children copy what adults do far more than what they say.

Because the result is entirely luck, no one has done anything wrong. You can point that out: “It is not because you did something badly. The dice just did that.” That can be a relief for children who worry about mistakes.

A first look at probability

Older children can start thinking about chance. Ask them to predict how often each number will appear, then roll a die twenty times and record the results in a tally chart. Ask: “Which number came up most? Do you think it would be the same next time?” This is the beginning of understanding that chance is uneven in the short run but balances out over many rolls. Our article on the maths behind the game goes further for curious adults and teenagers.

Adapting for age

Playing online together

If you play on a screen, sit with the child and keep the same habits: count the squares aloud, talk about what happens, and use the game as a conversation starter rather than a babysitter. The how to play page explains the rules, and our pass and play mode lets two people share one device.

About People Snake & Ladder

People Snake & Ladder is an online version of the classic board game, built to be played in a web browser with no download.

What you can do here

• Play with two to four players on one device and race to square 100.
• Pass and play: hand the device along after each turn, like sliding a board across a table.
• Use coins: each game costs 10 coins, and every new account starts with 200 free coins. More coins are optional in the shop.
• Learn the game in our how to play guide, and read about its history and maths on the blog.

Why we made it

Snake & Ladder is one of the few games that a grandparent and a four-year-old can enjoy together on equal terms. We wanted a version that is quick to start, works on a phone or a laptop, and keeps the feel of the real board while adding the option to play with friends who live far away.

Accounts and game coins

You can create an account to save your progress. The game includes an optional shop where players can buy virtual game coins. Coins are used inside the game only: they have no cash value, cannot be withdrawn or exchanged for money, and are not a form of gambling. The shop terms are set out in our Terms and Conditions.

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• We correct mistakes when readers point them out. Email us through the contact page.
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