This section is for those who are new to solving sudoku puzzles. It's the rules of sudoku, answering questions like: how do I solve a sudoku puzzle? What are the rules of sudoku? How to play sudoku? And more.

The following article outlines the brief and simple rules of sudoku puzzles. The idea is very simple, but very addictive when you know how to play. Once you have read the sudoku rules, feel free to check out our free daily sudoku puzzle or try one of the more than 100,000 free sudoku games in our sudoku puzzel archive.

The rules of sudoku are quite simple. In a traditional sudoku puzzle (and there are variations) you are presented with a 9x9 grid of boxes, some empty, some filled with numbers in the range of 1 to 9. That gives you 9 rows, 9 columns and also 3 larger squares of 3x3 boxes.

For example:

The idea of sudoku is to completely fill the empty grid squares with numbers in such a way that the following conditions hold true:

1) Every row should contain the numbers 1 to 9 but should not repeat the numbers 1 to 9 at any point within that row.

2) Every column should contain the numbers 1 to 9 but should not repeat the numbers 1 to 9 at any point within that column.

3) Every 3x3 square should contain the numbers 1 to 9 but should not repeat the numbers 1 to 9 at any point within that square.

Again, some examples:

Correctly Filled Sudoku Grids:

Incorrectly Filled Sudoku Grids: