A four-week Sudoku practice plan

Use this as a suggested schedule, not a deadline for reaching a difficulty level. Repeat a week when it is useful, skip days when needed and choose puzzles that leave room to explain your decisions.

Before you begin

Review the rules or complete a lesson in the beginner course. Choose a regular source: the daily puzzle or the site's automatic printable packs. Keep a short paper or personal digital log; this plan does not create an account-based progress tracker.

Week 1: Explain your placements

Start at a comfortable level, such as Easy printables. During each session, choose one placement and say why its digit is forced. Check rows, columns and boxes together. End by noting which part of the explanation was clear and which part needs another look.

Review: Can you distinguish “this digit fits” from “this digit must go here”? If not, revisit a beginner lesson before increasing the challenge.

Week 2: Make your notes reliable

Use candidate notes in an area where several cells remain uncertain. After a placement, review its affected groups. Before relying on a cell with one note, check that the notes were complete. Use the mistake checklist when the grid or notes contradict each other.

Review: Keep a record of an unfinished position before checking the answer. A completed solution no longer shows the candidate choices you were working with.

Week 3: Study one additional technique

Choose one lesson from the existing strategy library. Read its conditions and explain what they allow you to remove or place. Look for that situation during practice, but do not assume every puzzle at a chosen difficulty contains it. Use the cheat sheet as a reminder rather than a substitute for the explanation.

Review: Record the reason for a move, not just the pattern's name. Repeat the lesson if you cannot yet justify the deduction.

Week 4: Review a whole attempt

Try a puzzle that offers some challenge, keeping a note of where you pause. Afterward, select one pause to investigate: an overlooked entry, a note error or an unfamiliar deduction. Use the stuck guide as needed.

Review: Choose your next focus from that observation. You can repeat this schedule at the same difficulty; moving up is optional.

A simple session record

Record the puzzle identifier, level, skill practised, help used and next step. Track time only if useful; the timing guide explains fair comparisons. For interrupted sessions, try the restart-note routine.

For paper practice, packs with answers let you check a matching solution after your attempt. Return to Sudoku tips for other ways to practise.