Actually the puzzles were quite difficult earlier and our target was that 10-15 people should finish the test. So I added hints in 5 puzzles.. and now we found that it wasnt that easy either... But many could finish 8.

Anyways I am glad you all enjoyed the puzzles. :)

Also an awesome round by Janoslaw. 18 min before time was really great

Being the tester couldnt participate :(
But I got a first hand look at the puzzles which were a little more tougher then the final cut.

Gaurav reduced the difficulty of the puzzles for the Skyscraper, Circles and Arrow Path.
Overall the test had a good mix of puzzles with difficulty ranging from quite easy (Mirror Sudoku) to the diabolic Skyscraper.

I didnt find the arrow path sudoku interesting, it gets solved one box at a time and required more of scanning then anything else.

The circles puzzle was awesome. I couldnt get a start into the puzzle, during the first round of testing. The entry point was quite difficult to spot, so Gaurav added a second equally difficult entry point to the puzzle, hoping that solvers will spot at least one of these to solve the puzzle.

This was the first time I was solving a Blackout puzzle which was not created by Deb, was relieved to know that easy puzzles can also be created for this type :)

Good to see Sumit back in the fray :)

I will be creating puzzle for the next mock along with my room-mate Kshitij. Watch out for the Mock 16, as we have some interesting variations in store for you !!

Amazing Puzzles... blackout was comparatively easy when we compare to the ones created by Gaurav in the past... descriptive pairs was damn interesting.... the skyscraper ate my head!!! :D intersting mock overall... Thanks Gaurav...

Nice set of puzzles Gaurav. Wrong Skyscrapers was really great !

I also expected more players to complete the whole set, seeing that I lost much time (about 20 minutes) doing some puzzles twice (including the Skyscrapers Sudoku) but did all of them anyway (with a stupid mistake on the last cell of Blackout Sudoku...).

I suppose the fact that most puzzles were "rare" or new variants can explain it. I personnally love solving puzzles that I had never seen before. :bleh:

1] Mirror Sudoku:
R(m)C(n) = R(9-m)C(9-n) for all 4 corner boxes. In short box 1&9 and box 3&7 will have digits so that they form mirror image. (eg: R3C2 & R6C7 will have same digits)

is it "9" or "10" ? R(m)C(n)=R(10-m)C(10-n)

2] Repeatable Extra Region:
There are two extra regions of 9 cells each but digits can repeat in those regions. Both the regions contains same set of numbers, same number of times.
eg: If one region contains 1,1,2,3,4,4,5,7,9 then the other region will also contain same numbers 1,1,2,3,4,4,5,7,9

all numbers should be in the same order, right?

1] It is "10". Gaurav had already corrected it, but not in his first post.

2] Not necessarily in the same order. Both regions just need to contain the same set of numbers.

Edited by Ours brun 2010-03-08 4:39 PM

Check Diagonally Nonconsecutive Sudoku at http://janoslaw.blogspot.com/2010/05/diagonally-nonconsecutive.html