Andrew's Puzzles: May 2020

Wednesday 27 May 2020

Solution to Hidoku no 4

Here is the solution created by my program:

andrew@LUBUNTU-Laptop:~/Hidoku$ cat answer
022 021 020 019 018
023 025 016 017 007
024 015 009 008 006
014 010 001 005 003
013 012 011 002 004
andrew@LUBUNTU-Laptop:~/Hidoku$

...and here is the solution created by the online solver I used:

Hidoku no 4 (5 by 5)

In previous hidoku puzzles I have created the grids in a Google Docs document. Then I have used the snipping tool from my browser to cut out the puzzle and answer as images. This produces quite a pleasing effect but it runs the risk that I could copy the puzzle incorrectly and publish one with zero or multiple solutions. I need to avoid that so for this puzzle I am trying a different approach. Here is the puzzle as I created it on my Lubuntu laptop:

andrew@LUBUNTU-Laptop:~/Hidoku$ cat nxnpuzzle.txt
__,__,__,19,__
__,25,__,__,__
__,15,__,__,__
__,__,01,__,03
__,__,__,__,__
andrew@LUBUNTU-Laptop:~/Hidoku$

I keyed it into a hidoku solver I found here and produced the image below. Then I pressed the Solve button and checked that the answer matched the one I had on my laptop. This confirmed that I had entered the puzzle correctly.

Here is a reminder of the rules. I arranged the numbers 1 through 25 in ascending order on the grid below before removing some of them at random. Your job is to replace the numbers I have removed. When you have finished, the grid must contain all the numbers 1 through 25 exactly once and cells with consecutive numbers must be joined horizontally, vertically or diagonally:

See answer

Tuesday 19 May 2020

Solution to Hidoku no 3

Hidoku no 3 (4 by 4)

Now I need to try out various puzzle sizes to see if my program can create them successfully. This is a 4 by 4 puzzle, which is also quite easy.

Here is a reminder of the rules. I arranged the numbers 1 through 16 in ascending order on the grid below before removing some of them at random. Your job is to replace the numbers I have removed. When you have finished, the grid must contain all the numbers 1 through 16 exactly once and cells with consecutive numbers must be joined horizontally, vertically or diagonally: