sagar9024 - 2016-07-07 1:42 PM
I am a beginner and would like to know the basic techniques, trick, and thought process to get better at solving sudoku.
I want to know from where should I start practicing from and how much time a quiz(on the basis of its difficulty) should take.
For the second sentence, try this link
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/downloads.asp?testType=10 . There are archived PDFs of our past Beginners Sudoku Contests, with time allotment and points distribution indicating difficulty for each Sudoku on each contest, and also results from when those contests were active to compare. Remember that the world's best players have also participated, so don't be discouraged by the higher scores.
About basic techniques, tricks and thought process.. I can link you to a list of techniques here -
http://www.sudokuwiki.org/Strategy_Families . However, I would add two points.
1. Don't go beyond the 'basic strategies' for now, and even when you get used to those, you don't have to go beyond X and Y wing. The rest are noted just to be comprehensive and usually don't appear in competitions.
2. No matter how much you read the techniques, you will only get better at using them the more you solve Sudokus. The difficulty is there - knowing when and what to use and where to spot it. The best way to guide in this is if you post images here on the forum of partially solved Sudokus, and someone among us can help you with the next step.