My classmate in college has a great skills in playing Sudoku. If we can’t do it in the lower-end budget, it’s probably because we’done mistakes, we don’t have enough experience, etc. We have to take into account though that no, it is not entirely up to us. I want to know everyones average time to solve a sudoku and what difficulty or Level it is. Math is on my side. tHIS STRATEGY IS WELL USED FOR HARD SUDOKU'S . But the more we play and the more we notice, the better we can become. I know, they aren't really quadrants, but you know what I mean, don't you? It is possible to use some of the same techniques in Forced Choice as in actual solving of a puzzle.

The tip about the circles, vertical and horizontal bars is a great help. There is a thread open in the forum for your comments and feedback: COMMENTS.

A more complex form of Slice 'n' Dice is the technique of Double Scanning (or Ghost Slice 'n' Dice). Write it big, then treat it like a pre-printed number. As you check across that row, you see that no other cells offer 1 or 8 as a candidate. As an example, if a 5 is present in cell 24 (= row 2, column 4), then no other 5 can be entered in row 2 or in column 4; and since this cell is in Block 2, no other 5 can be entered in Block 2. For example, if I see that a certain row has only two empty cells, then I fill in the two candidates in those cells (in my grid); in some cases, the fewest empty cells may be in the block or in the column. Slice 'n' Dice (Cross Hatching) to place the 3 digit in Block 4. I didn't know that speed matter when solving Sudoku puzzles. So if these twin cells are in the same block, then the 1 and the 9 cannot go in any other cell within that block. In that case, placing the candidates in Block 9 shows that only the 5 and 9 can be used in the empty cells.

There have been times when I have followed Forced Choice for many selections, only to find the contradiction in the last possible cell. If the number has all three marks, you can be sure that all of the corresponding numbers have been eliminated from the puzzle. Thanks! I find this system works better on larger puzzles. When this is done using several different 5's (sometimes coming from different directions), in many instances only one cell will remain possible for the 5 in a given block. Each row, column, and 3x3 square need to have the digits 1 through 9 exactly once each. That is an instance when in a given region there are two cells that contain only two candidate digits, the same two digits in both cells.

In this image, the red pen points point to all the answers that were provided just by doing the initial erasing.

For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Yahoo fait partie de Verizon Media. See ... this isn't thinking. Maybe you will add some of these described techniques to your bag of tricks so that you can start to tackle harder sudoku puzzles. 2 years ago, What if each number repeats more than once.

Graph 7 and 8. It would be so nice if a long string of non-contradictions proved that you were on the right track, but that is not always true.

For each number that is preprinted in the puzzle, you will start erasing that number from the appropriate grids you just wrote in. Don't worry. Why don't you make some amazing puzzle game by yourself easily within days?

After using the penciled-in candidates to solve additional entries with certainty, you can use the Forced Choice technique.

If so, you have come to the right place. Remember to draw those lines and circles in case you get interrupted. The Technical Interview Guide to String Manipulation, Embrace Failure, It’s Part of the Journey to Success. Complications that, by the way, our competitors would stumble on as well. Graph 3 and 4. My average is around 12 minutes. I think it might be overkill for an easy puzzle. You may even be fortunate enough to determine exactly which cell will take the 3. Reply Keep going, repeat those same three steps for all the other pre-printed numbers in the puzzle. Just repeat thos three steps for each number that was printed in the puzzle. First, the word you're looking for is sector. WillStarr from Phoenix, Arizona on February 23, 2012: Bookmarked! The same technique can be used with columns, rather than rows. Aficionada (author) from Indiana, USA on February 25, 2012: Thanks, Hugh! First look down each column. I'll have a look at your Hubs and hope I can learn something useful from them. tHIS PIECE YOU GIVEN I SOLVED IT IN 10 MINUTES WITHOUT USING ANY ENCIL . Therefore, you can eliminate all other digits as candidates for those two cells. But in the end, chances are that this project, this puzzle, will regress to the mean.

Despite my experience, I can’t evaluate by looking at a puzzle for a few seconds how long it will take, but I can safely say that it will lie somewhere below the average (outliers in the upper direction are much farther away, and skew the average up). While using Forced Choice, all of the choices are hypotheses, and they must derive from some previous action in the chain.

As an example, let's say that the candidates in cell 57 are 1, 4, 6, 7, and 8, and the candidates in cell 59 are 1, 2, 5, 8, and 9.

35 minutes.

In that case, all the other digits can be eliminated from those two cells. And we are good at our job! This shows the total number of correct solutions in each time band for Sudokus.

When solving printed Sudoku, use different colors for each digit. This system allows you to walk away from a puzzle at any time and return exactly where you left off. or Twinning, etc. There's a reason it's a 1 player game, and that's because it's not a competition. Any project will probably have an average share of difficulties, and we have to consider that fact when estimating to get a realistic figure. Eliminate all the across, down and around numbers as you have already done so many times before. 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. Let's see what the result of all that erasing was. My favorite app, Sudoku 10'000, appears to rate based on the techniques needed to solve the puzzle in the quickest way possible. Since they are both in the same row, then neither 5 nor 9 can appear as a candidate in any other cell within that row. Do you want some new techniques to make these harder puzzles more solvable? At one point I made a mistake. That makes up a triplet. That tells you that the 3 must go in the top row in Block 2. This is a solution to a medium level sudoku puzzle. Once you encounter a contradiction, you know that the original choice you made was incorrect - if you have derived all of your choices through sudoku logic; and so the other candidate in the original pair must be correct and can be entered as an actual digit (as shown in the Expert Sudoku Example video).

So at some point you will want to leave this method behind, grab a pen and pencil, and get to guessing, because the really hard ones give you no choice but to guess.

If you are confident in solving easy Sudoku puzzles, you are probably ready to learn techniques that will prepare you for other levels of Sudoku: medium, hard, and even expert. I admit that I don't really enjoy using Forced Choice, but it definitely does make it possible to solve some more difficult puzzles. If you find a number that only appears in one block in a column.

In this case, the digit you wish to place may not actually appear in a certain row or column - and yet, because you know which row or column it will occupy, you can eliminate that region from consideration in the block where you are working. In this picture, the pen point points to a three. We have not yet begun to think! We figure that it’s our responsability and the client does not have to pay for that. Write it large, then treat it like a pre-printed number.

Guess what. As I have worked puzzles and researched, I have come across some other truly advanced techniques that I realize I am not quite ready for: X-Wing, Swordfish, and such. The fastest at the hard level is 7:36.

But some solvers prefer to start with the digits that appear most frequently among the givens; solve those as far as possible, then go back and pick up the ones that did not appear as frequently. Thanks for the tips. (Tip: I mark this cell with an asterisk so that I can remember where I started.). Second, all this writing and erasing is time consuming, but will get you to the end of most puzzles. Now, for that same number "6", erase the corresponding "6"'s in every box in the same column. I did try it, so now I have to take back what I said about still needing to guess. Some problems will be our fault, of course, but most are out of our control and are just normal things that happen in a normal project.

If you are already very confident with easy (one- or two-star) Sudoku, then you already know the rules of the puzzle and some of the simpler techniques for solving. If you have penciled in any candidates, then you can use this principle of twinning to eliminate the twin digits from other cells in the same region, if they have shown up elsewhere.

Time: 10:16 Difficulty: Evil. Afterwards, pay attention to Row 7. I'm pretty much "special" when it comes to shit like this, I don't even try anymore.

I'm new to Sudoku. You want to pencil in all candidates, but only the ones that are truly possible. An eraser.

I just started playing sudoku like 2-3 days ago.

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. Slice 'n' Dice shows that "1" must go either in the right or left column of both Block 8 and Block 5. 3.

Very logical way of solving a sudoku, but probably not the most efficient way.

One more scan reveals the cell. That makes it possible to see examples of "What Fits?" I was never great at Sudoku but solved several puzzles a day for a few months about 2 years ago. One is known as a "naked pair." Tough Sudokus show the most amount of variation and bleeding into other bands.

Using a pen makes it easier not to miss the entries you make (when I used a pencil, I kept missing mine and it drove me crazy), and when you need to guess you can reduce each number to a small, unique section of the number. AND I AM NOT A PRO EVEN .

even then it might take me a bit. It's like setting the program to highlight a given number. Loaded up a random Medium puzzle, because I hate starting anything out at Easy, and I like the challenge.

I'm hoping the same may be true one day about more advanced techniques. I’m an average player, I usually solve hard puzzles (evil setting in Websudoku) in under 10 minutes, without pencil markers as I like to exercise my memory.