120 minutes would have been more appropriate - at least couple of players could have completed, but I'm not sure.
Some of the puzzles were very hard - as I see from the score page, lots of players last submitted puzzles long time before their scheduled end time (e.g. Ulrich 23 minutes)

In any case, I thought it was a nice theme, and a nice set of puzzles. I especially liked NonConsecutive - I have never seen (or thought about) an NC puzzle with only odd or even digits.

I made an all even NC "Getting Even" for Mutant Sudoku, but I enjoyed Gotroch's just as much here. I'm inspired to attempt a 2-number NC sometime soon. The challenge isn't getting a valid puzzle, so much as getting an interesting puzzle that a normal person can solve. I also completely expected the Kropki to have no dots and enjoyed solving that puzzle with negative inference as well.

My biggest downfall was starting on the Instructionless. Looking at it while the test was printing was a perfect use of the time, but then breaking the puzzle and catching it on checking, only to restart, was not a good use of 15 minutes for 30 points. While the test might have timed perfectly without us making mistakes, with so many hard puzzles I bet a few of us, myself included, found needing to start over or from a fresh printout to be absolutely necessary.

Edited by motris 2011-05-30 7:13 AM

Good luck with 2-digits NC - it sounds too difficult to make (as well as to solve)
Missing dots in Kropki was very much expected line and it fitted the theme perfectly, but there were at least 3 posts saying "hey, the pdf file has some problem and I can't see the dots in Kropki". We edited those posts during the test, and unedited later.

The first time I encountered nonconsecutive was in a section of Japanese nanpure variants that was consecutive and then suddenly lost all the bars. It was a really fun discovery. I suppose I'm fully spoiled to get the "no dots is not a problem" experience now, but I can appreciate the comments others had on the Kropki.

One thing I've learned with making NC is that it is incredibly easy to specify just 1 puzzle but very difficult for a human to appreciate the packing constraints that give it just one solution. That's why I liked the smoothness of the NC on this test a whole lot, for doing a very limiting theme. But to show it's not impossible, these six givens form a valid 1-digit NC, but I've yet to work through the whole puzzle logically to get to the solution:

_ _ _ | _ _ _ | _ _ _
_ 3 _ | _ _ _ | _ _ _
_ _ _ | _ _ _ | _ 3 _
------+-------+------
_ _ 3 | _ _ _ | _ _ _
_ _ _ | _ _ 3 | _ _ _
_ _ _ | _ _ _ | _ _ _
------+-------+------
_ _ _ | _ 3 _ | _ _ _
_ _ _ | _ _ _ | 3 _ _
_ _ _ | _ _ _ | _ _ _

Excellent puzzles, Jakub!
Lost lot of time in "which digit is missing" because i forgot a rule that all digits on the connected green line are different; realizing it just in time.
the instructionless puzzle is still intriguing me... can anyone help in letting know the instructions?

Best regards.

Edited by harmeet 2011-05-30 12:20 PM

I must admit that I didn't get it for a while.
Instead of revealing the answer, let me give you a clue.

Thats good to know, I guessed once towards the end knowing time was running out and I didn't want to miss submission by few seconds again

Hi,

I submitted 7 correct answers and it shows as 0/7. I sent in answers to Nonconsecutive, Kropki, Jigsaw, Toroidal, Incomplete Sums, Draw a Jigsaw and Which Digit is Missing? My user name is shreyas2k6 and I'm Shreyas for India.

Please check the same. I worked really hard on these puzzles :)

I thought you exactly know why you have got 0 even after submitting 7 puzzles correctly.

I played to the theme of "Something is Missing" , For Instructionless -missed typing the 3 in column A answer of 249157(3)86, need to get myself a new keyboard ....
organisers can this be given a marginal benefit of doubt, rest 17 nos are in correct order

But the puzzle was the best i liked, difference was same as the box no ... nice one !!

Edited by utkaarsh 2011-05-30 1:59 PM

Unlike puzzle tests, in Sudoku tests we don't allow any overrides.
No points for for missing a digit OR swapping 2 digits OR typing same digits twice (all of these happen pretty regularly)

The only override we allow in Sudoku tests is row/column swaps (i.e. entering Row A digits in Row B and vice versa) OR if a given clue is typed wrongly.

I thought the puzzles were all beautiful. I particularly loved "Draw A Jigsaw".

After performing quite poorly on the test, I've since gone through and solved them all. I eventually got through all of them quite smoothly, with the exception of the toroidal sudoku, so I'm wondering if I missed an easier break-in there. Here's how I could solve it:

1. Note several immediate pairs that need to be separated (4-4-4, 9-9, 8-8).
2a. If the column separator is index 0 (before column 1), the second 4-4 forces the row separator to index 0 (so classical sudoku). But then the bottom right square can't have a 5.
2b. Column separator index 1 forces row separator index 1 by the pairs from step 1.
2c. Column separator index 2 forces row separator index 1 or 2 to separator the 9-9 pair. In row 7, the 8 can go in two places, forming two potential 8-8 pairs, none of which are separater by column index 2 or row index 1.

We're left with options (1,1) and (2,2).

3. In row four, the 1 must go in column 1 with either option.

4?. Looking at row 7, columns 7 and 8 can only contain 19 and 18, respectively. Here, I somehow deduced that these must be 9, 1, forcing option (1,1). I can't figure out this step anymore at the moment.


Cheers
Robert

fair enough

During these 23 minutes, I managed to break the "Draw a Jigsaw" puzzle twice - it wasn't that difficult, but placing the same digit twice in the same area surely doesn't help. I wonder how many chances I get to beat Thomas on a Sudoku contest...

Got it... so easy with the clue... thanks for not sharing the instructions.

Edited by harmeet 2011-05-30 4:54 PM

Could anyone please show the break-in for the Draw A Jigsaw?

RJH0723: Let me know if this is not detailed enough.

1. Consider the 4 in the last column, and the 2 in the second to last column. Note that the 2's area can't escape to the bottom left, and deduce that there's not enough space for the 2 and 4 to be in separate areas.
2. Consider the 2 in the first row, and note that its area can't reach row four, so it needs to connect to one of the given 1s.

Thanks. I got it from there. I just needed a place to start.

Thanks for a really nice test, Gotroch. Nonconsecutive with all evens was cool, Incomplete Sums and Which Digit is Missing both had great presentation and were good puzzles in themselves, Draw a Jigsaw was really nice, etc. Definitely a hard but fun and satisfying set of puzzles!

Thanks for the puzzles. They were really nice. If I hadn't literally broken every puzzle I eventually solved, I would have gotten a lot more done. Not my best performance, but enjoyed it none the less.

I really enjoyed the non-consecutive in particular - a very satisfying "aha" moment when I realised how it worked. These moments are always best, I find, when they take more than a few seconds to arrive but less than a few minutes, and this puzzle had it just right. :)