The Mathematics of Sudoku

Helmer Aslaksen
Department of Mathematics
National University of Singapore

aslaksen@math.nus.edu.sg
www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/
 Sudoku grid

• 9 rows, 9 columns, 9 3x3 boxes and 81 cells

• I will refer to rows, columns or boxes as units
• (p,q) refers to row p and column q
• I number the boxes left to right, top to bottom
 Rules
• Fill in the digits 1 through 9 so that every
number appears exactly once in every unit
(row, column and box)
• Some numbers are given at the start to
ensure that there is a unique solution
 History of Sudoku
• Retired architect Howard Garns of
Indianapolis invented a game called
“Number Place” in May 1979
• Introduced in Japan in April1984 under the
name of Sudoku (数独), meaning single
numbers
• Took the UK by storm in late 2004
 Latin squares
• In 1783, Euler introduced Latin squares,
i.e., n x n arrays where 1 through n
appears once in every row and column
• A Sudoku grid is a 9x9 Latin square where
the 9 3x3 boxes contains 1 through 9 once
 How many givens do we need to
guarantee a unique solution?
• This is an unknown mathematical problem
• There are examples of uniquely solvable
grids with 17 givens
(www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~gordon/sudokumi
n.php)
How many givens can we have
without guaranteeing a unique
solution?
2 8 3 6 7 1 9 4 5
9 7 6 5 4 3 1
4 1 5 3 9 7 6
5 6 7 4 1 9 3 8 2
8 3 4 2 6 7 1 5 9
1 9 2 8 3 5 4 6 7
3 2 1 7 8 6 5 9 4
7 5 8 9 2 4 6 1 3
6 4 9 1 5 3 7 2 8
How many Sudoku grids are there?
• It was shown in 2005 by Bertram
Felgenhauer and Frazer Jarvis to be
6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960
• This is roughly 0.00012% the number of
9×9 Latin squares
 Why Sudoku is simpler than real
life
• If a number can only be in a certain cell,
then it must be in that cell
Elementary solution techniques
• We will first describe three easy
techniques
• Scanning (or slicing and dicing)
• Cross-hatching
• Filling gaps
 Scanning

4 2 8 3
8 1 4 2
7 6 8 5 4

• We can place 2 in (3,2)

• You should start scanning in rows or
columns with many filled cells
• Scan for numbers that occur many times
Cross-hatching
 Filling gaps
• Look out for boxes, rows or columns with
only one or two blanks
 Intermediate techniques
• The elementary techniques will solve easy
puzzles
• I will discuss one intermediate technique,
box claims a row (column) for a number
 Box claims a row (column) for a
number
4 2 8 3
8 1 4 2
7 2 6 8 5 4

• Box 1 claims row 1 for number 1

• We can place 1 in (3,8)
 Box claims a row (column) for a
number
8 6
5 6 1
4
8
8

• Box 2 claims row 3 for number 8

• We can place 8 in (2,9)
• This is sometimes called “pointing
pairs/triples”
 Advanced techniques
• For harder puzzles, we must pencil in candidate
lists
• This is called markup
Candidate Lists
 Strategy
• If you believe the puzzle is easy, you
should be able to solve it using easy
techniques and it is a waste of time to
write down candidate lists
• If you believe the puzzle is hard, you
should not waste your time with too much
scanning, and go for candidate lists after
some quick scanning
 Single-candidate cell
69 4589

1
4589

2 7
459 5

3
• 5 is the only candidate in (3,3)
• Called a naked single
 Single-cell candidate
69 4589

1
4589

2 7
459 5

3
• (1,2) is the only square in which 6 is a
candidate
• Called a hidden single
 Strategy
• Once you fill one cell, you must update all
the affected candidate lists
• Search systematically for naked or hidden
singles in all units
 Naked pairs

• Cells 2 and 5 only contain 1 and 7

• Hence 1 and 7 cannot be anywhere else!
• We can remove 1 and 7 from the lists in all
the other cells
 Hidden pair
145 35 357 348 156 578 478 135
69 9 2 7

• 6 and 9 only appear in cells 1 and 5

• Hence we can remove all other numbers
from those two cells, {6, 9} becomes a
naked pair and we get a hidden {1}

69 35 357 348 69 578 478 135

2 7

69 35 357 348 69 578 478

2 1
 Naked triples

• Cells 2, 3 and 7 only contain a subset of

{3, 5, 6}
• Hence 3, 5 and 6 cannot be anywhere
else
• We can remove 3, 5 and 6 from the lists in
all the other cells
 Naked triples
134 35 36 345 167 56 467 146
58 8 2 89 79

• Notice that none of the three cells need to

contain all three numbers
• {3, 5, 6} still forms a triple in cells 2, 3 and
7 even though all the three lists only
contain pairs
 Naked and hidden n-tuples
• We can generalize the pairs and triples to
naked and hidden n-tuples
• If n cells can only contain the numbers
{a1,…, an}, then those numbers can be
removed from all other cells in the unit
• If the n numbers {a1,…, an} are only
contained in n cells in an unit, then all
other numbers can be removed from
those cells
 Naked or hidden?
• Naked means that n cells only contain n
numbers
• Hidden means that n numbers are only
contained in n cells
• Naked removes the n numbers from other
cells
• Hidden removes other numbers from the n
cells
• Hidden becomes naked
 Row (column) claims box for a
number

• In the middle row, 2 can only occur in the

last box
• Hence we can remove it from all the other
cells in the box
• Also called “box line reduction strategy”
 Row (column) claims box for a
number vs. box claims row
(column) for a number
• Row claims box for a number means that if
all possible occurrences of x in row y are
in box z, then all possible occurrences of x
in box z are in row y
• Box claims row for a number means that if
all possible occurrences of x in box z are
in row y, then all possible occurrences of x
in row y are in box z
 More advanced techniques
• X-Wing
• Swordfish
• XY-wing
 X-Wing

• We can remove the 6's marked in the

small squares and we can place 9 in (7,9).
 X-Wing Theory

• Suppose we know that x only occurs as a

candidate twice in two rows (columns),
and that those two occurrences are in the
same columns (rows)
• Then x cannot occur anywhere else in
those two columns (rows)
 Swordfish
• This is just a triple X-wing
• Suppose we know that x occurs as a
candidate at most three times in three
rows (columns), and that those
occurrences are in the same columns
(rows)
• Then x cannot occur anywhere else in
those three columns (rows)
 Swordfish 2

• We can place a 2 in (5,2)

 Swordfish 3

• We don’t need nine candidate lists

 XY-wing

• We can eliminate z from the cell with a “?”

• If there is an x in the top left cell, there has
to be a z in the top right cell
• If there is a y in the top left cell, there has
to be a z in the bottom left cell
 XY-wing
• We don’t need a square; it is enough that
there are three cells of the form xy, xz and
yz, where the xy is in the same unit as xz
and the same unit yz
• We can eliminate z from the gray cells
below
 What if you’re still stuck?
• Sometimes even these techniques don’t
work
• You may have to apply “proof by
contradiction”
• Choose one candidate in a list, and see
where that takes you
• If that allows you to solve the grid, you
have found a solution
 Proof by contradiction
• If your assumption leads to a
contradiction, you can strike that number
off the candidate list in the cell
• Unfortunately, you may have to “branch” at
several cells
 Solution by “logic”?
• Some people do not approve of proof by
contradiction, claiming that it is not logic
• It is obviously valid logic, but it is hard to
do with pen and paper
 Where can I get help?
• There are many Sudoku solvers available
online
• Many of them allow you to step through
the solution, indicating which techniques
they are using
• http://www.scanraid.com/sudoku.htm
 Warning!
• Sudoku is fun, but it is highly addictive
• Happy Sudoku!
Sample Puzzle
Sample Puzzle 2