Instruction Booklet is now available: http://logicmastersindia.com/SM/201803/

Points table

A lookback at past winners of SM contests with Outside or Neighbours variations:

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Outside Sequences Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Thermo Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Couldnt complete but better than SM1. So I am happy. Nice Puzzles.
Thanks Ramesh and Rakesh.
Favourite were Outside Sequence and Thermo high pointers.

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many medium difficult puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Outside Sequences Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Renban Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little

Difficulty and points allocation for this competition remains very volatile (and nowhere near this supposed 50/40/10 target!) - with the previous round in mind I was expecting to finish so didn't bother prioritising puzzles to solve. As it was I needed a few extra minutes past 90 to finish the skyscrapers, which is something I might have prioritised if I hadn't started off confident of finishing.

Also, for some meta feedback, the feedback form itself leaves a lot to be desired. For example, I can't initially see too much difference between "many" and "most" puzzles being worth too much or too little, so instead I've interpreted "many" as meaning "some". Either way, there were four puzzles with 11-13 points (Thermo, 2-5-8, Outside Sequences and Skyscrapers) and I definitely did not solve them in roughly the same time as the distribution might imply. Usual health warning amount my mileage varying from the testers duly noted, but you did ask for feedback!

Edited by detuned 2018-03-03 3:50 AM

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Outside Sequences Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Thanks to Ramesh and Rakesh! I found these more difficult than the first two sections, but enjoyed them nonetheless.

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Consecutive Pairs Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

A very hard set.The hardest based on my solving experience were Skyscrapers (11) followed by Outside 2-5-8(13).Thermo (12) was not hard but very tricky and I kept breaking it and this alone consumed ~30-35 mins which in turn made me fall short of the set by 2 sudokus. I did really bad and feel terribly disappointed.I enjoyed the test but definitely it could have been better personally and hope to do better in the coming rounds.

Thanks for the hard and excellent sudokus Rakesh and Ramesh.My favourites of the set were 2-5-8 Outside (13) followed by CP (10).

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Below Average
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Classic Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth too much or too little

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many medium difficult puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Thermo Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Tough but enjoyed thoroughly. kudos to the authors.

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Thermo Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Great test...Favourites were the thermo 9*9 and the outside sequence 6*6..really hard challenging test.Answer keys seem to have improved,so thats a plus.
Thank you :)

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

It is mentioned in the Test page that the booklet is of size 8 pages,but the actual booklet is 9 pages.I had kept only few pages in the printer and as a result,the last page was missed out :/.
Please rectify this error as soon as possible.
thanks

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Outside Sequences Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many medium difficult puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Renban Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

I enjoyed the test a lot. I almost missed out on submitting the 9x9 Renban:), I will definitely try harder in the April round.

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Consecutive Pairs Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

I look forward to these contests and generally feel satisfied if I manage to complete most of the classics and 2-3 of the variants. This time in SM this has not been the case and so feel quite discouraged. Evidently the level of practice required is very high. This is serious business, no longer a hobby :) !

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Too hard for an SM round, which made it a bit less enjoyable.
Sudokus were good, some of the 9x9 ones had narrow break-ins.

Thanks R and R!

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Thermo Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth too much or too little

Very good logical Sudoku puzzles. It was bit harder than previous SMs but all the puzzles were having nice solving path. Totally enjoyed this test. Thanks to the LMI and authors Ramesh and Rakesh for this wonderful test.

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	2-5-8 Outside Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

:(

I thought the contest was extended, but it doesn't seem to allow me to start.

Oops. I had planned to take the test today. :(

Congratulations to Kota Morinishi, Jakub Ondrousek and Michael Ley for taking the top three places.

Amongst Indian participants, Congratulations to Rohan Rao, Aashay Patil and Kishore Kumar for taking the top 3 places.

20 participants completed the set within the allotted time. The median score of the test was 40.6.

Thanks Ramesh and Rakesh for the puzzles!

We did a post-test analysis of Top finishers' timings and found that skyscrapers were undervalued and classics overvalued by about 3-4 points. This is primarily due to our testers being relatively stronger at skyscrapers and relatively weaker at classics. This was a known fact and was adjusted for, but still the variation proved to be high enough in the end. Timings for all other variants roughly followed the points distribution pattern outlined in the IB.

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Renban Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Very nice test. Enjoyed this test a lot. Some of the Sudoku variations required good logical flow which was really nice.

Solution Booklet is available now.

Also Puzzle Booklet (without password) can now be downloaded from the contest page.

I would like to thank LMI for giving me the opportunity to co-author this round of SM contest alongside Rakesh. It was a great learning experience for me while creating Sudokus (both classics and variants) for the contest and I thoroughly enjoyed doing so.

Thanks to all the solvers for participating and providing their honest feedback on the grids. Although we got lot of mixed feedback, we will definitely work upon to improve the contents in future.

I know every solver has his/her personal liking which was obvious from the feedback but my personal favorites were Outside Sequence (9x9), Skyscraper (9x9) and 2-5-8 Outside (9x9) Sudokus.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank Rakesh for all the support and guidance provided by him to accomplish the task.

Thanks Ramesh for being the major contributor to the set, and Prasanna for testing the puzzles. I contributed Outside Sequence and Consecutive Pairs, and was aiming for approachable level of difficulty to balance out the set. Both the 6x6s were gentle ones and the 9x9s were moderate.

Classics and 6x6s did not have high points, all were easy to moderate. The Skyscraper 9x9 was one sudoku which solves logically but takes time also. A majority of the participants did spend a lot of time on this, some either breaking the sudoku or parking it for later. Thermo 9x9 proved to be a tricky one as we had some participants who just breezed through it as also others who spent 30+ minutes on it. Most of the top solvers did outside sequence 9x9 quickly, but some of them got stuck here too, perhaps, due to the variant being relatively new (introduced in WSC2017). 258 Outside was again new but similar logic/concept has been seen earlier in normal outside sudoku and 234 outside sudoku. Ramesh was able to come up with a grid which was not trivial and needed different pieces of logic. The other two - Renban 9x9 and consecutive pairs 9x9 were relatively easy with multiple starting points. As authors, we are satisfied with the overall set, although we knew that it is a bit on the harder side. Also, it was also interesting to observe different competitors finding different sudokus tougher.

Of course, we missed out on some top participants due to the contest ending earlier than anticipated. Some of the highlights of the test from our perspective -
(1) Tomasz Skalski finishing with 70 points, the first competitor on the scoreboard. Reassured us that PB is fine!
(2) Sinchai finishing the set, the first to do so, we waited a while for this!
(3) Kota finishing the set in less than 59 minutes, amazing!
(4) Rohan finishing the set with 7 seconds to spare, that was a tight finish!

On to the next test now.

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Consecutive Pairs Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little