Sudoku puzzles printable at four difficulty levels
Every level uses the same generator and the same one-solution check. The levels differ in how much of the grid you start with. Pick a level and the generator opens with it already set.
One number sets the difficulty of a sudoku: how many of the 81 cells you start with. An easy puzzle gives you 38 to 45, and you can solve it by scanning alone. An expert puzzle gives you 20 to 24, and you will not place a single cell until you have pencilled in the whole board. The four levels below differ only in how many clues the generator leaves.
Each level is free, prints one, two, four or six to a page on A4 or US Letter, and can carry a full answer key. If you are unsure where to start, try medium: the level a newspaper prints midweek.
Choose a level
- Easy printable sudoku38–45 clues · 5–10 minutesOn an easy sudoku you can always find the next move. Each grid on this page starts with 38 to 45 clues, enough that scanning rows, columns and boxes for the one place a digit can go carries you from the first cell to the last.
- Medium printable sudoku30–37 clues · 10–20 minutesAt medium you need more than scanning. With 30 to 37 clues on the board, you clear the obvious cells in a minute or two and then hit a wall that scanning cannot get through.
- Hard printable sudoku25–29 clues · 20–40 minutesA hard sudoku gives you 25 to 29 clues. Scanning fills a handful of cells, and after that you make no progress until you fill in candidates and work with the relationships between them.
- Expert printable sudoku20–24 clues · 40 minutes to over an hourExpert puzzles carry 20 to 24 clues, close to the floor for a sudoku with one answer. The proven minimum is 17, and puzzles with 17 clues are rare enough that enthusiasts catalogue them one by one.
Other ways to print
If you need the solutions as well as the puzzles, the printable sudoku with answers page starts with the answer key switched on and explains its layout. If you print for a group and want to save paper, 4 per page sudoku printable covers the denser layouts and the grid size each one gives.
To mix levels in a single batch, say a warm-up easy grid, a couple of mediums and one hard grid at the back, use the main generator. Select more than one difficulty and it splits the puzzles evenly across the levels you pick.