SUDOKU
ExpertUsefulness: Medium

Coloring

For one candidate, colour the ends of conjugate pairs alternately and propagate. Contradictions in the colouring drive eliminations.

Alternating colours ripple along conjugate pairs; a clash exposes a false colour.

patterneliminatesolved

How to spot it

  1. 1Find conjugate pairs for a digit and colour their ends opposite colours.
  2. 2Propagate the colours along connected pairs.
  3. 3Two same-colour cells in one house make that colour false; a cell seeing both colours loses the digit.

When to use

As a visual entry point to chain logic.

Common mistake

Colouring across a non-conjugate link, which breaks the logic.