The Dutch puzzle association WCPN is proud and excited to announce a fun online sudoku contest in the last week of 2025!
The contest consists of eight tougher sudoku variants. At the time that fits you best between 24 and 31 december you can start the contest and you then have 2,5 hours time to submit as many answers as possible. The puzzles are in pdf-format, like the grand prix and (qualifiers for) national championships.
The puzzle below was not selected for the contest, but suits very well as appetizer. In the coming days I will publish a few more appetizers. Enjoy!
Sudoku - XV
Solve online in Sudokupad. (If you want to participate in the contest, it is recommended to solve this puzzle on paper too. ;)
The contest is open to everybody who loves sudokus. The only thing you have to do is register yourself (at no cost) here. You can find the instruction booklet (IB) with all the info here.
Verwende die üblichen Sudoku-Regeln.
Alle horizontal und vertikal benachbarten Ziffern mit der Summe 10 sind mit X markiert, alle horizonal und vertikal benachbarten Ziffern mit der Summe 5 sind mit V markiert.
Lösungscode: Spalte 3
am 21. Dezember 2025, 11:31 Uhr von HaSe
Absolut beautiful puzzle. Aesthetic top plus. Logic path very nice.
am 21. Dezember 2025, 01:18 Uhr von Tws
Schöne Konstruktion mit klassischen Regeln. Vielen Dank!
am 19. Dezember 2025, 07:36 Uhr von SennyK
Hi! I got stuck for quite a bit mid solve, but then realized some restrictions and the solve was really satisfying. Answering your question - aesthaetics is very neat and deserves higher rating. I think some people could find your puzzle harder than expected 3* and therefore did not enjoy the solve which was to hard for them, resulting in lower rating. And also lack of solution check can be the reason - I know that there is no solution check on paper, but we are online now - so why not to use it if it is available? Let people decide whether they want to use it or not :-)
am 19. Dezember 2025, 06:35 Uhr von Richard
I am surprised by the beauty rating of this puzzle.
I had in mind that this one was exceptionally nice, in aesthaetics as well as in logic solve path but the rating tells otherwise. (It has the lowest rating of all my published puzzles in the last year.) So, for learning purposes: Where did I go wrong in setting this one?
Feedback is highly appreciated!
am 18. Dezember 2025, 15:31 Uhr von Franjo
Beautiful setting with elegant use of the negative constraint. Thank you very much for creating and sharing this lovely puzzle.
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Thanks for your kind words Franjo. And not only for this one. :)
Unfortunately not every solver agrees with you...
am 18. Dezember 2025, 14:44 Uhr von Snookerfan
Very nice, thanks!
am 18. Dezember 2025, 14:21 Uhr von PinkNickels
Very nice!
am 18. Dezember 2025, 12:11 Uhr von Ragna
Fun puzzle! Thank you. :-)
am 18. Dezember 2025, 10:03 Uhr von Piatato
Pretty layout, and as usual for me with xv sudoku, quite a torturous puzzle! :)