Techniques › Hidden Triple › Practice
Practise the Hidden Triple
Three digits restricted to the same three cells clear everything else out of them.
8 real positions, each taken from an actual puzzle at the moment this was the cheapest move available. Two steps: find the cells that form the pattern, then find the candidate it rules out. A near miss tells you how many you had right, so getting it wrong is worth something.
| 156 | 167 | 25 | 57 | 4 | 26 | 3 | 8 | 9 |
| 9 | 367 | 23 | 37 | 8 | 26 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| 58 | 38 | 4 | 35 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 2 |
| 15 | 13 | 35 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| 46 | 46 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 7 |
| 2 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| 7 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 8 |
| 48 | 48 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
How to spot it
Within one house, list the homes of each unplaced digit. Look for three digits whose homes together span only three cells.
Full explanation on the Hidden Triple reference page.
Practise something else
- Hidden Pair Two digits that can only go in the same two cells own them, whatever else those cells show.
- Naked Triple Three cells sharing three candidates between them lock those digits away.
- Hidden Quad Four digits confined to four cells. The rarest subset in practical play.