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Sudoku solving algorithms. A typical Sudoku puzzle. A standard Sudoku contains 81 cells, in a 9×9 grid, and has 9 boxes, each box being the intersection of the first, middle, or last 3 rows, and the first, middle, or last 3 columns. Each cell may contain a number from one to nine, and each number can only occur once in each row, column, and box.
Mathematical context. The general problem of solving Sudoku puzzles on n2 × n2 grids of n × n blocks is known to be NP-complete. [8] A puzzle can be expressed as a graph coloring problem. [9] The aim is to construct a 9-coloring of a particular graph, given a partial 9-coloring. The Sudoku graph has 81 vertices, one vertex for each cell.
Ariadne's thread, named for the legend of Ariadne, is solving a problem which has multiple apparent ways to proceed—such as a physical maze, a logic puzzle, or an ethical dilemma —through an exhaustive application of logic to all available routes. It is the particular method used that is able to follow completely through to trace steps or ...
Killer sudoku. Killer sudoku (also killer su doku, sumdoku, sum doku, sumoku, addoku, or samunamupure) is a puzzle that combines elements of sudoku and kakuro. Despite the name, the simpler killer sudokus can be easier to solve than regular sudokus, depending on the solver's skill at mental arithmetic; the hardest ones, however, can take hours ...
Taking Sudoku Seriously. Taking Sudoku Seriously: The math behind the world's most popular pencil puzzle is a book on the mathematics of Sudoku. It was written by Jason Rosenhouse and Laura Taalman, and published in 2011 by the Oxford University Press. The Basic Library List Committee of the Mathematical Association of America has suggested its ...
A Sudoku with 18 clues and two-way diagonal symmetry. This section refers to classic Sudoku, disregarding jigsaw, hyper, and other variants. A completed Sudoku grid is a special type of Latin square with the additional property of no repeated values in any of the nine blocks (or boxes of 3×3 cells).
Clearly, a #P problem must be at least as hard as the corresponding NP problem, since a count of solutions immediately tells if at least one solution exists, if the count is greater than zero. Surprisingly, some #P problems that are believed to be difficult correspond to easy (for example linear-time) P problems. [18]
Sudoku graph. In the mathematics of Sudoku, the Sudoku graph is an undirected graph whose vertices represent the cells of a (blank) Sudoku puzzle and whose edges represent pairs of cells that belong to the same row, column, or block of the puzzle. The problem of solving a Sudoku puzzle can be represented as precoloring extension on this graph.