The problem with that approach is it might produce a low score for many puzzles but that score depends entirely on following a particular route - which may be esoteric - and therefore the low score is misleading. If I had some time, like some weeks, I'd write a program to test all the combinations and see if there was an optimal arrangement - ie one that reduced the score. ![]() Sometimes I can eliminate a strategy altogether by parking it at the end of the list but some are subsets which are easier to identify so I have to put them before the more generic strategy. This I have pondered for a long time and I do try out some reorderings because there is a lot of overlap between certain strategies. The bluish smaller numbers for DO count the number of times the sub-strategy is used. * Note: The strategy count (larger white numbers) counts puzzles where the strategy is used, not how many times. Where different types or rules are available I've also added those as seperate figures. It follows that I can produce a list of all the Sudoku strategies and a count of their occurrences in solving the stock. ![]() Any hard puzzle will require many more incidences of moderate strategies to complete in addition to the hard ones. Note that the 10% of 'moderate' only puzzles does not mean they are rare. In order to produce a 100 puzzles of all grades I need to over produce many puzzles since the incidence of higher grade puzzles is low. ![]() This confirms my view that the vast majority of puzzles are uninteresting. 10 out of 120,000 could not be solved using my list of logical strategies.3.3% required the above and extreme strategies.6.6% required the above and diabolical strategies.15.6% required the use of Naked Pairs and Hidden Pairs.54.2% required only trivial strategies, that is only naked and hidden singles.These were produced randomly and I did not know the grade until after I created them. I've run a count on a 120,000 puzzles I created searching for unsolvables (December 2013). ![]() However it is still an interesting question what proportion of all puzzles require at least one strategy in each grade group. There are often many ways to solve the same puzzle. It should also be noted that because I don't use strategy X to solve a puzzle in the solver, it does not follow that strategy X could not be used. My strategy list is partially subjective in that I choose to label certain strategies as 'tough' for ease of explanation and to show what I consider the best order in which to attack a puzzle. There is not a one to one correspondence between the published grade (or the grade on my solver) and the list of strategies and many factors contribute to the grade. There is a lot to grading and scoring a Sudoku puzzle. Do you think the percentage of puzzles where you HAVE to use one or more evil strategies in order to solve the puzzle is a small percentage, perhaps 1%? 2%? 5%? 10%? What would you guess if you had to estimate? I know it's hard since there are literally trillions of puzzles, but easy, medium, tough, and many diabolical puzzles I can already solve with these current strategies, excluding your evil ones. If I know all of your basic, tough, and diabolical strategies, but don't go as far as any of your evil strategies that you list, what percentage of Sudoku puzzles (in your opinion) do you think I could solve-80% of all puzzles that I would try? 85%? 90%? 95%? 99%? This article has been updated December 2013 and replaces the statistics done in Dec 2009 and March 2012 (you can compare the previous data on that page).Ī recent question from a reader prompted me to run off some statistics which I think are interesting and worth exploring.Ĭomment: There is something I am curious about that I really hope you can answer, although it's quite subjective and I suppose the answer will be a ballpark figure but I was hoping a Sudoku expert such as yourself could take your best educated guess at.
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