Yajilin by Ashish Kumar and Thomas Snyder
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Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 27th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar and 346th from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Yajilin rules.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal loop segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. If the loop only has vertical segments in the marked row, enter 0. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other classic Yajilin. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Yajilin to get started on. More Yajilin puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles 2, in Yajilin by Murat Can Tonta and Prasanna Seshadri, and in our beginner-friendly book Logic Puzzles 101.
A puzzle by two authors? How does that work?
When writing a logic puzzle by hand, you create a beginning, middle, and end by gradually specifying specific clues. In this case, while Ashish submitted a valid Yajilin/Double Yajilin combo, the logical ending of the Double Yajilin was particularly difficult and we both thought inelegant. So I edited about 40% of the clues, which kept the beginnings but changed the endings. Sometimes I’m doing this as an editor and not taking any authorship credit; but here Ashish thought I had done enough on this puzzle (which took a couple hours to improve) that we should share credit.
Nice to see a puzzle from two authors and it took me double the time to solve this puzzle :). Many logical steps need time to think. It took 4.57 Mins to solve this one.