Printable Medium Sudoku (PDF)

Updated 23 August 2026

At 27 clues out of 81 cells, this booklet is the first one worth solving with a pencil. Singles carry a Medium grid part of the way, but every puzzle in it provably stalls on them — that is the test each board had to fail to be printed here — until you spot a pointing pair or a box-line reduction, an intersection between a box and a line that only eliminates candidates, never places a digit outright. Nothing in the booklet needs a fish, a wing or a chain.

What is inside the booklet

Print space here matters more than at the easier tiers, because intersections and pairs work by marking candidates in the margins. The 16 puzzles print 4 to a page at full cell size, leaving enough room around each digit to pencil in the small numbers an intersection or a pair reasons over. Solved grids close out the file so you can check your candidate marks against a confirmed answer. Our published sample of 40 Medium boards measures SE 2.6 to 3.4 — numbers the sudoku difficulty rating guide measures directly rather than assumes.

Tips for pencil-mark solving

An intersection or a pair only becomes visible once you can see every remaining candidate in a row, column or box at a glance, which is why paper genuinely helps here more than a screen does: write small digits in the corner of each blank cell, then scan a line for a digit trapped inside one box, or two cells sharing exactly two candidates between them. Neither pattern places a digit by itself — each one only removes candidates — so expect to mark a few eliminations before a fresh naked single actually appears. Working in pencil rather than pen means a wrong mark costs nothing to erase.

Where to go next

When intersections start feeling automatic, move up to the printable Hard sudoku booklet for fish and wing patterns. Drop back to printable Easy sudoku for a singles-only warm-up, or play Medium on a screen at the Medium sudoku lander.