The New York Times hard sudoku from May 27, 2024.

You can try this puzzle here:
sudokuexchange...

[@pvuor]

A pretty speedy non-notation puzzle, bit of a confidence booster.

[@AnonimityAssured]

You once said that the NYT Hard puzzles are too predictable, and although I wasn't sure whether I agreed with you at the time, I'm now starting to see that you were right. Something about the internal mechanism has suddenly become irritating to me. Almost all of these puzzles are low-end to mid-range Medium, and the selection of tricks is so limited that there is nothing to stimulate us or to improve our skills (49 = row 4 column 9): 49, 17, 18, 57, 97, 19, 61 (the only slightly interesting step; hidden triple in box, leaving resolvable pair), 51, 73, 95, 46, 91, 23, 32 (hidden pair in box 2), 43, 83, 42, 52, 71, 13, 25 (not forgetting the pair), 12, 26, 28, 31, 21, 99, 82, 39, 38, 69, 79, 94, 59, 72, 92, 88, 98, 84, 44, 45, 48, 87, 77, 85, 86, 35, 36, 65, 55, 68, 58, 66, 64, 15, 16, 75, 76, 14.

[@DavidShatz-hw6jl]

After locating the 9 and 2 digits in C1 and 8 in C2 the solve seemed to go with rapidity! So nicely done and have a great day!

[@vidyanandsinha8879]

Very very hard

[@georgesthibaudeau1533]

I started the grid without adding the 2 in r7c6.. It indeed proved the puzzle could not be solved :) Of course, adding that missing given 2, it takes a milisecond to see the next 2 is in r8c1, and the rest becomes real easy.

[@NMalteC]

The 2 is in the original grid.

[@AnonimityAssured]

I'm confused, Georges. There is no 2 in R7C6. Do you mean R8C9?