Sudoku

The plain nine-by-nine grid with nothing added.

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Classic Sudoku

Classic Master Sudoku

Sudoku Guru - classic sudoku

Sudoku: Classic Minimalism

Classic Sudoku Puzzle

One rule, endless grids

Sudoku has a single rule: fill the grid so that every row, every column and every marked box holds each symbol exactly once. The classic layout is nine by nine with the numbers one to nine, but nothing about it is arithmetic — the digits could be letters or colors and nothing would change. What separates an easy puzzle from an expert one is not how many cells are blank but the techniques the solution demands: an easy grid falls to careful scanning, a hard one needs pairs and chains you have to hold in your head.

The label collects every game whose provider tag or title says sudoku, so the variants sit next to the classics: killer grids with dotted cages that must add up to a printed sum, six-by-six and four-by-four minis for children and short breaks, diagonal and samurai boards for players who want more. The wider puzzle games hub holds the logic puzzles that are not sudoku, the sliding number grids are under 2048 games, and the crossword end of the shelf is under word games.

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Pencil marks, hints and mistakes

The features vary more than the rules do. Most browser sudoku games offer a notes mode for pencil marks, an undo button and a hint that fills one cell or points to the next logical step; some count mistakes and end the puzzle after a few, others let you enter anything and only check when you ask. A timer is common, a leaderboard rare. Difficulty labels are the least reliable part: one game's medium is another's hard, so judge by the first few minutes rather than by the word on the menu.

Players who want the genuine deduction should turn auto-notes and mistake warnings off, because a grid that flags every wrong entry stops being a logic puzzle and becomes trial and error. Players who want a calm ten minutes should leave them on; there is no wrong way to enjoy a sudoku, only a wrong difficulty.

Phone, tablet or keyboard

Sudoku is one of the genres that works equally well everywhere. On a phone you tap a cell and then a number on the pad beneath the grid, or tap the number first and then every cell it belongs in; portrait layouts keep the grid large enough to read without zooming. On a keyboard the arrow keys move the cursor, the number row enters values and a toggle switches to notes, which is faster once the habit forms.

The genre suits anyone who likes thinking without reflexes: it is quiet, it can be paused mid-grid, and the small boards are a gentle introduction to logic for children. Sudoku shares its neighbors with the memory games hub for pattern training and the block puzzle games hub for the spatial rather than logical end of the same instinct.

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