sudoku puzzles [I Like Math]

i've started showing an interest in sudoku puzzles and i'm trying to figure the quickest way to solve them. these are the puzzles that have a larger 3 by 3 set of boxes and each of these 9 larger boxes is further made up of a 3 by 3 set inside them. this gives the whole puzzle a total of 9 rows by 9 columns. when the puzzle is complete each row, column, and larger box must contain only one instance of the numbers 1-9. hope that made sense.

other than viewing each row and column to find the puzzle area that has the most numbers already filled in and then working out from there, has anyone developed a better way of starting these puzzles? thanks.

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fun4us2b · M

I first find all the 1s, 2s, 3s, etc - then do the 9 boxes individually - then I look for number pairs to reduce the open squares...then repeat...it's fun, practice makes you faster...

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SW-User

@fun4us2b my best guess is that they complete the puzzle and then remove the right amount of numbers. i'm not sure how many that would be, but if you spend enough time with these puzzles there always seems to be enough clues to complete them. i bet a computer could create these randomly if you knew how to program this.

fun4us2b · M

@SW-User I bet that's how most are made at this point, I imagine there's a finite possible number of puzzles - probably published online somewhere...

LamontCranston · M

@SW-User There are NO mathematics behind them. It is pure logic. The numbers could have been letters A, B, etc, instead.
One of my relatives gave me a "beyond black belt" sudoku book at Christmas. i'm able to successfully solve about half of them.
There are technique courses one can take online.

xmedleft · 51-55, M

start with finding easy number fill ins, by the numbers.
then look for RCBs (Rows/Columns/Blocks missing 3 or less and do elimination on those blanks, then induction, then deduction, then inference, then start over at the top of the list.

LamontCranston · M

@xmedleft There are definitely techniques which can be learned to solve these puzzles. And certainly online tutorials which can teach many of these.

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