Dr. Sudoku Prescribes #78 – Sudoku

Sudoku by Thomas Snyder

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Big and Small

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 7th row from left to right.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:00, Master = 7:30, Expert = 15:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

  • Chris Green says:

    Love the layout!

  • Arren says:

    21:13, first time I try and time myself properly, and turns out this Sudoku contains one of my biggest weak points, I am really bad at identifying gevcyrf.

    • Avatar photo drsudoku says:

      That same step tripped up one of my better sudoku test-solvers to give him a time 10 minutes higher than expected.

      • Arren says:

        Is there a speed solving technique for identifying those? I currently have to resort to putting down all candidates and specifically looking for them.

        • Avatar photo drsudoku says:

          Since I don’t write all the candidates in usually, they can be very hard for me too.

          What would help me here is that I would already have the bi-value cell “XY” on my paper from one nearly complete row, so when I considered a region with just “WXYZ” remaining that intersects in a column with that “XY” cell it would be worth more attention. That “WXYZ” in this puzzle are all “small” numbers is meant to help, but even in a scrambled version of this puzzle this is a kind of triple I’ve practiced enough to start to see. Others, particularly without bi-value cells as part of them, can be almost impossible for me.

    • Scott Handelman says:

      I don’t even have to rot-13 that to know what it says; that’s exactly where I got tripped up too, though I did eventually figure it out.

  • Jack Bross says:

    As I’ve said before, I always like puzzles where a nice aesthetic layout/theme directly also gives a nice solving path. The layout forces your attention to some key elements early on. For me, the solving was pretty smooth, though I had a cascade of unresolved “23” squares for quite a while.

  • Ours brun says:

    2’50 on this one. This is exactly the type of classic sudoku that suits me well, although there are some things I could definitely have spotted more quickly.
    Nice theme and great solving path, thank you Thomas.

  • skynet says:

    Ah !
    After years of waiting a beautiful sudoku from the doctor .My eyes ‘lit up’ when i saw this sudoku and i had no problem anywhere here.I did not get stuck anywhere.It was very smooth
    5’42” on this for my first masters time!Loved solving this one.

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