This is the first time I am sharing my experience of playing an online SM round. The twisted classics part was very easy and straightforward. The hybrid part was too difficult for beginners like me. I did all except the two big pointers which ultimately gave a lackluster of 32 points. It's too exasperating to solve sudokus online. I have to do that as I don't have a printer. Anyway, those who solve offline always have an advantage. I like to thank Kumaresan for creating marvelous sudokus.

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 - Palindrome (50-50) 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?	Renban - Palindrome (50-50) Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Closest I've ever been to getting bonus on a SM test. I'll get it someday!

Favorites:

Linked Sudoku 1
Overlapping Sudoku 2
Renban-Palindrome 2

If the time gets over, are the submitted solutions automatically posted? I was not able to click on 'Submit All Answers' as it said time is over.

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 - Palindrome (50-50) 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?	Renban - Palindrome (50-50) 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 won't suit this set in any way so I must thank Kumaresan for the fantastic set of sudokus to end the SM season of the year.

Favourites: 9x9 Renban-Palindrome, 6x6 Killer-LittleKiller, 9x9 Overlapping

Its nice to see the variant-split hybrid type continuing after it was first seen in Kumaresan's wonderful ASC round.

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?	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?	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?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Renban - Palindrome (50-50) 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?	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?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Odd Even - 2Odd2Even 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?	Renban - Palindrome (50-50) 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

Excellent test. Perfect difficulty level. Really enjoyed it. Favourites were Renban Palindrome 2 and Linked 2.
Killer Little Killer set burned up my time, so have to settle for a below average score.

I felt the Renban Palindrome could have been 14 points and the KLK could have been 18 instead.

Thank You, Kumaresan sir!

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 - Palindrome (50-50) 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?	Linked 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

Mu usual comments--truly excellent logical puzzles but no where near enough time for me. Of the puzzles I had time for I enjoyed the linked sudokus best. I had never seen that type before. The last puzzle I tried was the small killer/little killer which seemed really hard.

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 - Palindrome (50-50) 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?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly 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?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little

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?	Killer - Little Killer 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

Thanks for this very interesting set Kumaresan! Really enjoyed solving them. killer-little 9x9 was an amazing creation. Spent a good amount of time during the contest but left it. Other favourites were renban-palindrome 9x9, and overlapping 9x9.

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?	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

Very nice set of puzzles. I felt the points given to classic sudoku depending on the difficulty was really accurate.

I solved overlap after completing the round. Great construction. I was expecting a similar overlap which was mentioned in IB. This is tbe first time I saw this kind of overlap and really enjoyed it when I solved. Should have tried it in normal time.

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 - Palindrome (50-50) Sudoku
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

A well-balanced set with the right mix of hard and easy Sudokus. I found the Killer-Little Killer hybrid tougher than the Renban-Palindrome one.

Thanks Kumaresan for the wonderful set!

Thanks for a test.
Somehow I found the 4-point classics harder than the 8-point classics.
The Linked portion was very nice, I thought the Overlap 2 was probably undervalued because there was so much to fill in.
The Hybrids were really fun. The 50/50 nature of the Renban/Palindrome made it really prone to guessing.
So I agree with a lot of comments that the Little Killer/Killer was harder - because it is difficult to bifurcate around such a wide open grid.
Nonetheless, the 9x9 Little Killer/Killer was beautiful and I'm glad to have found what I think is the intended solution path.

I would like to extend further thanks and congratulations to LMI and the authors who ran this year's SM.
Looking forward to future years.

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

Extremely elated to have finished SM on a positive note.

For some reason, I decided to start with the Killer Little Killer (after finishing the 6x6 KLK) and could't get the logical start for about 14 minutes.I stopped it and decided not to 'risk' at this point to go to the Renban Palindrome and waste more time. Instead, I hungrily lapped all other points available from rest of the sudokus.

At the end, I had 30 minutes to get LK(14) and both the RP. Another hard look for about 4 minutes yielded nothing in the KLK. I went to the RP and finished the 6X6 with ease.With the clock ticking down, I decided to guess,if needed, very early in Renban palindrome and after 2 guesses and contradictions, I got the logical flow and finished it.

KLK seemed insurmountable until I saw the absolutely devilish piece of logic involving 12 in Boxes 7&8. Even after that, the sudoku wasn't budging and I guessed,got a contradiction and moved on with the logical possibility and finished.

To sum up, this round was a rugged ride and anything but smooth but I enjoyed solving the set very much.Will be trying out both KLK and RP later to find the logical paths.

Thanks to Kumaresan for a beautfiful hybrid round with absolutely fantastic & handcrafted solvepaths and to Rakesh who has been the pillar for organizing SM and PR rounds !!

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

It was great test. I could not solve Killer-Little Killer during the test. I solved it off line and enjoyed it. It was very logical and nicely constructed Sudoku which makes it my favorite in this test.

Nice set of Sudokus. It was fun solving. LKL (9x9) was too tough..........should have been assigned more points.
I had made a claim on 6x6 Killer-Little Killer. When can I expect the result of that???

It was resolved at 10:50 pm today