Sudoku

[Rockin]

Hi all,
I was doing the evening standard prize sudoku this evening, Mon 14th April and I found two different solutions to the puzzle.
I had always thought there was only one answer to a sudoku puzzle.
If they give a prize for the correct answer then how can there be two answers. I dont understand.
Can anyone shed some light.........

[anaxcrosswords]

Is there any way you can show us the puzzle? The solution should always be unique! I've got a handful of sudoku programmes I could use to work out what's happening.

[Baldric]

If you put the 'given' lines in like this

5 x x 3 x 9
x 2 x 4 x x

we'll know what you mean

[Old_Geezer]

I do not believe it has to be a single solution, it depends on the checks made at the start when adding the given digits. Take it to the extreme state and see; if they left all digits out and gave you a blank grid then there would be millions of possible solutions.

[Jeza]

I also do sudoku and in some puzzles there can be different answers. I would have thought that for a prize one there should be just one solution.

[petal54]

have you tried a sudku solver sight?

[Baldric]

Well, we did offer but it looks like Rockin has rocked himself to sleep.

[anaxcrosswords]

There should only be one sudoku solution full stop. Some publications boast that they publish handmade sudoku puzzles, but that’s misleading. Software such as Sudoku Assistenten (especially) and Puzzle Tiger (to an extent) allow user input, but the software ultimately determines the point at which seeds render a unique solution. As these are free, there’s no reason for any newspaper to pay for someone to provide puzzles – free software is available to produce unlimited free ones. The generation process will always result in unique solution puzzles. I can only assume that the poster – like others – has THOUGHT they’ve found an alternative, but closer inspection may reveal an error in the grid fill.