Beginner Sudoku Puzzles (Newbie Level)

Updated 23 August 2026

Newbie is Suuudokuuu’s beginner tier, the gentlest possible introduction to the grid. A Newbie board starts with 37 of the 81 cells already filled. Every remaining cell can be found with the two simplest deductions in the game: a full house, where a unit is down to its last empty cell, and a naked single, where a cell’s row, column and box between them already account for eight of the nine digits. That is not a description of a typical Newbie board — it is the rule the generator enforces: a candidate board is only accepted as Newbie once a solver restricted to full houses and naked singles has finished it. No pencil marks, no elimination logic and no guessing are ever required.

What makes a puzzle Newbie

Full House and Naked Single are the first two strategies Suuudokuuu’s solving engine tries on every board at every difficulty, because they are the cheapest deductions to verify. What sets Newbie apart is that the tier is defined as the boards that never need anything else. Strip more digits and a solver eventually stalls without hidden singles, intersections or subsets, and the generator throws those boards back rather than labelling them Newbie. If you can read a row and name the one digit missing from it, you already have every skill a Newbie puzzle asks for.

How hard is it, honestly

Every Newbie board is rated on the SE (Sudoku Explainer) scale the moment it is created. Our published sample of 40 Newbie boards measures SE 1.5 to 2.3 — the very bottom of a scale that runs to 12, and below what most SE-based charts even bother to name. Newbie exists to teach the row-column-box overlap that every later technique builds on, not to test it. The measured range for this tier and every other is published in our sudoku difficulty rating guide. Treat a fast, mistake-free Newbie solve as confirmation you’re ready for Easy, not as a benchmark worth chasing for its own sake.

Where to go next

Ready for a puzzle that needs one more idea? Move up to Easy Sudoku, which adds the hidden single on top of everything here. Prefer paper? Download the printable Newbie sudoku booklet, or see the sudoku for seniors guide for large-print and comfort options. Browse the full technique index or the how to play guide, or head back home and see all six tiers on the Sudoku difficulty levels hub.