English

Combinatorial Explorations in Su-Doku

Artificial Intelligence 2008-04-01 v1 Computational Complexity

Abstract

Su-Doku, a popular combinatorial puzzle, provides an excellent testbench for heuristic explorations. Several interesting questions arise from its deceptively simple set of rules. How many distinct Su-Doku grids are there? How to find a solution to a Su-Doku puzzle? Is there a unique solution to a given Su-Doku puzzle? What is a good estimation of a puzzle's difficulty? What is the minimum puzzle size (the number of "givens")? This paper explores how these questions are related to the well-known alldifferent constraint which emerges in a wide variety of Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP) and compares various algorithmic approaches based on different formulations of Su-Doku.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0803.4253,
  title  = {Combinatorial Explorations in Su-Doku},
  author = {Jean-Marie Chauvet},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.4253},
  year   = {2008}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:25:39.452Z