SuuudokuuuMedium Sudoku Puzzles
Updated
Medium is where Suuudokuuu starts asking for pencil marks. A Medium board carries 27 clues out of 81 cells, and singles alone provably never finish it: every board in the tier has been checked against a singles-only solver and rejected if that solver got through. Once full houses and singles run out, the puzzle stalls until you spot an intersection — a digit confined to where a box and a line overlap — or a pair locked together. Pointing pairs, pointing triples and box line reduction cover the intersections; naked pairs and hidden pairs cover the smallest subset pattern.
Play Medium Sudoku nowWhat makes a puzzle Medium
An intersection technique works on the overlap between one box and one row or column. A pointing pair or pointing triple finds a digit confined to two or three cells of a box that all share a line, and erases it from the rest of that line; box line reduction is the mirror image, working from a line back into a box. Naked and hidden pairs are the entry point to subset reasoning: two cells that share exactly two candidates, or two digits that fit in exactly two cells of a unit, either way locking those two cells away from everything else in it. None of these place a digit outright — they only eliminate candidates — but at 27 clues a Medium puzzle always has at least one waiting, and it is usually enough to unlock a fresh naked single a move or two later. The tier is capped at the other end too: nothing in it ever needs a fish, a wing or a chain, because a board that does is promoted to Hard instead.
How hard is it, honestly
Our sample of 40 Medium boards measures SE 2.6 to 3.4, and 0 of 40 finished on singles alone — this is the first tier where that number is zero by construction. The most common hardest step in the sample is the Pointing Pair, and the hardest anything reached is the Naked Triple. Players who read pencil marks fluently clear a Medium board noticeably faster than players relying on mental candidate tracking, who will find this the first tier that genuinely rewards writing candidates down. The full per-tier data sits in our sudoku difficulty rating guide.
Where to go next
Comfortable spotting intersections and subsets? Move up to Hard Sudoku, where a fish or a wing is always required, or drop back to Easy Sudoku to revisit singles. Prefer paper? Download the printable Medium sudoku booklet. Browse the technique index, the how to play guide, every tier on the Sudoku difficulty levels hub, or head home.
Medium Sudoku FAQ
What techniques do I need for Medium sudoku?
Full houses and singles as a baseline, plus pointing pairs, pointing triples, box line reduction and the naked or hidden subsets up to quads whenever singles run dry. At least one of those is always required, and nothing harder ever is.
How many clues does a Medium sudoku have?
27 clues out of 81 cells, a third of the grid filled in before you start.
What is a pointing pair?
A digit confined to two cells of one box that also share a row or column. It can then be erased from the rest of that row or column, since one of those two cells must hold it.
Is Medium sudoku hard?
It is a real step up from Easy, but every technique it needs still works inside a single box or line at a time — the longer fish and chain patterns only start at Hard and beyond.