r/sudoku

I am currently on hour five of staring blankly at this sudoku and making no progress, can anyone point me in the right direction?

This is today's NYT Sudoku puzzle on Medium difficulty. I am completely stuck, and as you can see, I have been staring at this puzzle for a little shy of an hour and a half. Of course, NYT allows you to reveal cells, but that wouldn't help me learn. What am I supposed to do here?

I learned earlier today that 12,13,123 was a naked triple. I was seeing loads so I excitedly rushed back to my puzzle only to find (I think) that none of them helped remove any notes. I'm trying to resist the cheat button here but I can't see any naked doubles or triples that help, nor hidden ones, nor Y-wing or X-wing. I don't think that guarantees there's none there, just that I don't know how to spot them effectively.

No answers please just need a hint for the next move. Can anyone point me in the right direction 🙏

Hello,

Can someone help me with this sudoku please. I tried all the methods i know diffrent times but cant get any further :)

Can someone please explain the next step?

Thanks in andvance

Thanks for all your responses.

From NYT yesterday. Got to this point and I couldn’t see anything. Finished by guessing this highlighted square (which was also the hint for the puzzle at that point)

Answer is 2, but could not figure out how?

I’m a beginner in sudoku, I don’t know any techniques yet just solving throughout the basic rules

I am trying to learn how to use a fish, but I haven't done it one yet. I believe I have exhausted all easier techniques I can use in this grid right now.

Can you spot a fish here ?

Once I get to this point in a lot of puzzles, I just choose a cell with two options, select one, and follow that path until I run into an issue. In this case, I can do that with r9c7, choose 5 as a potential solution, and follow it until i run into two 3’s in row 4. So I know r9c7 has to be 4.

But I don’t really want to do it that way. I’d like to use a solving technique to identify elimination candidates. And not just pick one and hope for the best. Could someone please help me identify what techniques could be helpful in this puzzle? I’m having a hard time learning where some of them apply.

Thank you!!

Hi! I’ve always enjoyed Sudoku but only today have I started looking into solving techniques rather than just guessing my way to the end. It all made sense until I tried to apply it.

I just read a bit about the BUG+1 technique which seems like the trick to apply for the case I was left with in the first picture (ignore the highlighted 3’s, I forgot to turn it off). If I understood that technique correctly, the solution to the box with the three values in it (selected in the photo) would have been 6, since 6 appears three times in the box unlike any of the other digits. But this is incorrect. In the third photo the hint told me the answer is 7 due to “Naked Single.” What am I missing there?

Also, it seems as though “Naked Singles” are pretty obvious. But the hints given in image 2 and 3 “explain” the corresponding answers as a naked single, and yet I don’t see how I could have been certain that the digit didn’t belong in the other box in the row/column since I was left with so many pairs. Is there a better explanation for either of those?

Thanks for helping me understand and get better!

(ETA: I just realized I forgot I was playing odd/even sudoku! So I guess I should have known the 3 went in the top right corner. But still would like to see how you explain the answers to my questions for learning purposes!)