Make a puzzle, play or print

Printable Sudoku, on demand

Tap New puzzle as many times as you like and print each one for free. Every board is unique and guaranteed solvable by logic alone, with no guessing required. Switch to Numbers if you prefer a classic printout, or keep the Shapes for the full Shapedoku look.

How the generator works

First it builds a complete, valid solution by filling the grid with a randomized backtracking search. Then it removes clues one at a time, and after every removal it checks that the puzzle still has exactly one solution. It stops when it reaches the clue count for your chosen difficulty, so the result is always fair, never ambiguous.

Choosing a difficulty

The difficulty setting controls how many starting clues the generator leaves on the board, and that in turn decides which techniques you will need.

• Easy (40 clues). Almost every step is a naked single or a hidden single: scan a row, column or box, find the one symbol that fits, place it. Ideal for learning the rules or for a relaxed five-minute break.
• Medium (33 clues). Singles still carry most of the puzzle, but you will meet a few spots where you need to notice that a symbol is confined to one row or column inside a box (pointing pairs) before the next single appears.
• Hard (28 clues). Expect naked and hidden pairs, box-line reductions and stretches where pencil marks are genuinely useful. A good warm-up before the Extreme tier in the game.
• Extreme (24 clues). Fewer clues means longer chains of deductions and more candidate tracking. Every Extreme board still has exactly one solution and can be solved by logic alone, but you will work for it.

Why solve on paper

A printed puzzle has no timer, no mistake counter and no hint button. That is the point. Pencil marks can be as messy or as tidy as you like, you can circle a pattern you want to come back to, and there is nothing to buzz or glow while you think. Many players find that a paper grid slows them down in a good way: instead of tapping through candidates, they read the whole board first and plan. It is also the most screen-free way to keep a daily puzzle habit, whether that is with morning coffee, on a train, or at a kitchen table with someone else.

Printing tips

1. Use your browser's print command (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P). The page hides the menu, buttons and footer automatically so only the grid prints.
2. Portrait orientation on A4 or Letter paper gives the largest cells. Turn off browser headers and footers in the print dialog for a cleaner sheet.
3. Black and white is fine. Shapedoku tokens differ by outline, not just color, so a grayscale printout stays perfectly readable.
4. Print the puzzle first, then press Show answer and print again if you want a separate solution sheet.
5. Want a batch? Press New puzzle and print each board in turn. Every board is generated fresh, so you will never get a repeat.

For classrooms and families

Shape puzzles are a natural fit for younger solvers and for anyone who finds a wall of digits tiring. A child who is still shaky with numbers can reason perfectly well that a row already has a heart and a moon and therefore needs something else. Teachers use printed grids as a quiet logic warm-up, as a fast-finisher activity, or in pairs where one student explains each placement to the other. For a family game night, print two copies of the same Easy or Medium board and race, or work through a Hard puzzle together with each person taking one 3x3 box.

Shapes or numbers?

The Shapes and Numbers toggle changes only the symbols, never the logic. Every board maps the nine tokens to the digits 1 to 9 in a fixed order, so a puzzle printed with shapes and the same puzzle printed with numbers have identical solutions. If you are teaching someone who already knows classic Sudoku, print with numbers first, then switch to shapes and watch how much faster the eye picks up repeated symbols across a row.

Stuck on a puzzle?

Press Show answer to reveal the full solution, or drop your clues into the Sudoku solver to solve it step by step. New to the game? Start with our beginner guide.