Did you know?
The puzzle we call sudoku was first printed in an American magazine in 1979, with the name 'Number Place'. It was most likely made by Howard Garns, a retired architect.
A Japanese puzzle company brought it to Japan in 1984. 'Sudoku' is short for a longer Japanese phrase meaning 'the digits must be single', because each number appears only once.
In 2012, mathematicians proved that a 9 × 9 sudoku needs at least 17 given numbers. With 16 or fewer, it can never have just one correct answer.
Try this: Solve a Mini Sudoku
Copy this 4 × 4 grid. Fill in 1, 2, 3 and 4 so that each number appears once in every row, column and 2 × 2 corner box.
| 2 | |||
| 3 | 1 | ||
| 4 | |||
| 2 |
Show answer
row by row: 1234, 3421, 2143, 4312
Go further: Sudoku's Great-Grandparent
In 1782, more than 240 years ago, the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler wrote about number puzzles called Latin squares. In a Latin square, each symbol appears once in every row and every column, just like sudoku, but without the boxes. A finished sudoku is a special kind of Latin square. Try it yourself: make a 3 × 3 Latin square using a red, a blue and a green crayon!