Los Angeles Times Sudoku

About Los Angeles Times Sudoku

Sudoku has been a newspaper staple for twenty years, and the Los Angeles Times now runs its daily set on its free games page. Rather than one puzzle, it offers a ladder of five: a 6x6 Mini for a quick warm-up, and Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert 9x9 grids. Each one is dated and the same for every player, and a new set appears at midnight Eastern time.

The rules are the classic ones: fill the grid so every row, column and box holds each digit exactly once. The puzzles run on the Amuse Labs player inside latimes.com, with pencil marks, a timer and check tools, and a picker for each level keeps about two weeks of earlier puzzles. An LA Times account adds streaks and records.

The Mini and Easy grids suit newcomers and children; Hard and Expert will need real chains of logic. The same page links to the LA Times Killer Sudoku, where cages with target sums replace most of the given digits.

How to play Los Angeles Times Sudoku

1. Open Sudoku on latimes.com/games and choose a level: Mini, Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert.
2. Select an empty square and enter a digit, or add pencil marks for the digits it could be.
3. Make sure each row, column and box holds every digit exactly once (1 to 6 in the Mini, 1 to 9 in the others).
4. Use the givens to rule out candidates until only one digit fits a square.
5. Finish the grid to stop the timer, or pick an earlier date to play a past puzzle.

Tips

• Start each grid by scanning one digit at a time across all the boxes.
• Pencil in candidates once the easy placements run out; pairs of matching candidates clear other squares.
• Work up the levels through the week: the Mini and Easy grids make good warm-ups for Expert.

Questions