The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Becky13]

When I learned about Sudoku, I was told there was only one answer. That seems to be untrue. Has anyone else gotten a second authentic answer for a puzzle.

[Ruud]

A valid Sudoku has only one answer.

An invalid Suduko can have multiple answers, or none. They are subject matter to mathematicians, not to Sudoku players. When you find one with multiple answers, someone has made a mistake. Don't waste your time on it.

Ruud.

[cho]

When I learned about Sudoku, I was told there was only one answer. That seems to be untrue. Has anyone else gotten a second authentic answer for a puzzle.

I have *thought* I had multiple solutions a time or three, but have always discovered a mistake I made prior to the point at which the multiple solutions came up. But I'm using Wayne's fine program and I doubt I'll ever find it producing an invalid puzzle. Other sources may not be as dependable.

cho

[Bigtone53]

Has anyone else gotten a second authentic answer for a puzzle.

When a few weeks ago The Times (of London) published an insert of sudokus, one of the Samurai puzzles had at least two separate answers. One of the chains in The Times forum discussed this. I don't believe that this was one of Wayne's though.

[Pi]

Somebody recently posted a puzzle from a magazine with 200+ solutions

[simes]

and of course, there's the infamous Sky One puzzle with 1905 solutions.

[PaulIQ164]

The nearest there's ever been to a multiple-solutioned Pappocom puzzle is the version of the Grand Final puzzle that The Times printed in the paper the Monday after the event, which had some clues missing so had multiple answers. Of course, this was all The Times' fault, I hasten to add - the correct puzzle was fine.