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Solve Sudoku (Without even thinking!)

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This instructable provides step by step instructions to complete a Sudoku puzzle by

simple process of elimination.
One of the things I that drove me crazy about Sudoku is how difficult it is to return
to a puzzle if you get interupted. This system allows you to walk away from a puzzle
at any time and return exactly where you left off.

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Tags:

puzzle

solve

sudoku

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Step 1: What you need to begin

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You need:
1. A sudoku puzzle. I enlarged this one (which was the puzzle that appeared on
Sudoku.com on July 8, 2006.) to make photography easier. I find this system
works better on larger puzzles.
2. A pencil, Not a pen. A pencil.
3. An eraser.
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Step 2: Fill in the "Missing Grid"

You see, a Sudoku puzzle is missing a grid. Once you put in this grid, it is sooo
much easier.
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Enter the numbers 1 through 9 in a "tic-tac-toe" pattern in every blank box.

Step 3: Erase "Across"

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For each number that is preprinted in the puzzle, you will start erasing that number
from the appropriate grids you just wrote in.
So the first number (in the upper right corner) is a "6". Erase every other "6" in that
row. Once you have completed the erasing, draw a line across the top of the
number to indicate that you have cleared out that line.

Step 4: Erase Down

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Now, for that same number "6", erase the corresponding "6"'s in every box in the
same column. Once you have completed erasing, draw a line down the edge of the
number to indicate that you have completed this step.

Step 5: Erase "All Around"

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Ok, last step for the first number "6" Erase all the "6"s in the same quadrant. Then
draw a circle around the number to indicate you have completed this step.
Now you have eliminated all the sixes from all the other blocks. That indicates that a
Six canot appear in any of those blocks.
Keep going, repeat those same three steps for all the other pre-printed numbers in
the puzzle.
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 Previous

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chocolateface

11 months ago

Reply

What's the point in solving a sudoku without thinking? There's no pride or

"retribution".

R6LPW

1 year ago

Reply

Using computer programmes to solve Sodoku seems to defeat the object of

trying to solve a puzzle or problem to exercise the brain!
Presumably 'broper's somewhat exotic spelling is not for real!
(who is Ible?)

nafango22

5 years ago

Reply

this doesnt work with very hard sudoku puzzles. the really tricky ones will make
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you randomly pick a number for a square and check to make sure it works in
that square as you fill more in.

amannuc

nafango22

4 years ago

Reply

I have done many "genius level" Sudokus without guessing. There is no

need to guess. If you are interested, I'll put up the information on a
wordpress blog that works for me.

AnJo888

amannuc

1 year ago

Reply

7 years ago

Reply

Thank you. Please, do that.

Snowbunny

I picked up my first puzzle and applied this technique. I failed then copied the
puzzle again and took my time. Unfortunately the puzzle was labeled "gold" or
"Hard" and I still have a few squares left with a lot needing the same numbers.
Is there some sort of "next step" or should I just "hit and miss" and take the
"keep trying approach"? Any suggestions?

amannuc

Snowbunny

4 years ago

Reply

No need to guess. If you are interested, I can provide additional clues.

AnJo888

amannuc

1 year ago

Reply

Thank you. Please, do that.

1 year ago

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flarr

1 year ago

Reply

whats the matter with some of you,this is the easyiest systemi have ever seen I
just solved the outlaw level3 times with out a hitch,simple just fallw instructions
thank you
love this system

sankalpsawant

1 year ago

Reply

what to do when 1 to 9 numbers already exist in column & row of particular

block....

sankalpsawant

1 year ago

Reply

1 year ago

Reply

man pscovio

deau_oow

Sudoku mean a mathematics, brainstorming and calculation. you are

completely wrong if "Don't even to think" for sudoku. This is kind of joke of the
day for me. by using your above 10 step technique, only simple sudoku's could
be solved not even medium, forgot about hard, tough and evils. not even 2% of
the puzzle will be solved using these approach.

iyyanar4565

1 year ago

Reply

but i need quick method

1 year ago

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kokosalexa

iyyanar4565

1 year ago

Reply

There is no quick method. You're supposed to relax and think.

iloveswing95

1 year ago

Reply

If you guys have an iphone or ipod I thought Pennypop's sudoku app had a
really nice learning curve. I picked it up pretty fast and I'm not really that smart
:P. it's free too and looks way better than the other apps.

rjvkshl

1 year ago

Reply

I find SUDOKU to be a very refreshing and mind-invigorating game. If I solve a

puzzle with my morning cuppa tea, it helps me to clear my hangover. If I solve a
puzzle with my lunch, it helps me to dose off to a peaceful nap.

Prasamsa

1 year ago

Reply

same quadrant here means??how much area is considered as a quadrant??

im confused in this step..

rjvkshl

Prasamsa

1 year ago

Reply

A square of 3x3 is a quadrant or grid. There are 9 of them in the

puzzle.

Granny Hardin

Prasamsa

1 year ago

Reply

Prasamsa,
I'm pretty sure he just means one out of the nine "boxes" in the main
grid. I guess if "nona-" is the prefix for "nine", then he'd be talking about
a "nonadrant". LOL
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I came to this web site hoping to find out where my thinking is muddled
when I get down to the same three possible numbers in any box,
column, and/or row. I can't seem to figure out how to further eliminate
possibilities. If you - or anyone else reading this post - can help, I'll
check back!
Thanks!
Granny H

PurpleKat

Granny Hardin

1 year ago

Reply

You shouldn't end up with a solution where there are only three boxes
left, and you have the same three numbers for each of them. In that
case, it seems like you could allocate the numbers as you please, as
any will be a "right" answer.
If you just have a place where you have the same three numbers
appearing in the same box, column, and row, but there are other bits
left to solve as well, try to work on other parts of the puzzle. Somewhere
in the puzzle, there's some way to eliminate some of those numbers.
You might wind up coming at it from a really backward direction, but it's
there.

Granny Hardin

PurpleKat

1 year ago

Reply

Thank you for trying to help, PurpleKat.

I think I stated my problem poorly. Let's see ... What I meant was more
like what you say in your second paragraph. When I have several
"other bits" of the puzzle left here and there, and the same two or three
numbers are the only ones available for all of those little boxes, I don't
know how to eliminate without guessing. And guessing NEVER works
for me! I'll come back again when I bump into a good example to give
you.
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Again, thanks!
Granny H

PurpleKat

Granny Hardin

1 year ago

Reply

If I could see a puzzle with the problem on it, I could tell you how I'd go
about solving it, assuming I knew how. I'm not a master at this -- just
someone who loved logic problems as a kid. :)

rjvkshl

1 year ago

Reply

You have painstakingly described a beginner's method which I had adopted a

few years back. I prefer to 'soften up' the puzzle as much as I can, before
embarking on this method, which I have privately termed as the 'slog phase' of
solving the puzzle.
How do you soften the puzzle? Select a pattern of rows and columns which
have the highest number of digits. Proceed to tackle them in descending order
of number of digits.
Once you have selected a row or column with the highest numbers, attack it in
an oblique manner. For instance, if you are tackling the upper row, you may
find a number repeated in the sub-rows. Now try to fit that number in the 3rd
row by looking into the sub-columns.
Attack all 3 horizontal rows and 3 vertical columns turn by turn, systematically in
this manner and you would have softened up the puzzle a bit. Repeat the entire
process and you'll get a few more discoveries, maybe one or two.
Once the puzzle has become soft, you can start the slog phase. It is NOW that
you need a pencil & eraser.
Don't make all entries (from 1-9) in every box. You can straightaway start with
the missing numbers ie possibilities.
Once you have entered all possibilities, start looking for singletons - row-wise,
column-wise and grid-wise. Having caught singletons, erase the
corresponding possibilities row, column and grid wise.
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Now look for pairs, triads and even in a few cases, 4-digit patterns. Having
identified a pair, triad or a quad in a row/column/grid, proceed to erase the
numbers in the remaining possibilities.
Don't forget, once you have discovered any digit, always look obliquely in
horizontal as well as vertical directions to fit it into a suitable blank space, as I
have described in para 3 above. It helps.
Ultimately you will reach a point where all the solutions cascade into view.

bobc4012

2 years ago

Reply

While this approach is good for solving the simplest of Sudoku puzzles, it is
only a start on the more difficult puzzles. Once you have "captured" some of
the squares in the more difficult puzzles, you will find a number of squares
where it looks like "guess work", when it actually requires "advanced
techniques" to solve the puzzle There are techniques like "X-Wing", XY-Wing"
an even "multi-color" solutions, to name a few. The site
http://www.angusj.com/sudoku/ has an ".exe" file that can be downloaded
(free) and is useful for solving hard Sudoku puzzles (it has a decent help guide
along with googling some of the advanced solving techniques). When you get
stumped, you can click on the "hint" button and it will indicate a square and the
technique to derive the answer for that square. In certain instances, the
technique isn't always straight forward and googling will help clarify.
One thing that is the case with most Sudoku puzzles is the symmetry. You
notice the symmetry at the start and as the solution proceeds, you will notice a
symmetry in the solution. In this case, this is where I agree with Eddie Chong
on the "beauty" of the puzzle. What I detest most are those puzzles where you
are reduced to guessing (rather than using logic and reasoning) which of 2 or
3 numbers to to choose in 2 or 3 squares and use "trial and error" to solve.
This is typical in most Sudoku magazines that have "extreme" or "brutal"
puzzles. To me, you should never have to resort to "trial and error" to solve the
puzzle. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had Sherlock holmes say "Once you
eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must
be the truth."
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10T

2 years ago

Reply

It's great to see all the comments from so many dedicated puzzle solvers! I just
started Sudoku, so using this technique along with tips from other websites
really helped me to learn the methods quickly, for example, solving by pairs
and triples. Thanks for creating this website.

broper

2 years ago

Reply

very nice
good job on you ible but one thing i want to menchon dosint this methoud take
the fun out of sudoku? i tryed it on a hard puzzel and i didn't feel like i
completed any thing when i was fineshed.
nice way to do it but it takes the fun away

parallelchild

2 years ago

Reply

I disagree... if you used this method on truly hard puzzles, even with
"notes" (as I call them) they can be difficult. A puzzle is a problem
meant to be solved, this happens to streamline the process. Goodluck
:)

broper

broper

parallelchild

2 years ago

Reply

yes thats a good point but i think it makes it to easy i mean i like doing
hard puzzles and i enjoy the chalenge but if i do it the way you suggest i
think it makes it two easy

ps
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i think the methoud you made is a good one and i have nothing roung
with it
it does its job it makes sudoku easy ( :

mitchell12

broper

2 years ago

Reply

Try cross words, Seems like you'd have plenty of challenge with those
:)

hrodriguez7

broper

2 years ago

Reply

2 years ago

Reply

you have a point

3

my dad is always sayin' that it has to be chalenging

broper

hrodriguez7

tx ( : i think the way you do it is awsom. and smart that you came up
with it

WillyTheKid

2 years ago

Reply

I try to get everybody I know to play Killer Sudoku (or Sum-doku). So much
more of a challenge than even the hard level sudokus. but still there is a
system.. always a system, even if it is complex. no need to guess!

bjohnson1

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You should only use a pen and no eraser! That is how to do Sudoku.

siamonsez

11

2 years ago

Reply

I'm sorry, but this method feels like cheating to me, and at the very least
defeats the purpose of doing the puzzle in the first place. You can resort to this
method once the majority of the puzzle is done and you are totally stuck, but in
my experience, you only get stuck because you either missed something
obvious, made a mistake, of are trying a puzzle above your skill level that
requires the use of techniques you are not familiar with.
Anyone that wants to learn to sudoku should avoid this technique because you
will learn nothing by finishing puzzles this way and therefor will never be able to
progress on to more challenging puzzles.

Eirinn

siamonsez

2 years ago

Reply

I really cannot see what the difference is? The only difference i see is
that this is systematic and the other way of doing it is less systematic.
This is nott a game of memory, it is a game of systematically solving a
grid puzzle.

siamonsez

11

Eirinn

2 years ago

Reply

The difference is that if you rely on this method you will never get better.
Once you start doing sudoku puzzles regularly, it's not just about
completing them, but doing it quickly; anyone can finish , what makes it
fun is doing it better.

Eirinn

siamonsez

2 years ago

Reply

The answer to this problem is not as straightforward as that :) It all

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depends in which way one views "getting better" and "fun".

siamonsez

11

Eirinn

2 years ago

Reply

Maybe I have a bit of ADD, but once something gets monotonous, it

gets boring. So, for me, pushing myself to do better is what makes it
fun; therefore, the two are interchangeable.

vincent7520

siamonsez

2 years ago

Reply

right !
100% !
I'm not against cheating, but it's got be worth it. In this example we
didn't even try to begin to play sudoku : may as well play pencil and
eraser on any piece of paper.
anyway the example given is so basic that it's not even worth taking
the pain to write all those numbers down : this sudoku can nearly be
solved by itself !!!

bwrussell

24

siamonsez

2 years ago

Reply

This is simply a visual representation of what your thought processes

when finding the answers. The only reason it's easier is that you don't
have to remember everything you've done. Of course more advanced
puzzles will require more advanced techniques but a lot of those
techniques are based on logical trial and error, which could be
considered cheating just as much as this method.
This is a good way to start if you are learning sudoku, eventually you
will learn the patterns and you wont need as many pencil marks.
Besides if you are just starting and need this method to solve a puzzle
there is little chance that you will know or be able to use the more
advanced techniques.

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