Pattern lock design ideas: letters, shapes & strong patterns
A gallery of Android unlock patterns, each with the score PatternGuard’s analyzer gives it. You’ll find letters, shapes, the patterns worth avoiding, high-scoring examples on 3×3 and random examples on 4×4 and 5×5.
Tap Try to open a pattern in the simulator and see its full analysis (length, crossings, direction changes, starting point), or Save to keep it handy for your next visit.
Letter-shaped patterns
On Android a dot can’t be reused. These are the 12 letters that work best in a single stroke on the 3×3 grid: C, G, J, M, N, O, S, T, U, V, W and Z (L is further down, with the common patterns). Because Android lets the stroke pass back over a dot you already used, others like F, P or R can be drawn exactly too; letters like A, B, D, E, H, K or X can only be approximated. See every letter from A to Z step by step, or the numbers 0 to 9.
Look at the scores: all of them start in a corner and none has any crossings, two traits that count against a pattern in this analysis. That’s why they score between 5 and 20 (“Very weak”). The starting dot matters: the same O drawn from the middle of a side instead of the corner goes from 14 to 28.
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Letter C
7 dots
3→2→ 1→ 4→ 7→ 8→ 9 -
Letter G
9 dots
3→2→ 1→ 4→ 7→ 8→ 9→ 6→ 5 -
Letter J
5 dots
1→2→ 5→ 8→ 7 -
Letter M
7 dots
7→4→ 1→ 5→ 3→ 6→ 9 -
Letter N
7 dots
7→4→ 1→ 5→ 9→ 6→ 3 -
Letter O
8 dots
1→2→ 3→ 6→ 9→ 8→ 7→ 4 -
Letter S
9 dots
3→2→ 1→ 4→ 5→ 6→ 9→ 8→ 7 -
Letter T
5 dots
1→2→ 3→ 5→ 8 -
Letter U
7 dots
1→4→ 7→ 8→ 9→ 6→ 3 -
Letter V
5 dots
1→4→ 8→ 6→ 3 -
Letter W
7 dots
1→4→ 7→ 5→ 9→ 6→ 3 -
Letter Z
7 dots
1→2→ 3→ 5→ 7→ 8→ 9
Shapes and figures
A star, a spiral, a snake, a staircase, and an open diamond and triangle: recognizable shapes you can draw from memory. The star is the only one in this group with lines that cross each other (3): with just 6 dots it scores 20, the same as the 9-dot spiral and snake with no crossings (20).
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Star
6 dots
7→2→ 9→ 4→ 5→ 6 -
Spiral
9 dots
1→2→ 3→ 6→ 9→ 8→ 7→ 4→ 5 -
Vertical snake
9 dots
1→4→ 7→ 8→ 5→ 2→ 3→ 6→ 9 -
Staircase
5 dots
1→2→ 5→ 6→ 9 -
Open diamond
4 dots
2→4→ 8→ 6 -
Open triangle
4 dots
7→2→ 9→ 8
The most common patterns (best avoided)
PatternGuard’s analyzer treats rows, columns, diagonals, the letter L and the all-nine-dots reading-order sweep as common patterns, in either direction. Their rotations and mirror images also count as common, and they are flagged even when they use all nine dots. With all their variants they make 16 patterns of 4+ dots (the only kind Android allows), and none scores above 12/100. Here are six of them.
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Letter L
5 dots
1→4→ 7→ 8→ 9 -
Reversed L
5 dots
9→8→ 7→ 4→ 1 -
Γ corner
5 dots
1→2→ 3→ 6→ 9 -
Reversed Γ
5 dots
9→6→ 3→ 2→ 1 -
All dots, reading order
9 dots
1→2→ 3→ 4→ 5→ 6→ 7→ 8→ 9 -
All dots, reverse order
9 dots
9→8→ 7→ 6→ 5→ 4→ 3→ 2→ 1
High-scoring examples in 3×3
Of the 389,112 possible 3×3 patterns, 14.2% (55,264) reach 80 or more (“Very strong”) in our analysis. These six examples were picked from them with a fixed seed: they have 8 or 9 dots, start on an edge or in the center, and score between 80 and 92. They are not the best possible, and not a recommendation.
A strong pattern stops being strong if many people use it. The ones in this gallery are public examples, so don’t copy them: the safest choice is your own, different pattern, checked in the simulator. A high score doesn’t guarantee real-world safety either, and a pattern you can’t repeat without thinking is worse than a simpler one you actually remember.
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Very strong example 1
9 dots
2→5→ 9→ 8→ 4→ 3→ 6→ 7→ 1 -
Very strong example 2
9 dots
5→3→ 8→ 9→ 2→ 6→ 4→ 1→ 7 -
Very strong example 3
8 dots
6→7→ 2→ 9→ 3→ 8→ 1→ 5 -
Very strong example 4
8 dots
5→9→ 4→ 7→ 3→ 8→ 1→ 6 -
Very strong example 5
9 dots
8→1→ 6→ 7→ 5→ 3→ 4→ 9→ 2 -
Very strong example 6
9 dots
5→3→ 7→ 8→ 2→ 6→ 4→ 1→ 9
4×4 and 5×5 grids
Stock Android uses the 3×3 grid; bigger ones show up in some custom ROMs, but the simulator supports them so you can see how the combinations grow. Full spirals and snakes have no crossings and score 26 (4×4) and 30 (5×5). The random examples were generated with a fixed seed, among the patterns that score 80 to 92; they have 13 and 15 dots (counting the middle dots Android adds by itself) and score 85 and 92. On 4×4 and 5×5 the score uses a 9-point grid as its reference, just like 3×3.
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4×4 spiral
16 dots
1→2→ 3→ 4→ 8→ 12→ 16→ 15→ 14→ 13→ 9→ 5→ 6→ 7→ 11→ 10 -
4×4 snake
16 dots
1→5→ 9→ 13→ 14→ 10→ 6→ 2→ 3→ 7→ 11→ 15→ 16→ 12→ 8→ 4 -
4×4 random example
13 dots
15→11→ 7→ 3→ 2→ 1→ 10→ 6→ 12→ 8→ 5→ 9→ 13 -
5×5 spiral
25 dots
1→2→ 3→ 4→ 5→ 10→ 15→ 20→ 25→ 24→ 23→ 22→ 21→ 16→ 11→ 6→ 7→ 8→ 9→ 14→ 19→ 18→ 17→ 12→ 13 -
5×5 random example
15 dots
23→18→ 13→ 8→ 24→ 17→ 22→ 12→ 7→ 19→ 25→ 9→ 4→ 3→ 2
Android rules used in this gallery
- A pattern uses between 4 and 9 dots on the 3×3 grid.
- No dot can be used twice.
- If the stroke passes over a dot that hasn’t been used yet, Android adds it automatically (so the sequence can have more dots than you drew).
Heads up: a pattern that appears in a gallery is, by definition, a known pattern. A strong pattern stops being strong if many people use it. Use these as inspiration, don’t copy them: the safest choice is your own, different pattern, checked in the simulator.
How many 3×3 patterns are there?
Counted one by one applying Android’s rules, these are all the valid patterns on the 3×3 grid:
| Dots | Possible patterns |
|---|---|
| 4 | 1,624 |
| 5 | 7,152 |
| 6 | 26,016 |
| 7 | 72,912 |
| 8 | 140,704 |
| 9 | 140,704 |
| Total | 389,112 |
Pattern lock FAQ
What are the most common pattern locks?
Simple sweeps: rows, columns and diagonals, the letter L, and all nine dots in reading order. PatternGuard’s analyzer flags them as common and penalizes them (they’re in the common patterns section above). Where you start matters too: in published studies corners are the most used starting dots (the top-left corner at around 44% in a study with 800 participants), so in our analysis starting in a corner counts against you a lot (a project rule based on those studies, with no data of our own; edges and the center score the same): the same stroke drawn from an edge or the center scores 19 points higher on average.
Can I use a pattern from this gallery?
Better not to copy it as-is. Any published pattern is a known pattern, and a strong one stops being strong if many people use it. The safest choice is your own, different pattern, measured in the simulator, where the analysis is calculated in your own browser.
Can any letter be drawn as a pattern lock?
Not all of them. Android requires at least 4 dots and doesn’t let you select any dot twice. It does let the stroke pass back over a dot you already used, so letters like F, P or R can be traced exactly, but shapes like A, B, D, E, H, K, O or X can only be approximated on the 3×3 grid. Every letter, step by step.
How many pattern lock combinations are there?
A 3×3 grid has 389,112 valid patterns of 4 to 9 dots. You can see the breakdown by number of dots in the table above.
How do I set a pattern lock on Android?
In Settings, look for “Screen lock” (depending on the brand and version it’s under Security, Security & privacy or Lock screen) and choose “Pattern”. Menu names and locations vary by brand and Android version.