"The Best Puzzle I've Done This Year"

[@stephennichol3620]

Nice that the 1-2-4-8 was the first clue but the final thing to be resolved

[@rachelgilbert3164]

I appreciate that when he reaches the top of the mountain, Simon takes time to look down the path and recalls the beautiful things he saw along the trail 🏔️

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

What a surprisingly elegant construction. It is hard to believe how many gorgeous and unexpectedly original artworks can be created using extremely common and simple set of constraints by great masters like Qodec, Jay Dyer, Aad van de Wetering, Phistomefel and many others that were featured by CTC in the past. I will not ever cease to be surprised and impressed by this kind of logic miracles. Thank you Qodec for confirming you are one of them. Thank you Simon for featuring this beauty. Thank you Zetamath for recommending it.

[@SnowTheJamMan]

I solved this puzzle recently and (as is always the case with Qodec) it was incredible, truly one of the finest setters in the land.

[@glum_hippo]

The Netherlands?

[@studgerbil9081]

8:15 "I prefer to keep things simple". Okay, who are you and what have you done with Simon?

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

🤣

[@hundertzwoelf]

119 minutes for me. This might be the first Qodec puzzle I was able to solve. Seeing Simon pick up the clues that I missed makes it look sooo easy 😄

[@himura-miki]

I really liked how the 1248 was the first clue to get into the puzzle, but was the final element to solve. That's just satisfying.

[@humanbirdsong]

I solved this on LMD recently, and couldn't believe the logical richness of such a sparse grid. Qodec is an absolute master. Deserves a 100% rating IMO! Great solve as always, Simon!

[@Afterthoughtbtw]

This is one of those puzzles that I suspect isn't too difficult... if you have solved a decent number of sudokus set by some of the world's best setters. That required the knowledge I've built up inside me from having been fortunate enough to solve these sorts of puzzles daily for years now. Without that, it would certainly be WAY 'too tricky'! Really elegant puzzle here. I particularly liked how it kept revisiting the same theme in terms of solving.

[@TerrisLeonis]

This took me almost exactly 3½ hours to solve, and I once had to let the video play up to the point I was stuck at to get a hint on how to proceed. My 3s and 6s remained unresolved for much longer than Simon's!

[@Aerialdan1]

So nice to have a clever puzzle with a small ruleset. There's not enough of them nowadays on this channel. More please.

[@emilywilliams3237]

I love seeing a Qodec puzzle - and this is a beauty. Thanks for solving this, Simon, and thanks for setting it, Qodec. I have a feeling that given enough time (and probably the help of the video) I could solve this one myself.

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 26:47 minutes. This was such a clean sudoku to solve. I really liked the way the digits pinched themselves forcing their way onto kropki dots. I think my favorite part was seeing that r3c7 and r7c3 had to be different numbers due to none of those digits appearing on the dots in box 9. This lead to r7c7 being a naked single. That was very cool to see. I very much enjoyed this puzzle. Qodec has a knack for making these incredibly smooth puzzles that take advantage of the geometry. As always, it feels good to beat Simon's time. Great Puzzle!

[@oakleyg2870]

Agreed, this is probably the best puzzle of 2024. Setting is out of this world in terms of being clean, simple but still so clever.

[@Playmaker6174]

This puzzle is one of the great cases that exemplifies how well even the most familiar constraints can deliver with a great mind and some cool ideas. A lovely puzzle as expected from my man Qodec himself :)

[@peethoagland8907]

Those two black kropkis looking into box 1 was something special.

[@BigmanPeat]

26:21 really enjoyed that solve

[@pickledcucumber8693]

So many beautiful deductions in this puzzle once you see them!

[@emptyset1312]

Excellent puzzle. Took me 53:18. I think this was the perfect difficulty for me - not easy, but it will give up its secrets if you just keep poking and prodding at it. I liked how there was a sort of theme throughout the solve, but with little variations on the theme so you still have to keep thinking.

[@mcs131313]

that was amazing - i feel like each indivudual clue / move wasn't overly challenging, but it kept you changing gears the whole time. Obviously depends how your solve went but for me was just a really nice consistent pace. never felt to too stressed but it also never got boring / turned into just autopilot classic sudoku

[@prahas777]

Incredibly tight and elegant: the words which come to mind, but which fall short of describing my joy and respect! Truly wonderful.

[@davidblake6889]

Managed it, just. Needed a bit of help from Simon to get things going. Great puzzle. Maybe one day I will be able to do a Qodec puzzle without any extra help...

[@jesseadamson1077]

Took me 3 hrs to figure this one out. Idk if I’d call that winning

[@Meowsma]

​@@jesseadamson1077I would! It took me 186 minutes, too, and I'm still quite proud.

[@dinane]

Thanks for the birthday wishes! We went out for fondue for my birthday, so the cake came uniced but I was able to dip it in melted chocolate instead!

[@davidmonnerat8598]

Simple ruleset, elegantly placed clues, original logic. what can I say. I go with zetamath, one of the best puzzles of the year. Thanks, Qodec!

[@kosumi68]

Lovely puzzle, very clean logic. I noticed the 36 pushing the 2 early, but could not think of a good way to mark it, so didn't. Lo and behold, I later got stuck for a long time, until I eventually rediscovered the 2. Live and learn. Thanks!

[@joetucker971]

Simon using blue/green and red/orange, never change 😂

[@whelmking6497]

Totally brilliant. Super fun.

[@ericpraline1302]

That was lovely, thanks, like a finely engineered clockwork mechanism.

[@JohnRandomness105]

The only things breaking the symmetry about the negative diagonal are the dots in blocks 1 and 9. Almost always, a broken symmetry is a completely broken symmetry. 6:20 Unfortunately, Sudoku has become my severest addiction -- to the point of infesting many of my sleeping dreams and nightmares. 17:30 Now, you should consider the two remaining black dots. They have to be 36. I'm currently stuck. I received a little help so far. 29:00 At this time, I have finished the puzzle. I resorted to my usual practice when stuck: centermark the blocks. Afterwards, maybe a little while afterwards, I discovered that 19 at the X in block 2, column 4, caused a collision (of 7s) in block 5. With 28 as the only alternative, the puzzle collapsed. 37:30 I'm not surprised at the more efficient way of ruling out the 19 pair on the X. 38:20 I suggest that colors be eliminated now. They've served their purpose.

[@praematura]

Got a good start then got stuck, so started to watch Simon's solve and shortly in realized what I was missing and made more progress, then got stuck again. Watched a bit more and facepalmed at missing the '19' issue in columns 4 and 5, and from there finished on my own in 31:00 (conflict checker off), but did need a few nudges, sadly! Still a really wonderful puzzle, many thanks to Qodec for it!

[@leefisher6366]

43:34 - The solution is wrong, Simon, as you have only one '9' shaded. Unfortunately, this is a deadly pattern, as you could either shade all the others OR delete the orange shading altogether.

[@AngryKettle]

He'll probably have a heart attack for the first half sentence

[@leefisher6366]

Any constructors who read these comments, I had an idea whilst listening to the rules here. "V's add to 5 X's sum to 10, white dots are consecutive digits, one black dot digit is double the other... however I used stand-in symbols whilst constructing the puzzle, and I can't remember which one represented which rule. I do know that each example of the same symbol represents the same rule throughout, and each one represents a different one of the four rules." (Grid has multiple examples of each of four weird symbols that connect the centres of two squares). Is this viable?

[@alexneckoyami]

If it is I'd love to see one on the channel

[@PuzzleQodec]

It's not just viable, but people have already created fun puzzles with this exact ruleset, like Niverio.

[@kwongshuchung]

54:55 for me as #3737 solver This one is sick, the sequences and logic behind one and other are just prefect Proud to be one of the solver 😂

[@rampantunease6517]

Lovely video of a lovely puzzle

[@Coyotek4]

33:20 (over two sessions) ... glad to get it done, even if it took an extra day to do so Nice puzzle!

[@timch5227]

Am i the only one to notice this video is the exact same length as yesterday?

[@calebu2]

Forget Wordle in a minute. It's sudoku in 44 minutes and 40 seconds.

[@MeriaDuck]

The symmetry 😍

[@nathanmays7926]

I missed the 7 being locked into R1C3/R3C3 and ended up making slow progress using swordfishes and virtual quadruples. When I finally saw the 7 I wanted to cry.

[@lukasaurelius4462]

I had the exact same pathing, and when it dawned on me, I cackled aloud.

[@nonyobisniss7928]

This was too Aad for me but Happy Birthday Aad! I enjoyed playing around with your polyomino packer back in the day!

[@piarittersporn]

Very beautiful puzzle.

[@A_CC_K]

A Qodec puzzle means another brilliant video. (Like always)

[@codahighland]

I identified r7c7 in a different way: I noticed that putting 6 there caused box 9 to have four boxes that could only be filled by three digits.

[@v0id_d3m0n]

37:08 missed this insight and got stuck. Managed to finish the puzzle after watching Simon find it though😅

[@linforcer]

I got stuck in the state simon is in at 37:00 as I couldnt see the impact of the 1/9 stuff on the top X he explains here

[@hinjo89]

Same here. Too much pencil marking on my part, can see why Simon is reluctant to pencilmark

[@ronjohnson6916]

A Qodec puzzle I could pencil mark and grind!

[@5t757]

I managed 21:34, very slick setting!

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 47:44. Did it on my own! Not a big fan of the ending, I had to trial and error bifurcate these long chains, it wasn't very fun.

[@agros7026]

I'm waiting for someone to create a sudoku puzzle where not sudoku is required to solve it.

[@otterotterottercid]

it's been 2 minutes and there's already 20 likes. this is going to be a good one I know it.

[@RealCadde]

35:00 If the X clue in box 2 is [19] then R5C5 will be a 1. If the X clue is [28] then R5C5 will be a 2 because R4C8 will be a 2 so by sudoku, R5C5 will have to be a 2. In conclusion, R5C5 is from [12] only and is not a 4.

[@RealCadde]

34:45 You didn't see it, did you? If R7C4 is a 6, then purple is a 6. But purple in box 8 goes in the bottom row. So if R7C4 is a 6 then you've clashed with purple. So R9C4 is a 6, but that doesn't mean purple is a 6. In fact, it does very little for the solve.

[@leefisher6366]

Now, Alexa, it's your birthday. I know this because your sisters Siri and Cortana looked me up on google and told me so.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

21:20 for me. Omg was I slow on this one. Well it happens sometimes. Fantastic puzzle regardless!!

[@CASS1__]

21 minutes is slow when it took Simon over 30? I had no idea

[@zobososhizion6478]

00:51:31 when you placed the 3 into the central box I couldn't follow the logic and had to put all valid digits into the string of three white dots before finding that there had to be both a five and a six on it.

[@wokkawicca]

Almost 2 hours of mucking about, with a lot of mental bifurcation, so I'm sure I missed some obvious logic. But solving anything from Qodec on my own is a win.

[@Ray-iu7hg]

32:28, quite nice!

[@LednacekZ]

16:38 for me. made a lot of small mistakes. this is a sub 15 easy.

[@stephencarty]

@SmoshCast it is Irish, not Gaelic. There are multiple Celtic languages. In Ireland we call ours Irish, but it is also Gaeilge. We nearly lost the language years ago with few areas still trying to maintain it as their first language. All irish road signs and some public transport like Aer Lingus and our trains use Irish after English in announcements to keep it alive.

[@RealCadde]

11:13 And then you leave it, there's more that can be discerned from that cropki dot constellation in box 9. It's also somewhat powerful in how it restricts the possibilities for the X clues poking in/out of box 9. R7C7 is not a 1, 2, 4 or 8. And in an X clue, summing to ten, there is never a 5. So if R7C7 were to be a low digit (less than 5) then it would have to be a 3. And if it's a high digit, it's 6, 7 or 9. So the possibilities for R7C7 are [3679]. And the possibilities for R7C6 and R6C7 are [1347] and those two cells are identical with each other. So, the twin of those identical cells in columns 8 and 9 are restricted. I.E, if R6C7 is a 4, it goes in column 8 of box 1. And if R6C7 is a 1, it goes in column 9 of box 1. Both of those options will also appear in either row 8 or row 9 and disambiguate the cropki dot constellation. The only option that isn't restricted at all is [37] and I suspect it will be [37] but that remains to be proven.

[@alienrenders]

33:38 for me. Nice puzzle.

[@srwapo]

61:34, should have been about 30 minutes, but 30 minutes in I noticed a 19 deadly pattern and realized that I treated the white dots between box 5 and boxes 2 and 5 as X's for no dang reason and reset my solve. 🤦‍♂️

[@marksmith1721]

34.29 fo rme

[@davidtieman4102]

Great Puzzle, but sadly it was missing something in the corners.

[@edman2740]

It stresses me out finding a pattern before you bc it’s too much suspense 😂

[@azrobbins01]

Why are the rules worded strangely on the linked puzzle? I kept thinking it was an irregular sudoku and looking for the oddly shaped regions.

[@nicocost33]

50.02 for me.

[@fuxpremier]

42:20 for my time. What an elegant puzzle. Not very hard but with a constant level of difficulty throughout a very clear solving path. Very nice!

[@milkbilk7002]

Unironically took me 5 and a half hours to solve this lol

[@codahighland]

2h30m here. I can't believe how many typos I made... Every time I backtracked to find a mistake, when I redid the logic, I felt like I was making the same decisions but the grid was getting different digits in some places.

[@dikinebaks]

I solved it at 29:00( yes on the 00 sec). It is indeed a beautiful puzzle without being too hard. Best puzzle of the year? Unfortunately no sorry

[@tomashorst9544]

I mean with a title like that I have to click😂

[@themiddleones11]

My bday is hidden in this!

[@Pritchie45]

30 minutes

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

42:10 for me.

[@robertcousins2274]

32:24 for me

[@adipy8912]

4:06 Please stop with the "I hate myself" talk

[@michaurbanski5961]

What? It's perfectly reasonable that someone wouldn't want to make a video as a prize No hating oneself here, no hating anyone! :)

[@ElegyWilde]

First comment!

[@phuybrechts6875]

The explanation in the puzzle is often to long for regular vissitters of the chanel .😢

[@LillaJag]

Skip forward then. Not everybody is a regular visitor. Therefore the explanation is needed and one thing that makes chanel unique is that a new viewer can jump right in and still understand what is going on. As a regular visitor and viewer of this channel, I also sometimes need an explanation because my brain is too tired to see what is going on or the logic is too complex for example. And if I don't need the explanation I skip forward. They can't stop doing the explanation because this channel is not this channel then If it doesn't suit you, watch something else.

[@studgerbil9081]

play it at 1.25 speed, especially if it's over an hour. there is a lot of blank staring and hemming and hawing in these puzzles. I use this channel as asmr sometimes and slow it down even.

[@scottyleics]

Skip it then. Basic video slider control makes it a non issue.

[@butelekbutelkowany8375]

The explanation in the puzzle is often amazing for non regular vissitters of the channel that like following along the puzzle solve 😢