The 5 Sudoku Techniques Every Beginner Should Learn First

There are dozens of named Sudoku techniques, and trying to learn them all at once is the fastest way to get discouraged. You don't need dozens. Master these five, in this order, and you'll solve the large majority of easy, medium, and even many hard puzzles — without ever guessing. We'll walk through each one with a worked grid diagram so you can see exactly what the pattern looks like on a real board.

Why techniques beat practice alone

Grinding through hundreds of puzzles by trial and error builds slow, shaky habits. Learning a technique teaches your eye a pattern — and once you can recognise a pattern instantly, you stop reasoning from scratch every time. That instant recognition is what makes stronger solvers look fast; they're not thinking harder, they're seeing shapes they already know.

So the goal isn't to memorise steps, it's to see the shape. Learn these five one at a time, get comfortable recognising each on a real grid before adding the next, and give yourself a week or two with each. Here they are in the order they build on each other.

1. Scanning

Scanning is the foundation everything else rests on. You pick one digit and ask "where can it go?" across the board, using its existing placements to project elimination lines into the empty regions. Start with the digit that appears most often — it gives you the most lines to work with.

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1Eine 5 in dieser Spalte und eine 5 in dieser Zeile blockieren bereits vier Zellen der Box.

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2Zwei weitere 5en — in einer Zeile und einer Spalte — blockieren den Rest, bis auf eine Zelle.

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3Nur diese Zelle bleibt offen. Die 5 kommt hierhin.

In the sequence above, the existing copies of the digit send lines through the box, and those lines corner it into one cell. That's the whole idea: known digits eliminate positions until only one remains. Master this and you'll finish most easy puzzles on scanning alone. More detail is in the scanning guide.

2. Naked Singles

A naked single is an empty cell whose row, column, and box together already contain eight different digits — leaving exactly one candidate, which must go in. No single house does all the work; it's the three combined that leave one option standing.

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1Zeile 5 hat bereits 2, 6, 8 und 9 gesetzt — vier Ziffern sind ausgeschlossen.

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2Spalte 5 schließt auch 1 und 5 aus — sechs Ziffern erledigt.

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3Die mittlere Box schließt 7 und 3 aus — acht Ziffern sind weg.

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4Nur die 4 bleibt übrig. Sie muss hierhin.

Watch each house strip away possibilities until a single digit survives. Naked singles are the placement that most deductions ultimately resolve to, so learning to spot them — especially once you keep pencil marks — is essential. See the naked single guide for more.

3. Hidden Singles

This is the highest-value technique for a beginner: hidden singles place more digits than anything else, and they hide in cells that still look busy. A hidden single is a digit with only one legal cell in a house, even though that cell may still show room for other digits.

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1Zwei Zeilen haben bereits eine 7 gesetzt und blockieren vier Zellen dieser Box.

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2Zwei Spalten fügen ebenfalls eine 7 hinzu und blockieren drei weitere.

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3Nur diese Zelle bleibt offen — die 7 kommt hierhin.

The winning cell doesn't look special — it isn't down to one option on its own. It's simply the only place in the house that particular digit can go. Train yourself to ask, for each digit, "does this house have just one spot left for it?" and hidden singles will start jumping out. The hidden single guide shows more examples.

4. Cross-Hatching

Cross-hatching is scanning made deliberate. Instead of sweeping the whole board loosely, you pick one box and one digit, and work only the three rows and three columns crossing that box until the digit has exactly one home. It's the fastest way to finish a box that's nearly full.

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1Eine 3 in dieser Zeile und in dieser Zeile blockieren bereits sechs Zellen der Box.

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2Zwei Spalten mit einer 3 blockieren den Rest — bis auf eine Zelle.

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3Nur diese Zelle bleibt übrig. Die 3 kommt hierhin.

Working one box at a time like this keeps your search organised so you never skip a placement — a common cause of feeling stuck. The cross-hatching guide demonstrates it on a single box.

5. Pointing Pairs

The first real elimination technique — the first one that prunes candidates rather than placing a digit directly. When a candidate inside a box is confined to a single row or column, it points outward, letting you remove that candidate from the rest of that line beyond the box.

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1In dieser Box passt Kandidat 6 nur in diese beiden Zellen — beide in derselben Spalte.

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2Also muss die 6 innerhalb der Box in dieser Spalte landen — sie kann nirgendwo sonst in der Spalte vorkommen.

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3Die übrigen 6-Kandidaten der Spalte sind verschwunden.

It doesn't place a number itself; it clears possibilities so that other techniques can then find a single. Pointing pairs are the most productive intermediate pattern, and the moment simple singles dry up, they're usually what gets a puzzle moving again. The pointing pair guide animates the full elimination.

How they work together

These five aren't isolated tricks — they form a loop. Scanning and cross-hatching place obvious digits; each placement you make feeds naked and hidden singles elsewhere; and when those run dry, a pointing pair prunes candidates so new singles appear. Round and round until the grid fills. On easy and medium puzzles, that loop is the entire solve.

What to learn after these five

Once these feel automatic, you're ready for their bigger siblings — naked and hidden pairs and triples, box-line reduction, and eventually the first genuinely advanced pattern, the X-Wing. Our complete strategy guide lays out the full progression in order, and the techniques index has an animated walkthrough for every method from beginner to expert.

But don't rush ahead. The five above will carry you further than you'd expect, and rushing to advanced techniques before the basics are automatic just slows you down.

Frequently asked questions

Which technique should I actually learn first?

Hidden singles, if you had to pick one — they place more digits than any other technique and appear in every puzzle at every level. But scanning is the foundation you'll use to find them, so learn the two together.

Do I need pencil marks for these five?

Scanning, cross-hatching, and hidden singles you can often do in your head on easier puzzles. Naked singles and pointing pairs become much easier once you write candidates in. As you move up in difficulty, turn notes on — they're the surface every technique beyond these five depends on.

How long until these feel automatic?

With a little daily practice, a couple of weeks per technique is realistic. Recognition — seeing the shape without consciously reasoning — is the goal, and it comes from repetition, not from memorising definitions.

What's the difference between scanning and cross-hatching?

They're the same underlying idea at different scales. Scanning sweeps the whole board for one digit; cross-hatching focuses that sweep on a single box using the rows and columns crossing it. Cross-hatching is just more systematic.

Practise these now

Reading about a technique isn't the same as recognising it under your own eyes. Open a solo puzzle and consciously look for each of these five as you solve — name them as you spot them. That deliberate naming is what turns a definition into instinct.