What is the best way to solve a Sudoku puzzle?

Question

Does anyone have any tips to play and win this popular game?

Answer 1

Starting with the 9's, and working my way down, I first determine whether there are any obvious placements.

If I can narrow it down to 2 squares in a given box, I put my number, in very small print, in the lower left hand corner of both of the squares in that box.

If one square contains, for instance, a small 3 and a small 6, and another square in that same box also contains a small 3 and a small 6, I know that one of those boxes contains a 3, and one contains a 6. This is so obvious as to be almost silly, but it can give me clues for other placements.

When the puzzle is partially solved, I will try looking at the column or row that is the closest to completion. If it still needs a 7, and all but one of the empty squares are in boxes that already contain 7's, I know where to put my 7.

These are a few of my techniques. When you fail to make progress with one, switch to another, and come up with some of your own.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Colour code the numbers, easier for your brain to process the patterns! It is after all, knitting with numbers.

Always look for the numbers in line, then boxes. The rest is just a combination of the two. Practise and you will find out more connections between the boxes and lines.

Keep in mind that if the other two of the 3x3 boxes already have numbers that are not in the line you are working on, then the number will be in the 3 squares of that other box. That is one clue many fail to recognise.
Try practising to see more patterns.

It helps to have a good memory, Sudoku can require you to remember old clues alot of the time. You might want to mark out recent finds and new clues according to the order you find them.

Also, there is no luck involved in Sudoku, or "probabilities and possibilities." Each and every single number has it's set of "clues", always remember that! Never ever try your luck no matter how probable and possible it seems. You might get lucky but you will never improve like that.

Best of all, do this with a friend, it helps that someone else goes nuts with you when you fail to solve the puzzle. Enjoy.

Answer 4

The thing I love about Sudoku is that everybody has their own methods and while some are better than others, there is no set way.

I start with finding all the easy numbers to fill in and then focus on each separate square and row/column to find anything else I can fill in. Sometimes I get stuck, so I have to guess and see if it works out, but I always make sure I remember where I was before I guessed.

Answer 5

You certainly have a lot of answers!! I think the Sudoku is like crossword puzzles. Either you do them good or don't do them at all. My brother loves Sudoku and plays in tournaments. He has never had an error. My daughter plays almost as well as he does. I don't understand the concept and have never finished one puzzle. I have really tried but I can't get the idea.

Perhaps it has something to do with being good at math. I can add or subtract without a machine. My daughter's job is in big finance. It's just too much for me..........I stick with Answers and reading.

Answer 6

Go online and do easy sudokus. Then start increasing the difficulty and you'll adapt.

The key is not to use someone elses strategy but instead to create one of your own. You'll begin to naturally solve these puzzles using patterns that you develop after doing so many. I sucked at doing them at first, then I did one every morning this past summer and now I can usually get them done in less than 10 minutes.

Answer 7

I love Sudoku! One tip that helps me is that you look for the row or column ao box that has the most numbers. Then you just think of what numbers can go there and x the ones that can't. Its a really fun game and I hope you enjoy it! If you want a good website to get the puzzles for free go to websudoku.com I hope this helped!

Answer 8

You must be one with the puzzle, remember Sudoku means total waste of time, and do not use your eyes, place the eraser end of the writing implement in your right nostril, hang upside down from a rafter or chin-up bar, listen to extremely loud rap music, keep an apple or pear in your mouth at all times, and above all, make sure that you're wearing poop stained undies, and what ever you do, don't brush your teeth, and don't shower for 7 days prior to working on the puzzle, I know it sounds completely crazy, but this is the only way to solve the puzzle. Good Luck, and if 2 or 3 people wearing white coats, and one of them is carrying a straight-jacket knock on your door, summons them in, and then loudly exclaim these words: "I have a lovely bunch of coconuts!"

Answer 9

practice makes perfect, so go onto google and type in sudoku, you could turn really good with these tips:
Just do what you normally do until you've found about 3 numbers, then got to the first square and find what's missing, only in the first square, see if you can place any of them, if not do the same thing with the next box until all the boxes are done, then do the exact same thing with the first column, or row doesn't matter which. you're bound to find a few numbers out of that.

Answer 10

First I do a a couple quick scans over each square to see if I can pick up any obvious fill-ins. Once I've caught the obvious stuff, I'll count from 9 down in each square to pick up anything that can be figured out with few steps. Then I repeat with rows & columns.
In summary, just take one square/row/column at a time and in each, one number at a time. It's already a lot of thinking just to figure out a single number, don't confuse yourself with several at once. Not until you're pretty quick to solve the medium difficulty at least.
When you put the time together (because I'll often do a puzzle in several segments), it takes me about an hour to complete the "demanding" (the third level of difficulty) puzzles.

Answer 11

Sudoku puzzles can be intimidating and difficult to solve, but with a proper strategy, focusing on elimination, you can finish a Sudoku puzzle in mere minutes.

The first step to solving Sudoku puzzles is to try and assign numbers to cells using the 9 big squares. Every number between 1 and 9 must appear once in every big square. There is no real “proper” spot to start a Sudoku puzzle; it is all really up to you. Personally, I like to begin with the centre row. Consider the centre row of the following puzzle.

There are two threes in the first two squares. However, there is no three in the last square. Upon further inspection, it can be determined that since the two 3s are in two different rows, it leaves only the empty box in the middle row for the final 3 to fit. If the 3 is placed in any of the other empty cells, there ends up being two 3s in one of the rows. Once you have started, it is not uncommon for a large chain reaction to begin. Using this method you will often be able to solve at least ¼ of a puzzle just with this one step! It’s also quite common for all one number to be found all nine times required, just in this step. Using this method, complete any possible cells in the puzzle.

The next step involves looking at each of the nine individual squares, and to try and find as many numbers as possible knowing that every number between 1 and 9 can only appear once in every square. After step one, you should have at least one or two squares with only a couple (perhaps two or three) empty cells remaining. It is most definitely worth trying to see if any, and perhaps even all of these squares could somehow be filled in. To do this, I find it is easiest to begin with the box containing the fewest number of empty cells.

There are only two cells in this square that do not yet have numbers assigned to them. The numbers missing are 1 and 9. This means one of the two cells will definitely contain a 1, and whichever one remains will contain the 9.

Now to figure out which number goes into which slot. The empty cells are both in the same row, so looking at the numbers in the row do not help us. We are going to solve this by looking at the numbers in the columns in which each cell is located. The column of the first empty cell contains only a 2, a 4, a 6 and an 8. This information cannot help us solve the puzzle, as we need either a 1 or a 9 in either column. The column of the second cell, however, contains an 8, a 1, a 2, a 5 and a 4. Since there is a 1 in this column, the empty cell we are looking at cannot contain a 1, as that would make two 1s in a single column. This means the 9 must fit in that cell, and the 1 fits into the cell next to it. That puzzle is now solved! Here is a diagram displaying the method used to solve this square.

Continue with this method until you have added as many numbers as you can into squares. This step is extremely useful, and, like the previous step, begins a chain reaction. You are most definitely encouraged to use the numbers you have already solved in this step to continue the step. Once this step is completed, the majority of the puzzle should be finished. In fact, if you are lucky and have a good eye, certain puzzles can be finished at the end of this step. In future diagrams, numbers assigned using this method will be coloured in red.

The final step is by very far the easiest, as there should, by now, be almost nothing of the puzzle left to complete. The example puzzle could be completed in step 2, as was mentioned above, but I specifically left certain cells blank in order to be able to demonstrate step 3. Here is how our puzzle looks:



As you can tell, it is nearly completed. We are now going to complete the puzzle by filling in the individual rows and columns. Every number between 1 and 9 must fit into each row or column once. Knowing this, we are going to solve the remainder by the process of elimination. Consider the column the furthest to the left. There are two cells remaining, into which the numbers 3 and 9 must fit. The row in which the bottom cell is contains a 9. This means the three must fit into this cell, and the 9 into the top cell. Now we have solved a column!