Sudoku Tips for Beginners: How to Solve Efficiently (Published 2023) (2024)

Everybody can solve a hard Sudoku. Maybe not right now, maybe not without some practice, but trust me, it’s possible. By the end of this article, you’ll be equipped to tackle intense puzzles in a way you find both challenging and fun. We asked some of the best Sudoku solvers in the world for their tips and tricks, and we’ll be sharing some of those with you here. There’s no correct way to solve a puzzle, but we hope that, using the techniques demonstrated here, you can become your best Sudoku self.

But first, the basics: A classic Sudoku has nine boxes, each subdivided into nine cells, for a total of 81. The goal is to fill in each of the cells with a number from one through nine. The digits must be placed so that each appears only once per row, column and box. It sounds simple written out like this, but some of these puzzles can be quite twisted.

Unlike a crossword puzzle, the only clues you’ll get here are the numbers that are already placed for you in the grid. One bonus here is that this makes it easy to gauge just how hard a puzzle will be. A grid with more digits will tend to be on the easier side, and one with fewer will probably be harder. For a clear example of this, look at an easy version of a New York Times Sudoku, then compare it to a hard one. So, then, how do we figure out what goes where?

Scan for Singles

The first step to any successful Sudoku solve is to scan for cells that can only contain a single digit. On beginner puzzles, there are usually one or two obvious ones lurking somewhere and they are an easy way to start making progress.

Thomas Snyder, a three-time World Sudoku Championship winner, says that his advice for beginners is to think about how to look at the information a grid is giving you in a way that makes sense. First, look between the bold lines that separate groups of three rows or columns. Then, find any number that you see twice between those lines. Now, try and place the third instance of that number, finally looking in the other direction (e.g., if you’ve been looking at a row, now look at a column) to see where it fits in the remaining space. Mr. Snyder says, “When looking this way, you don’t have to care about 1, 2, 3. You are looking at the digits you have the most of, which are going to be the easiest digits.”

Once you start thinking about the numbers this way, you can start looking closely at the geometry of the grid. As you get more practice, your pattern recognition will improve. Maybe there’s a box with seven or eight numbers filled in already, or a row with six digits done. You’ll begin recognizing patterns that will help you solve more efficiently.