PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a shading mode and a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Author/Opus: This is the 297th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Locate a numbered snake (a 1-cell wide path) that starts with 1 and goes to 45. The snake cannot touch itself, not even diagonally. Every third segment of the snake is marked with gray. Digits outside the grid indicate the number of gray snake segments in that row or column.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.