Brain Arena

Easy sudoku

The level to start on: plenty of digits on the board and no technique beyond finding the only option left.

Time 0:00

Keyboard
  • Arrows or WASD — move
  • 1–9 — enter a digit
  • Del or Backspace — erase
  • Space or N — pencil marks
  • Z — undo, Shift+Z or Y — redo
  • H — conflict highlighting on/off
  • A wrong digit costs a life — you get 3 mistakes per game

Medium Hard Expert

What "easy" means on this level

An easy sudoku here has at least 32 clues and one guarantee that matters more than the count: the whole board can be finished by spotting single candidates. You will never hit a point where a named technique is required.

In practice that means three things:

  • No guessing. At every moment there is at least one cell you can fill with certainty.
  • No pencil marks needed. Use them if you like, but the board can be solved without a single one.
  • No dead ends. If you are stuck, you are not missing knowledge — you have simply not spotted the right cell yet.

How to solve an easy sudoku, step by step

  1. Start with the digit that appears most often. If five sevens are already placed, work on sevens — only four are left to find.
  2. Scan by boxes, not by cells. Take one 3×3 box and check which rows and columns already contain that digit. Very often exactly one free square remains.
  3. Look for cells with one option. An empty cell that sees eight different digits across its row, column and box has only one answer.
  4. Close any row, column or box that is missing a single digit. Those are the cheapest points on the grid, and each digit you write tends to create another one.

Repeat to the end. Order does not matter on this level — the board cannot be locked up unless you enter a wrong digit.

How long it takes

A first puzzle ever: comfortably 10–20 minutes. After a few days: usually 4–8 minutes. People who have solved for years drop below three minutes here, but easy is not a level to race on — it is where your eye learns to scan a grid.

The tip that saves the most time: do not read the board cell by cell. Read it digit by digit.

When to move up

Move up once you finish easy boards without a single moment of hesitation and without losing a life. Medium sudoku gives you 28 clues and the first boards where you have to eliminate digits deliberately instead of just finding them.

If you would rather stay on easy, you lose nothing — your personal best is stored separately for each level.