Sudoku
9 × 9 · Easy
Write 1 to 9 once in every row, every column and every 3 by 3 box.
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Easy sudoku
Nine by nine, and every square can be found one at a time.
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Sudoku, Answer Key
9 × 9 · Easy
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Or take one that is already made
Four sheets, each a two-page PDF: the puzzles, then the answer key on its own page.
Easy sudoku, one big grid9 × 9 · Easy · 1 puzzleDownload PDF ↓
Easy sudoku, two to a page9 × 9 · Easy · 2 puzzlesDownload PDF ↓
Easy sudoku, four to a page9 × 9 · Easy · 4 puzzlesDownload PDF ↓
Easy sudoku, letters A to I9 × 9 · Easy · letters · 2 puzzlesDownload PDF ↓Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.
Easy has a precise meaning on this page. Every one of these 9x9 puzzles can be finished by repeatedly finding a square where only one number fits, so at every point in the solve there is a next move and it can be found by looking. Nothing has to be held in mind while trying something else, and nothing ever needs guessing.
They start with 36 or 37 of the 81 squares filled. That floor is a choice: the maker could take more away and the puzzles would still fall to the same simple move, but a nearly empty grid looks daunting whether or not it is, and an easy sheet is for someone deciding whether they like sudoku. On a 36-clue grid there are 45 squares left to write.
The four ready-made sheets hold the same kind of puzzle in four layouts. One big grid gives a single puzzle the whole page, for a first 9x9 or for anyone who wants room. Two to a page suits homework or a short sitting, four to a page is a week of mornings on one sheet of paper, and the letters sheet uses A to I in place of the numbers, two grids to the page.
If these start to feel automatic, the medium page is the next step. Its puzzles need one extra idea, looking for the only place a number can go rather than the only number a square can take, and the explanation on that page shows how to spot it without pencil marks.
How many ways into an easy sudoku each sheet gives
Every easy grid here starts with at least one square that has only one possible number, but how many varies more than the clue count suggests. The one big grid offers six of them before anything is written. The two to a page sheet offers nine in its first puzzle and three in its second, the four to a page sheet four, four, seven and five, and the letters sheet three in each of its two grids.
Clues barely differ across the same nine puzzles: eight start with 36 and the first on the four to a page sheet with 37. So for a nervous first attempt, the first puzzle on the two to a page sheet is the friendliest start on this page, and the letters grids, with three ways in each, are the ones that need the most patient looking.
Scanning for the only number that fits a square
The move that solves every puzzle on this page works from a square outward. Pick an empty square, read along its row, down its column and around its three by three box, and note which of 1 to 9 already appear. If eight different numbers turn up, the ninth is the answer. Squares in a crowded row or a nearly full box are the quickest to check.
Each number written makes the squares around it easier, because it removes that number from three places at once, so an easy 9x9 tends to speed up as it goes. The label promises that there is always at least one such square waiting until the grid is full, which is why no notes or pencil marks are needed at this level.
Common questions
Do the easy sudoku need pencil marks?
No. Every easy grid here always has at least one square where only one number fits, right up to the last square, so it can be finished by looking and writing answers alone. Pencil marks do no harm, but they are not needed until the medium or hard pages.
Why do the easy puzzles start with more clues than the medium ones?
Because a sparse grid looks hard even when it is not. The maker stops taking numbers away from an easy puzzle at 36, although every easy puzzle on this page could lose at least three more pairs of clues and still be solved the same way. Medium puzzles on these sheets start with 28 to 30.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.