Sudoku Variants

This wiki page provides an overview of common (and some less common) sudoku variants, organized into categories based on their characteristics.

Sudoku Variants

Other Geometries

• Samurai Sudoku

Differently Shaped Regions

• Jigsaw Sudoku (Irregular Sudoku, Nonomino Sudoku)

Chess Constraints

• Anti-Knight Sudoku
• Anti-King (no touch) Sudoku
• Anti-Queen / Bishop Sudoku
• Fairy-chess / general chess constraints
• Pro-chess constraints
• Manhattan / Taxicab distance

Extra Regions

• Windoku (Window Sudoku, Hyper Sudoku, NRC Sudoku)
• Diagonal Sudoku (Sudoku X, X-Sudoku)
  • variant: Anti-Diagonal Sudoku
• Disjoint Groups Sudoku
• Hashtag

Arithmetic Constraints

• Killer Sudoku
• Sum Frame Sudoku
• Little Killer Sudoku
• Arrow Sudoku
• Variants with other operations (*, /, etc)
• Double arrows
• Inequalities
• Doublers
• Lunchbox
• Young Tableaux

Nonconsecutive Sudoku

• Non-Consecutive Sudoku

Line Constraints

• Renban (Consecutive Sudoku)
• German Whispers
• Chinese Whispers
• Dutch Whispers
• Modular Lines
• Region Sum Lines
• Palindrome Sudoku
• Thermometer Sudoku
• Slow Thermometers
• Between Lines
• Entropic Lines
• Parity Lines
• Product-Sum Lines

Outside Clues

• Sandwich Sudoku
• X-Sums Sudoku
• Numbered Rooms Sudoku
• Skyscraper Sudoku
• Serbian Sums
• Japanese Sums
• Full Rank

Indexing

• Row indexing
• Column indexing
• Box indexing
• Cyclic indexing
• Other indexing
• Friendly cells

Shading / Pencil Puzzle based

• Tapa
• Yin-Yang
• Masyu
• Akari
• Shimaguni
• Fillomino
• Slitherlink
• Norinori
• Nurikabe
• Nurimisaki
• Aquarium
• Nansuke
• Spiral Galaxy
• Star Battle
• Country Road
• Cave

Other Constraints

• Clone Cells
• Odd/Even Sudoku
• Magic Square Sudoku
• Quadruples Sudoku
• Fortress Sudoku (Minimum/Maximum Sudoku)
• Kropki Sudoku (kropki pairs)
• XV Sudoku
• Snakes
• Loops
• Chaos Construction
• Schrödinger Cells
• Entropy
• Fog of War
• Knightmare
• Look-and-Say
• Liar / Wrogn
• Pencilmark / Sukaku

This list is by no means exhaustive, as new sudoku variants continue to emerge. Rules can be combined or modified to create hybrid variants.