The last Number Placement playoff puzzle from the World Puzzle Championship was a Skyscrapers (Gap) puzzle with an empty cell in each row and column. How long will it take you to solve David Altizio’s puzzle?

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between number entry modes and a shading mode to mark the unused cells.)

Author/Opus: This is the 15th puzzle from guest contributor David Altizio.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers rules. Insert numbers into some cells of the grid so that each row and column of the grid contains the numbers from 1 to 5 once each and one gap. Each number in the grid represents the height of a building and the clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction. Taller buildings block the view of smaller buildings.

Estimated Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Solution: PDF for all Number Placement playoff puzzles.

Note: Follow this link for classic Skyscrapers puzzles and this link for variations on Skyscrapers puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Skyscrapers Puzzles to get started on. More Skyscrapers puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli, and in the e-book Skyscrapers by Ashish Kumar.