Make Your Own Sudoku Puzzles for Free

Those little puzzles where you fill in the numbers to make them all connect without repeating them within any line, yeah, Sudoku, they're everywhere. Magazines print them. Newspapers often include them. Entire books can be purchased full of puzzles. What if you could create your own puzzles? Well here's a quick step-by-step guide to get you started on making puzzles and save you some cash next time you're at the grocery store checking out the puzzle books.

Creating a Sudoku puzzle isn't as difficult as it may look. It's all about strategy. First, you must create your solution. That is the most difficult part. A traditional Sudoku puzzle consists of 9 square regions that contain the numbers 1-9 in a 3x3 format. There are 9 rows and 9 columns in each puzzle and the numbers 1-9 must be used and cannot repeat themselves.

So on a grid that contains 9 regions of 9 numbers, it is easier to fill in the squares by region. Begin placing numbers in the boxes, making sure that as you go the number is NOT repeated within the same line either vertically or horizontally. Anytime you find a number repeated, some if not all of the numbers must be changed. Once you have that complete, it's time to remove some numbers.

Next you will want to remove numbers that mirror each other. This can be done by folding the grid in half. Make sure the exact mirrored side is removed. It is easier to do this step and make the puzzle more symmetrical. Continue removing mirrored blocks.

This is where the puzzle gets a little difficult. Every time you remove a mirrored cell, you must test each row to make sure your puzzle works and has only ONE single solution. The puzzle will become void if there is more than one solution. Correct puzzles only have one solution. If the puzzle has more than one solution, replace the numbers removed and remove different cells, making sure they are still mirrored. Continue doing this until you cannot remove any more mirrored cells, continuing to test to make sure you only have one solution for each row.