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?	Average 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?	Average 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?	Average 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?	Overlapping 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?	XV 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?	Overlapping 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?	XV 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?	Overlapping Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Enjoyed the test, nice puzzle designs!

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?	Linked Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

A great start to SM 2018 ! I hope the trend continues in all respects and aspects :).I had a very smooth run during the test.Not breaking any sudokus helped a lot.

I really enjoyed solving the Linked Classics(14 points) ,overlapping(12) and Expanded(7) as well.Consecutive(11) was the hardest to crack for me following by XV(9).I felt that the set is on the harder side and should be difficult to complete but there was no doubt about the fun quotient.I enjoyed a lot .Well done Akash !

XV Sudoku 1 has an error i guess... Ive managed to solve the sudoku with the adjacent "x"'s and yet the solution says wrong -

136452
452361
645123
213645
324516
561234

In your solution, in column 1 first two cells are 1 and 4. They add to 5 but there is no V symbol.

Average Sudoku 1 - also showing wrong solution

125436 (4 is the average of 5+3)
364125
456312
213654
632541
541263

:( :(

In your 4th row, the last three digits are 6 5 4. 5 is the average of 4 and 6, but there is no line there. (also 5th column, reading from the top 3 2 1)

Edited by davep 2018-01-13 9:53 PM

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?	Expanded 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?	Classic 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?	Average 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?	Linked 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?	Expanded 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?	Overlapping Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

The layout of the Overlapping Sudoku was different from the sample sudoku. This created a little confusion. May be the intent itself was to find out which boxes are overlapping. It would have been helpful, if the similar layout (Overlapping Sudoku) was provided in the sample also

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

Good point. The IB puzzle layout was intentionally kept different from the PB puzzle in this case. The puzzle itself was very easy, though. I don't think it would have affected much solving-wise, except for the surprise in the visual part of layout.

Good puzzles, but really not a huge fan of 6x6 puzzles that are actually non-trivial.
I feel the best strategy is to trial-and-error through them since they are hardly worth any points rather than logically working them out (which takes longer).
When I look at the 6x6 XV or the 6x6 Consecutive, I am not convinced that these are great introductions for solvers before they tackle the larger 9x9.
I think the reason they are worth a lot less is because they are more prone to lucky guessers.

I suggest either: A/ having it worth more, since the steps are non-straightforward or
B/ have the 6x6 actually be simpler since they are worth way less points.

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?	Linked Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

This is an interesting point to discuss.

So first of all, at least for this contest, the test solvers have solved the 6x6s and 9x9s logically. So guesswork did not factor into the timings, and the points were calculated and assigned based on the timings and not any external factors. So in that sense, I'd say at least in theory that they weren't intentionally undervalued or given a lower value 'because' of a quicker solving path via guesswork. So I don't think A can be done here since it would just be random subjective overvaluing.

But about them not being great introductions, I would love to discuss further because I see it going both ways. I think that if there is an introduction, an intermediate and then a final level, then what you say is definitely the way to go because then we can have the intermediate preparing solvers to tackle the regular difficulties while the introduction can be easy to be most approachable. But since we just have a 6x6 directly leading into a 9x9, a straightforward 6x6 leading into a difficult 9x9 doesn't do much in preparing you for it. So personally I think it is fine to have some easy ones and some difficult ones among the 6x6 variants within the format used here, to give options both of approachable variants and of variants where, if you attempt the 6x6 logically, you'll be better equipped to deal with higher levels and difficulties.