3 Sudoku Tips That Will Help You Solve Puzzles

Would a few Sudoku tips help you solve this puzzle? Many people have difficulty solving even the easiest puzzles. If you are one, or you know someone that has trouble, here are a few tips to increase your solving success.

Sudoku Tip #1 - Where Do You Start

Do you wonder where is the best place to start solving Sudoku? You can start anywhere, but some places are better than others. Some people like to examine a row, column, or 3x3 grid where there are four or more numbers already placed. There is a good chance that you might solve a cell or two here.

I like to use the scanning method to check for cells that only have naked and hidden singles. Some Sudoku solvers call this technique slicing and dicing. The idea is to eliminate cells that can contain the searched number by observing the location of that number in other rows, or columns. If you have enough instances of the same number, you will be left with one cell that must contain that number.

Sudoku Tip #2 - Be Consistent

When using a technique like scanning, you should be consistent. You need to try every number. You can start with the number one, and try that number. Then go to two, and so on until you have tried all nine numbers.

After you have tried all nine numbers, scan again using all nine numbers. Do this as long as you are solving cells.

Sudoku Tip #3 - Find All Possible Candidates

Many Sudoku tips require you to find all the possible candidates for each cell. Doing so you can quickly view every cell to see if you missed a naked single, a single candidate of any number.

Once you have candidates penciled in for every cell, you can begin to use the many candidate elimination techniques. Common candidate elimination techniques include naked pairs, triples, quads, x-wing, xy-wing, and swordfish. There are many others.

As you use these candidate elimination techniques, be sure to remove the candidate from all remaining cells as you solve each cell. Failure to do so will introduce mistakes.

Now you have a few Sudoku tips to help you solve Sudoku puzzles. Every Sudoku puzzle from easy to fiendish can be solved using these Sudoku tips. Find a place to start, be consistent in your scanning, and practice candidate elimination techniques.