Minimal Sudoku

How to Solve Sudoku Puzzles for Beginners: Scanning Technique

A Simple and Effective Way to Solve Sudoku Puzzles

An incredible effective approach to solve Sudoku puzzles is the so called 'scanning' technique. It builds the foundation of your future technique toolbox. The chances are high you discovered it for yourself by intuition. Becoming aware of the technique and mindfully applying it will help you becoming better at solving Sudoku puzzles.

If you are not yet familiar with the Sudoku rules, take a look at our Sudoku rules article, and come back revisiting the scanning technique.

Sudoku Rules

Learn how to play Sudoku. All you need to know to get started with playing your first game.

Scanning Technique

The best starting point for the game is to look out for cells with only one possible remaining number. This can be done on a per row, or column basis or in combination. You might have noticed that you 'scan' rows or columns for numbers that will single out a cell in another box. So the technique was given a self-describing label, and it identifies so-called hidden singles. Look at the example below for reference.

Sudoku Example

In this example, we focus on the number 1 by 'scanning', and the middle boxes catch our eye. In box 5 and box 6, number one is given, in row 5 and row 6 respectively. By ruling out both rows for box 4, there is only one cell left where number 1 can go. It is row 4, column 3. Congratulations, we found our first number. There is another cell that can be solved this way. Can you find it?

Conclusion

Using this technique will allow you to solve up to medium challenging Sudokus in its entirety, while being the preferred choice to find solutions even for harder Sudokus. When you are eager to solve more challenging Sudokus, you will need additional strategies to find the solution! You can learn more at our Learn Section