Puzzle Madness 16X16 Giant Sudoku (2024)

FAQs

How do you solve a giant Sudoku? ›

The first rule is to work out that a number can only possibly go in one cell in a given region. With these large puzzles, you will need to scan the grid first to get a feel for where there are a cluster of values, and therefore where you can quickly whittle down the possible options for a cell.

You can find Sudokus with a size of 16x16 cells on this page. These Sudoku puzzles are more suited for advanced players. The indicated difficulty level refers to the number of cells that are visible at the beginning, for even the 'easy' 16x16 Sudoku puzzles are quite more demanding than the common 9x9 ones.

Sudoku stimulates all the nerves of logic and reason in the brain, but does not require any mathematical skills whatsoever. Sudoku is a puzzle of numbers. The board comprises of 81 cells which are divided into 9 boxes.

The most basic strategy to solve a Sudoku puzzle is to first write down, in each empty cell, all possible entries that will not contradict the One Rule with respect to the given cells. If a cell ends up having only one possible entry, it is a "forced" entry that you should fill in.

Realistically, no! There are 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 possible solvable Sudoku grids that yield a unique result (that's 6 sextillion, 670 quintillion, 903 quadrillion, 752 trillion, 21 billion, 72 million, 936 thousand, 960 in case you were wondering). That's way more than the number of stars in the universe.

A well-formed Sudoku puzzle is one that has a unique solution. A Sudoku puzzle can have more than one solution, but in this case the kind of logical reasoning we described while discussing solving strategies may fall short.

Myth: Most Sudoku puzzles are impossible to solve

Reality: All valid Sudoku puzzles are solvable, although some of the most advanced Sudoku puzzles require analog algorithms to solve them efficiently.

The 45 Rule

An essential Killer Sudoku solving technique is the "45 rule". This uses the fact that every row, column and block must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9 once. Therefore, the total of all numbers in one row, column or block will always be 45.

If three candidates can be found in only the same three Cells of a region (Row, Column or Square), then one of these candidates is the solution for the first of these Cells, a second one is the solution for the second Cell and the last candidate is the solution for the third Cell.

Is there a formula for Sudoku? ›

Then the number of ways that C can be completed to a full Sudoku grid can be calculated: call it n_c. We also need the number m_C of first bands that share this number n_C of grid completions. Then the total number of Sudoku grids will just be N=Σ_Cm_Cn_C, or the sum of m_Cn_C over all of the 44 bands.

Sudoku can be solved using stochastic (random-based) algorithms. An example of this method is to: Randomly assign numbers to the blank cells in the grid. Calculate the number of errors.

Rules. Hyper Sudoku follows the same rules as Sudoku in that every row, column and block of the grid must contain the numbers "1" to "9". But it has an additional four shaded blocks (referred to here as "hyperblocks"), each of which must also contain the numbers "1" to "9".

X-wing. The X-wing technique reveals numbers for cells in 2 columns and rows. To use an X-wing, check for a row that has a potential candidate that can only fit into 2 cells. Check for another row in the puzzle that has the same candidate in 2 cells that are in the same columns as the first row candidates.