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Feedback and Questions

I've received a lot of interesting comments and questions from Sudoku fans over the last few years and this page is where I try to answer them. I'm also directing Str8ts feedback here. Please feel free to drop me a note on the side of the page. Or you can email me directly at andrew@str8ts.com.

Post a Comment or Question here...

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If you are writing to alert me of a problem (thank-you!) please include a url to the page in question.
Can get fixes in quicker if I know immediately where to go.

Many thanks to all the people who have helped improve the solvers and strategies with their feedback!

Tuesday 8-Jul-2025

... by: George Heppolette, United Kingdom

Sorry but I cannot create my own killer sudokus with your new version. I cannot construct cages or enter cage values on my Chromebook. Any suggestions please.

Andrew Stuart writes:

I don’t have a chromebook to test unfortunately but I have tested on similar devices. Are you seeing v1.9 in the lower left corner? Do you have a keyboard to refresh the page with [CRTR]+[F5]
I found a video on accessing function keys
https://youtu.be/8mpbdd6nIws
Lets start with that

Saturday 5-Jul-2025

... by: romboc, Canada

Sorry, but this version is still a royal pain. Your version from three days ago was much better and something I liked. The latest version does NOT cancel out the previous entries from a puzzle, but rather it tries to revert to it as one starts to enter new information, constantly and repeatedly, both using the new "Paint" option as well as the old "click on the border" approach. No idea why, but frequently the new number and operand disappear and have to be reentered, sometimes several times!

Andrew Stuart writes:

I have duplicated that on my ipad. Can you confirm what device you are using?
Not duplicating it on PC so must be some Apple/Safari difference and there is no debugger on iPad

I think I’m going to have to separate the cage making from the clue entering and make it a user selection
Just too difficult with fat fingers on an ipad to try and do both at the same time

Will update as soon as

Friday 4-Jul-2025

... by: Laura, Canada

The killer sudoku solver (https://www.sudokuwiki.org/KillerSudoku.aspx) is not allowing me to enter anything. Not sure if it is an issue with my computer or the website. I honestly preferred the borders because I could use those on my phone.

Andrew Stuart writes:

Yes it doesn't work on some devices or poorly. I thought it was perfectly fine on desktop. This morning I updated the 6x6 forgetting the 9x9 uses the same code so probably broke the 9x9. As I have guests at the moment it might be a tonight or the morning before I can figure it out

Thursday 3-Jul-2025

... by: Russell, Australia

When entering a number in the small panel the corresponding column and row automatically eliminates the number. By the time all the numbers are entered the puzzle is half solved, often leaving solved cells. Not really fun. This wasn't the case when I started using this site.

https://www.sudokuwiki.org/sudokufeedback.aspx

Andrew Stuart writes:

Try with "auto clear" turned off. I think that might be what you are missing
Or you can uncheck "show canidates" if you want to print with just clues

Thursday 26-Jun-2025

... by: hpweiss, Boston MA

I am hoping for guidance on how to build Alternating Inference Chains efficiently. A straightforward algorithm which just create chains by picking a starting point and appending strong or weak links quickly a myriad of long chains and runs forever.

I notice that the SudokuWiki finds chains very quickly.

Thank you in advance.

Andrew Stuart writes:

Big topic this one. Two ways but you are still searching a 'branching tree'. Depth-first and breadth-first. Depth-first is easiest and it is as you describe. Go through all the points. But you have to cap the depth. I think I use 20. Breadth-first I implemented using Dancing Links which and is superior in speed and better chains and has no cap. But is very memory intensive so it is not the one used on the server. Some people build up a collection of all the links (also required for dancing links) and process that rather than going over the board. However the consensus I've had from conversations is there is no short cut. Since chains are bi-directional you get twice as many as you need but the cost of detecting if a second chain is the reverse of a previous one can be greater than just processing it anyway. Lastly you have to collect and sort the chains into a list based on what rules you think one chain is better than another

My AIC work is still 90% of the cpu run time and would love to optimise. I don’t think it is particularly fast I think the server is fast.

Tuesday 24-Jun-2025

... by: Ron Winkler, California, US

Why was the auto advance option removed from the solver?

Andrew Stuart writes:

Recently some browsers have changed or reset how cookies are processed so a lot of saved settings get dropped. That leads people to think the behaviour of the solver is glitchy they just haven't realised something got unchecked. Having the same issue with auto clear. But I think auto-tab is almost always the default behaviour for number entry on the small board. Opportunity to declutter a bit more. You don't usually have it on?

Sunday 22-Jun-2025

... by: chris, United Kingdom

hi andrew great site keeps me ocupied for hours keep up the excellent good work

Small problem on the Killer solver page small grid showing the cage totals. When hovering over the cage numbers cage variable numbers no longer visible now shows "illegal cage clue and size!" the same for all cage numbers

Hope this makes Scence cheers Chris

URL https://www.sudokuwiki.org/KillerSudoku.aspx

Andrew Stuart writes:

Thanks for spotting that, silly bug from the recent update. Fixed now!

Friday 20-Jun-2025

... by: John, Canada

On the Killer solver the cage window is showing "illegal cage clue and size" for all cages.

Andrew Stuart writes:

Thanks for the alert. Fixed now

Thursday 19-Jun-2025

... by: Tom, France

I seem to be unable to delete unwanted numbers. For example, the 1 in J9 is redundant; the 8 in A5 also. Further, the puzzle appears to be solving itself, incorrectly. Or is it my finger trouble?

Andrew Stuart writes:

Try unchecking “auto clear”. I think that’s it

You’re not the first to ask me about this so there is something not quite right with the user interface. I’m releasing a new version tomorrow so I’m scrapping the auto clear effect on editing the candidates. That should really be just about editing the small board.

Thursday 19-Jun-2025

... by: Helper, CANADA

The Solve Path is not working

Andrew Stuart writes:

Left a typo 's' in the code updating last night,
Fixed now, [CTRL]+[F5]

Thanks for the alert

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Thank-you everyone for all your questions and contributions.