In classic Klondike solitaire (the version most people mean), the tableau is made up of 7 rows of cards arranged in a staggered triangle shape.

  • Row 1 (leftmost) has 1 card.
  • Row 2 has 2 cards.
  • Row 3 has 3 cards, and so on until…
  • Row 7 (rightmost) has 7 cards.

Only the top card in each row is face up at the start; the rest in that row are face down. In many guides, these are also called 7 “columns” or “piles,” but layout-wise you’ll see 7 visible rows across the tableau.

For other solitaire variants, the number of rows can change (for example, Spider uses 10 columns instead of 7), but for the standard solitaire most people play, the answer is 7 rows.