NYT Hard Sudoku Walkthrough | April 14, 2026

Añadido: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hello, let's do the New York Times hard Sudoku for April 14th, 2026. There's a link in the description if you'd like to try the puzzle yourself, and I'm going to get started right now.

[00:00:10]All right, well, there's nothing in this box, so we'll start in this one.

[00:00:14]So, the two uh has a crossing here, it puts a two in one of these two. That points in here with this two.

[00:00:21]We need to get two down here.

[00:00:23]Pretty good start. Um nothing else with two, really.

[00:00:26]The four We actually have two fours looking in here. This four looks down, so we can put a four in one of these two.

[00:00:34]Anything horizontal with fours? No.

[00:00:37]All right, with a seven, we do have two sevens looking back, and these two sevens look up, placing the seven in the box.

[00:00:43]Um Anything vertical with sevens? Yes, crosses this 3 5.

[00:00:49]Does anything else cross it? Yes, this seven and the eight cross it. That's quite nice.

[00:00:53]So, what we found here is a hidden 7 8 pair.

[00:00:58]Because these are the only two places in the whole box we can put seven and eight, so that is where seven and eight go.

[00:01:03]And that leaves a 1 2 4 9.

[00:01:09]This isn't the two, so this is 1 4 9, but importantly that means the two's in one of these three. That points up, placing the two here.

[00:01:16]Okay.

[00:01:18]Um Are there any other cleanups? Yeah, this is 1 2 4. I think these can be any of 1 2 4 9 for now.

[00:01:24]This column has been reduced to four digits. We need a 1 7 8 9.

[00:01:30]Well, this can't be 1 7 7 or 8, so that's a naked nine.

[00:01:34]That's not a seven, so this is 1 8 Oh, it's not a seven or an eight, so this is our one, and this is 7 8. Okay, actually we could have seen the 7 8 against this column. I think only after we place the two, though, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

[00:01:47]But this was the only place for 7 8 once we placed the two.

[00:01:50]This is down to a triple, uh and the three looks up, so that's our three. And this is down to 5 6.

[00:01:58]So, 5 6 pair.

[00:02:01]So, these aren't six. This six looks in, placing the six in this box. Not nine, six.

[00:02:09]1 2 1 2 4 9.

[00:02:12]Not a two, so 1 4 9.

[00:02:16]Um what else do I want to look at?

[00:02:21]Uh these sixes look in here, placing the six. Filled box row, but we only have two fours and sixes, so not good there.

[00:02:30]Any I guess I could look at this box. We need a 1 3 8 9. So, these aren't nines, so nine's in one of these two, and this is 1 3 8.

[00:02:39]Okay.

[00:02:41]I think I should head up back into this top band here. Let's make sure we scanned all of our blue digits here.

[00:02:45]So, the one's in one of these three. The three looks in here. This three looks up, that's a crossing that puts a three in one of these two. Points in here with this three.

[00:02:54]We need three in one of these three.

[00:02:57]Okay.

[00:02:58]Uh that was nice.

[00:03:00]Anything vertical threes now? Uh seven.

[00:03:05]I don't think there's anything with seven.

[00:03:08]Oh, I should mention the 7 8 pair looks in here with this seven, putting a seven in one of these three. And the seven pair looks back here with this eight.

[00:03:14]Eight in one of these two. This can't be seven.

[00:03:17]Okay.

[00:03:18]Um 7 8 and 9.

[00:03:26]We do have two nines here. Nine's in one of these three. Oh, not this one, sorry.

[00:03:32]Okay. Uh I don't think I followed up fully with eight, but I think I just looked at it. Eight's in one of these two, we could do that.

[00:03:40]I don't think six does the same thing, you know.

[00:03:43]This middle cell should be limited, though, cuz it's not three or eight.

[00:03:46]It's also not four.

[00:03:48]In fact four's in one of these two.

[00:03:51]All right, anyway, it's not one, it could be two, it's not three four, it could be five, it's not six seven eight nine, so down to two five.

[00:04:01]This sees four and three, also.

[00:04:06]Is this 2 5 8? Let's see. It's not one, it could be two.

[00:04:11]Can't be three four five six seven, could be eight nine. Oh, yeah, so it's 2 8.

[00:04:18]Does that mean this one's good, too?

[00:04:20]>> [sighs] >> Um Why don't we just think about the whole box since we're at it? We need a 2 3 4 5 8.

[00:04:31]2 3 4 5 8. This can't be four five or eight, so this is 2 3.

[00:04:36]2 3 4 5.

[00:04:41]Not a two, not a three, so 4 5 8. Okay.

[00:04:46]I suppose that makes this a 3 8.

[00:04:49]These are 3 4 5 8. Okay.

[00:04:52]This sees 4 5.

[00:04:55]Um did I get anything else?

[00:04:58]I think that does it.

[00:05:00]I should scan vertically, though. 1 6 7 9.

[00:05:06]Um Seven looks down, seven looks in.

[00:05:10]Seven's in one of these two.

[00:05:13]Three looks in here, and this three looks in here. So, this is actually a hidden 3 7 pair.

[00:05:17]It's not a coincidence that I found it right away. I I When I penciled this, I looked for more that would do it. I thought maybe the one would, but now actually the one looks down, can't be in this 3 7. So, one's in one of these two.

[00:05:31]Um That does point, so this isn't one.

[00:05:35]Well, if this isn't one or two, what is it? It's an 8 9.

[00:05:39]Okay.

[00:05:40]This is 2 8 9.

[00:05:42]This is only 1 2 cuz it can't be 8 9. I think this is any of 1 2 8 9. All right.

[00:05:47]Um what else we got? So, we have the one, the seven, and the three looking in. We also have the five looking in, putting a five in one of these two. Oh, five is placed, even better.

[00:05:56]Place this five, so this can't be five.

[00:05:58]It's down to 4 8.

[00:06:00]So, the five in this row is one of these two.

[00:06:04]It's going to claim as well.

[00:06:09]These are all uh not I mean They're not the 1 3 5 7 9. So, they're only even digits, that's fun.

[00:06:18]All the 1 3 5 7 and 9 are all all penciled in the box, and they're not eight.

[00:06:22]Oh, this can't be two six or eight, so this is a naked four.

[00:06:27]That places the four in this box, which places the eight in this box. This is down to 2 3 5.

[00:06:34]2 3 5 6, hm.

[00:06:37]Oh, that Sorry, this can't be three or five.

[00:06:40]Yeah, it can only be even digits, and it can't be four or eight, so it's down to 2 6. Okay.

[00:06:44]Forgot about that.

[00:06:46]Immediately forgot about it, even though I was in the middle of doing it. That's very me.

[00:06:51]Can I follow up on this four, maybe?

[00:06:52]Four's in one of these two.

[00:06:54]Uh what else did I get then?

[00:06:57]Five's in one of these two.

[00:07:01]I got this five.

[00:07:03]I got this eight, maybe? Yeah. Eight's in one of these two.

[00:07:08]1 3 9 already looked at. 4 7.

[00:07:12]Okay.

[00:07:14]Four's actually only in two places in this row. Keep in mind that.

[00:07:18]So, I think I'm done with this top band.

[00:07:20]Oh, no, this is a triple. This is a 3 5 8 triple.

[00:07:24]And so, this is 1 2 6 9. This can't be the nine, so this is 1 2 6. And this can't be two or six, this is 1 9. I think this is any of them. Okay.

[00:07:32]Now we're done with the top band.

[00:07:34]How about this next band? So, two We got I want to look at this 4 5 cuz we have this four already marked.

[00:07:43]And that So, this five Oh, yeah, so five is placed. Okay, that's great.

[00:07:48]That places the five, that places the four.

[00:07:52]So, oh yeah, we have two fours looking down here, and this four helps. That places our four and our seven.

[00:07:58]Giving us the 3 7 pair, giving us the eight and the nine.

[00:08:02]Okay, so that's not nine, that's not four. Over here we get the seven.

[00:08:06]Here we get the two three and five.

[00:08:07]That's six and five. Are we collapsing already? That's six.

[00:08:11]Okay, I'm going to clear this out.

[00:08:12]That's not three, that's not eight, that's not five.

[00:08:16]Over here we get the eight.

[00:08:18]Okay, that's not a two, that's not a nine, that's not a nine. This is 1 4 7.

[00:08:25]Seven can only go here in the box.

[00:08:27]This can't be four, so this is one and four. That's the four.

[00:08:31]We get the three here, that's 8 3 and 5.

[00:08:34]That's our one. This is an 8 9 pair. Oh, but the eight resolves it. That's nine, that's eight. The whole the whole row was done.

[00:08:40]Places the eight, the two, and the one, and whatever this is.

[00:08:44]Nine.

[00:08:46]Okay. Places the eight two This is where the nine goes, and that's where the one goes.

[00:08:54]This row just needs one, two, and something.

[00:08:56]One, two, and six. It's not two, so it's or six, so it's one. Oops. It's 1 2 6.

[00:09:03]We're just finishing. Um what are the what are the three digits here? We need a 2 3 6.

[00:09:10]This is the three. This is two and six cuz of that six there.

[00:09:13]Here we need a one and nine.

[00:09:18]Not resolved yet. Oh, but this one does.

[00:09:20]That's nine, that's one, that's nine.

[00:09:22]And then we need a one and a two, and we're done. Under 10, nice.

[00:09:27]All right, not too bad. Um I think just some careful scanning did it.

[00:09:33]Really good use of corner marks today to find like hidden pairs, uh follow-up scans, like for example I had found what, this seven looking down here, and this seven looking in, so I cornered sevens here. I went Well, if the seven can do that, I also noticed we have the one and the three. And then I saw that the three did it as well, giving us a hidden pair. So, stuff like that can be really helpful, or I scanned this seven as a crossing. I believe, yeah. Seven I scanned as a crossing, and I went, "Well, does anything else cross?" And I saw that the eight did.

[00:10:01]Um so, stuff like that can just like really speed speed up things, help you find like the hidden pairs and the restricted cells, stuff like that. Cool. Well, let me know how you did, and if you enjoyed this, why don't you leave a like, subscribe, and a kind comment below.