Sudoku Grids That Require Many Clues

Abstract

Motivated by worst-case algorithmic time bounds for solving sudoku, we prove that a majority of filled-in $n^2\times n^2$ sudoku grids require all but a logarithmic fraction of cells to be filled by clues. For $9\times 9$ and $16\times 16$ sudoku, we construct grids that require $18$ clues and $80$ clues.

2 pages; to appear at 28th Japan Conference on Discrete and Computational Geometry, Graphs, and Games, Tokyo, 2026