Play Snakes and Ladders online, free

How this version works

It's the familiar ten-by-ten board, numbered one to a hundred. Roll the die, hop your token along, and climb a ladder or slide down a snake when you land on one. First to reach 100 wins. Choose one to four players, play against computer players or share one screen, and switch on the exact-finish rule if you want the last square to be harder to reach. Rolls, hops and slides are animated, and each move comes with a short line of commentary.

It started as a lesson

The game came from ancient India, where versions such as Gyan Chaupar and Moksha Patam used the board to teach virtue: ladders stood for good deeds and snakes for vices. It reached Victorian England in the 1890s with the morals largely intact, and later became a children's staple across the world under many names.

Is there any strategy?

Honestly, no. Every move is decided by the die. That is the charm: it works for any age, and a seven-year-old has exactly the same chance as an adult. The only choices are how many players to include and whether to use the exact-finish rule. If you want a game where skill matters, try checkers or four in a row.

House rules worth trying

• Exact finish. You must roll the precise number to land on 100. The game already offers this as a setting.
• Roll again on a six. A common family variation that speeds up the game.
• Bounce back. If you overshoot, you move forward to 100 and then back by the extra squares.

A surprisingly useful classroom game

Because every move depends on the die alone, the game is a favourite for teaching probability. Mathematicians model it as a Markov chain, where each square leads to the next with a known chance. For a young player it teaches counting, turn taking and losing gracefully, which are worth more than a clever strategy.

House rules for adults

• Two dice. Add the two numbers and the game speeds up.
• Landing swap. If you land on a square that's occupied, swap places.
• Snakes only. Ignore the ladders for a nastier game.

The beauty of a pure luck game is that you can bend the rules without breaking it. If you want to see how the board is built, the rules on this page are the standard ones: one die, exact finish optional.

From a prompt

The brief for this game is public on its game page.