Easy Sudoku Puzzles

Updated 23 August 2026

Easy is the first tier where Suuudokuuu expects a genuine, if gentle, solve. An Easy board carries 31 clues out of 81 cells, a handful fewer than Newbie. Full houses and naked singles still clear most of the grid, but never all of it: at least one cell always needs a hidden single, where a digit fits only one cell of a row, column or box even though that cell still shows other candidates. That one extra pattern is the entire step up from Newbie to Easy, and it is a guarantee rather than a tendency: a board that a full-house-and-naked-single solver can finish is rejected as too easy for the tier, and a board that needs anything past the hidden single is rejected as too hard.

What makes a puzzle Easy

Those extra blanks over Newbie are enough that the grid stops filling itself in from full houses alone. Once the obvious placements run out, an Easy puzzle always leaves at least one cell where hidden single reasoning is the only way forward — check each unit’s missing digits against where they can still legally go, rather than reading candidates straight off one cell. Suuudokuuu’s technique engine tries hidden single third, right after full house and naked single, and an Easy-rated puzzle never needs to go further than that: no pointing pairs, no subsets, nothing that asks you to hold more than one unit in mind at once. The gap between the tiers is small on purpose — it is exactly one technique wide.

How hard is it, honestly

Easy sits at the bottom of the SE (Sudoku Explainer) scale alongside Newbie: our sample of 40 boards measures SE 1.5 to 2.3. The two tiers share a range because SE prices a hidden single at 1.5, below a naked single at 2.3 — so the technique that defines Easy is, by that scale, cheaper than the one that defines Newbie. What genuinely changes is where you have to look: a naked single is read off one cell, a hidden single off a whole unit. It suits players who have cleared a few Newbie boards and want a puzzle that takes noticeably longer to finish.

Where to go next

Solving Easy boards without reaching for a hidden single? Step back to Newbie Sudoku, or step up to Medium Sudoku, where intersections and your first pairs appear. Prefer paper? Download the printable Easy sudoku booklet, or see the sudoku for seniors guide for large-print and comfort options. See the full technique index, the how to play guide, or every tier on the Sudoku difficulty levels hub back home.