How to Solve Samurai Sudoku: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

If you can finish a normal sudoku, you can solve a samurai sudoku — it just looks scarier because there are five grids instead of one. The secret is that you never solve all five at once. You solve them one at a time, and the spots where they overlap pass information between them automatically. This step-by-step guide walks a complete beginner through that first solve, from making sense of the layout to placing your opening digits with confidence. Take it slow and the five-grid puzzle shrinks to something very familiar.

For the formal rules and edge cases, see the samurai sudoku rules. This is the friendly, hands-on version.

What you're actually looking at

A samurai sudoku is five standard 9x9 sudoku grids arranged in an X. There's one grid in the center and one in each corner, and each corner grid shares a single 3x3 box with the center. That overlap is the only thing connecting them.

The rules are the ordinary sudoku rules, applied to each grid:

• Every row, column, and 3x3 box within a single grid holds the digits 1 to 9, no repeats.
• A digit placed in a shared box must obey both grids it belongs to at the same time.

That second point is the whole trick, and it's easier than it sounds.

Step 1: Pick one grid and ignore the rest

The biggest beginner mistake is trying to take in all 369 cells at once. Don't. Find the grid with the most given numbers — on an easy samurai sudoku that's usually a corner — and treat it as a plain sudoku. The other four grids don't exist for now.

Solve it the normal way. Pick a number, scan each box for where it can legally go, and fill the cells that are forced. If you need a refresher, our how to solve sudoku guide covers scanning from scratch.

Step 2: Watch the shared corner

As you solve your chosen grid, keep one eye on the 3x3 box where it overlaps the center. Every digit you place there is doing two jobs: it's solving your current grid and it's a free given for the center grid.

You won't finish your first grid completely yet, and that's fine. The goal of this step is just to fill in as much of the shared box as the grid will allow.

Step 3: Jump to the center and cash in

Now move to the center grid. Copy in every digit that's already settled in the shared box you just worked on. Suddenly the center isn't blank — it has a small cluster of givens in one corner. Solve outward from there as far as you can.

Because the center grid touches all four corners, the digits you place in it will start landing in the other three shared boxes. Each one you fill is a head start on a corner you haven't touched yet.

Step 4: Go around the ring

Repeat the cycle. Use the center's progress to unlock the next corner grid, solve that corner, harvest its shared box, feed it back to the center. Then the next corner, and the next. The five grids take turns; each one you advance hands a gift to its neighbor.

This back-and-forth rhythm — solve a grid, copy the overlap, switch grids — is the entire experience of solving samurai sudoku. Once it clicks, the size of the board stops mattering.

Step 5: A quick worked example

Say you're solving the top-left corner grid, and through normal scanning you place a 4, a 7, and a 9 into its bottom-right 3x3 box — the box it shares with the center.

Switch to the center grid. Its top-left 3x3 box now already contains 4, 7, and 9. That's three givens in a previously empty box, which immediately limits where the center's other digits can go in that row and column. You scan the center's top row, find that an 8 is now forced into a single cell, and place it. If that 8 happens to sit in the box the center shares with the top-right corner, you've just handed the top-right grid its first digit, too.

Three placements in one corner rippled into two other grids. That's samurai sudoku working as designed.

Step 6: When you get stuck

Every beginner hits a wall. The fixes, in order:

• Re-check all four shared boxes. You almost certainly placed a digit in an overlap and forgot to copy it to the other grid. This is the number-one cause of getting stuck.
• Write candidate lists for the grid you're on, exactly as you would for a regular sudoku. Seeing the options reveals hidden singles you can't hold in your head.
• Switch grids. If one grid is frozen, another has probably become solvable thanks to the digits you've added to the center. Move on and circle back.

And never guess. Our puzzles always have exactly one logical solution, so a stuck grid means there's a deduction waiting — usually in an overlap.

Where to play your first one

Open an easy samurai sudoku. The generous givens let you practice the solve-then-copy rhythm without pressure. When the overlaps feel natural, the full samurai sudoku strategy guide shows you how to chain cross-grid deductions on harder puzzles. Prefer paper? Grab a printable samurai sudoku.

The best way to learn how to solve samurai sudoku is to solve one. Pick the fullest grid, treat it as a normal sudoku, and let the overlaps do the rest.

Frequently asked questions

How many grids are in a samurai sudoku?

Five. There's one central 9x9 grid and four corner grids, arranged in an X shape. Each corner grid shares one 3x3 box with the center, and those four shared boxes are what connect the puzzle into a single solve.

Where do you start when solving samurai sudoku?

Start with the grid that has the most given numbers and solve it like a normal sudoku. Then copy the digits from its shared corner box into the center grid to get the center going. The center touches all four corners, so it spreads information to the rest of the puzzle.

How do the overlapping boxes work in samurai sudoku?

A shared 3x3 box belongs to two grids at once — a corner grid and the center. Any digit you place there must be legal in both grids simultaneously. That dual constraint is what lets a single placement help solve two grids, so you always copy a shared-box digit into both.

Is samurai sudoku good for beginners?

An easy samurai sudoku is very beginner-friendly because it provides plenty of given digits and the solving is just ordinary sudoku done five times, linked by the overlaps. If you can solve a medium regular sudoku, you can handle an easy samurai sudoku.

Do you have to solve all five grids at the same time?

No, and you shouldn't try. Solve one grid at a time as a standard sudoku, then use the shared boxes to carry digits to the neighboring grids. Working one grid at a time is what keeps the large board manageable.