30–37 clues · typical solve 10–20 minutes
Printable medium sudoku puzzles — free PDF with answer key
The everyday sudoku — the level a newspaper prints on a Wednesday.
Set a medium run
difficulty is already set to medium — adjust the rest
1–60 · each puzzle is solver-checked for a single solution before it goes in
This is a live sample puzzle — it updates to your own puzzles once the run finishes.
What a medium sudoku asks of you
Medium is where sudoku stops being a scanning exercise and starts being a puzzle. With 30 to 37 clues on the board, you will clear the obvious cells in the first minute or two and then hit a wall that simple scanning cannot get through. Getting past it means writing candidates into the empty cells and looking for pairs — two cells in a box that can only hold a 4 or a 7, which locks that 4 and that 7 out of every other cell in the box.
That single technique is what separates a medium solver from an easy one, and it is why this is the level worth practising at. Hard and expert puzzles ask for more techniques on top, but they ask for this one constantly. Solve twenty medium grids and pencilling in candidates stops feeling like bookkeeping and starts feeling like the puzzle itself.
This is also the safest level to print in bulk. A medium grid takes ten to twenty minutes, which is about the length of a coffee break, a commute leg or a waiting room. Six of them on two sheets of paper will see out a long afternoon without ever tipping into the kind of stuck that makes people put the pencil down.
Printable medium sudoku — questions
How many clues does a medium sudoku have?
Between 30 and 37. That is roughly six to eight fewer than an easy puzzle, which sounds small but changes the solving experience completely — you will need to track candidates rather than solve cell by cell.
What is the difference between easy and medium sudoku?
An easy puzzle can be solved by scanning alone: look at a digit, find the one cell in a box where it fits, write it in. A medium puzzle will stall that approach partway through and ask you to note down the possible digits for each empty cell and reason about them.
Do I need to write candidate numbers in the cells?
Most people do, at least for the second half of the grid. If you would rather not, print one or two puzzles per page — the larger cells leave room for small pencil marks in the corners without the grid turning into a mess.
Is medium a good level for a beginner?
It is a good level to move up to, not to start at. If you can finish an easy puzzle without getting stuck, you are ready. If you are still hunting for the first move on an easy grid, spend another week there — medium will teach you less than it frustrates you.
Try another level
Too easy or too hard? Every level uses the same generator and the same uniqueness check — only the clue count changes.
- Printable sudoku — easy38–45 cluesGenerous clue counts, no guessing, and a solving path that opens up the moment you start scanning.typical solve: 5–10 minutes
- Printable sudoku — hard25–29 cluesSparse grids that will not open up until you start reasoning about where digits cannot go.typical solve: 20–40 minutes
- Printable sudoku — expert20–24 cluesStripped to the bone — around a quarter of the grid filled in, and a single solution waiting at the end of it.typical solve: 40 minutes to over an hour
Or head back to the free printable sudoku generator for a mixed run, or take a set of printable sudoku with answers.