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Printable sudoku

Make a set of up to twelve printable sudoku puzzles with answer keys, at four difficulty levels and one, two or four to a page. Each grid is generated on your device when you ask for it, with no puzzle bank behind it, and checked for exactly one solution before it prints. There is no watermark and no account, and nothing is uploaded.

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Details
Sheet— Grid— Set— Pages— Seed—

How this generator works

Each sudoku is built in two stages, and the first involves no searching. A complete, valid solution grid comes from one known-good pattern, changed only in ways that cannot break it: relabelling the nine digits, shuffling the three rows inside each band, shuffling the bands themselves, doing the same to columns and stacks, and sometimes transposing the whole grid. Every one of those moves keeps the row, column and box rules intact, so the finished grid is correct by construction. There are enough distinct combinations that two visitors pressing "New puzzles" are very unlikely to get the same grid.

The second stage removes clues, and it is where each puzzle is checked for a single solution. Cells are cleared two at a time in 180-degree rotational pairs, which gives a printed sudoku its familiar symmetry. After every removal a backtracking solver counts how many ways the grid can now be completed, stopping as soon as it finds a second. A removal is kept only if exactly one solution remains; otherwise both cells are filled in again. Clearing continues until the grid reaches the target clue count for the chosen difficulty or no symmetric pair can come out without allowing a second solution. Each puzzle is labelled with its number, its difficulty and its real clue count, so you can see which happened, and the Details panel below the sheet shows the range of clue counts across the set. Twelve expert puzzles take a moment to generate, because every grid gets this check after every removal and the clue-removal pass runs up to twelve times to get as close to the target as it can. Print at 100% or "Actual size"; "Fit to page" rescales the grid.

Difficulty here is set by clue count alone: a 27-clue grid that falls to plain scanning is easier than a 30-clue grid that needs an X-wing. Keeping the clues symmetric is a choice about looks, and it costs clues. The proven minimum for a sudoku with any pattern of clues is 17 givens, but the grids that reach it are asymmetric, and insisting on rotational symmetry throws away most of that search space, so the symmetric grids here bottom out in the low twenties and expert targets 24. Some grids finish below that target and some stop a clue or two above it, so trust the count printed above each puzzle more than the difficulty name.

Frequently asked questions

How hard are the difficulty levels really?
Difficulty is set by the number of clues left on the grid: about 40 for easy, 32 for medium, 28 for hard and 24 for expert. The actual clue count is printed above every puzzle. Clue count is a rough guide, since some grids with more clues need harder techniques than some with fewer, and this page does not rate puzzles by solving technique.
Is every puzzle guaranteed to have exactly one solution?
Yes, and the page checks it for every puzzle. Clues are removed two at a time in rotationally symmetric pairs, and after each removal a solver counts the solutions, stopping at two. If the count is anything other than one, the pair goes straight back, so every printed puzzle has exactly one solution.
Where are the answers?
They follow the puzzles, numbered to match. Keys always print four to a page, whatever layout you choose for the puzzles, so a dozen expert grids do not cost a dozen extra sheets of paper. Untick "Include answer keys" to print the puzzles alone.
Can I print the same puzzles again later?
Yes. That is what the seed is for. Every puzzle in the set comes from the number in the seed box, which is also printed in the corner of each puzzle sheet, so entering it again with the same difficulty and count reproduces the same puzzles. Press "New puzzles" when you want a fresh set.
Is anything uploaded or stored?
No. This page generates the puzzles on your device, with no puzzle bank to fetch from, and prints them through your browser's own dialog. There is no account, no watermark and no saved setting: close the tab and the puzzles are gone.

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