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

The balance was nice. Difficulty was easier than few previous tests. I should have completed the set, but got stuck in high scattered Sudoku. I solved it later, that 6 in center was key to find and then it break through.
Wonderful themes and puzzles.
Thanks Akash.
Looking forward to the final one.
Regards,
Swaroop

Dear Admin,

I just couldn't take the SM Irregular & Hybrid Test last weekend due to Good-Friday/Easter weekend. And now I am flooded with work after a long week-end at work. Is it possible to extend the test by a day or two.

Thanks

with regards,
Daniel Victor

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

One of the best SM rounds across the years. Very nice set of sudokus and well balanced.

Favourite sudokus: 9x9 Scattered, 9x9 Irregular, 9x9 Odd Fortress

Thanks Akash!

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

really enjoyed the test by Akash. feeling happy to complete the test within time

as most have pointed out that scattered was the toughest in this round. Strangely it is but didn't felt like that. Actually i solved scattered 9x9 in less time as compared to all other variants. irregular tookk me most of the time.

favourites were arrow thermo and odd fortress not to forget 9x9 classic 1&2.

really looking forward to many such rounds from Akash and learning some creation tips too from him which may result in me creating for SM hopefully next year.

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

Though I couldn't solve many sudokus during the test, I found them good and could solve almost all. I found Irregular (9x9) toughest of all. The 5 pointer Classic-1 (9x9) took more time to solve than the 7 pointer Classic-2 (9x9). I enjoyed solving the Arrow-Thermo (9x9) and Outside-Frame (9x9) too. But my favourite of this round was Scattered (9x9). I could have done better but lost much time in Classic-1 (9x9) and Irregular (9x9), that too wasn't successful during the contest. Inspite of this, I thoroughly enjoyed solving all the grids. Each one having nice solve path. Thanks to Aakash for creating wonderful sudokus.

I did not understand what is classic and regular. Where is sudoku table?

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?	Arrow 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?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Arrow Thermo 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

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

Answer keys should be validated by atleast 2 - 3 testers. This is just my opinion. I got the keys for nearly 70% of the puzzles by the time I had finished 60% of the puzzle. Great Job Akash. I know I was supposed to co-author this with you but had to back out due to personal commitments. Really nice to see you take this up alone and you did a really good job. The easy - medium set of puzzles is a nice change from the hard sets we have seen This will bring back average solvers to the groove.

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

Glad this test was extended. I knew I was having a good day when the Irregular and Scattered (my worse fears) fell neatly.
Thanks for the test! My first top-10 in a sudoku test :)

Edited by tamz29 2019-04-24 9:57 PM

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

Congratulations to Jakub Ondrousek, Rishi Puri and Tiit Vunk for taking the top three places!

Amongst Indian participants, Congratulations to Rishi Puri, Rohan Rao and Shaheer Rahman for taking the top 3 places.

Of the 243 participants, 88 were from India and 22 from Japan. Michael(USA) was the first to start the test while Hugo van Rooijen (Netherlands) was the last participant to start the test. 40 participants completed the set within the allotted time. The median score of the test was ~54.

Thanks Akash Doulani for the puzzles!

Participants may share feedback on the results page and rate the puzzles on the contest page.

I would like to start by thanking all of you for your extremely encouraging feedback on this episode. Initially, Rishi was supposed to co-author this episode with me but he had to back out due to some personal reasons. When I submitted my puzzles to Rakesh , he pointed out that irregular sudoku was too easy and scattered sudoku had multiple solutions. He asked me to remove / add some clues. Also, he said me that hybrids were also quite easy. I decided to create another irregular and scattered sudokus . Also, I removed some givens from all the hybrids . Of all the sudokus that I created , the most satisfaction I had was for outside frame and scattered. I would like to congratulate Jakub , Rishi and Tiit for taking the top 3 spots and also Rishi , Rohan and Shaheer for being top 3 among Indians. I would like to specially thank Rakesh for his advice and feedback . Also, I thank LMI for giving me this opportunity.

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