How long does it take to solve a sudoku? Times by level

By Miguel Arechaga

It's one of the questions everyone asks when starting out: "is it normal that it's taking me this long?" The short answer is yes, it's almost always normal, because time depends heavily on level and experience. Even so, having some reference points helps you know where you stand and set realistic goals. Here are some rough ranges and, above all, the keys to improving your time.

Average times by level

These figures are approximate and assume a player with some practice, not an absolute beginner or a champion. Take them as a compass, not as a grade on a test:

• Easy: 3 to 6 minutes. Solvable with basic scanning, no need to note candidates.
• Medium: 6 to 12 minutes. Already requires some method and, occasionally, a note or two.
• Hard: 12 to 25 minutes. Situations appear that call for techniques like naked pairs.
• Expert: 20 minutes to over an hour. May require advanced strategies and plenty of patience.

If you're taking longer than this, don't worry in the slightest: at the start, everyone is well above these ranges. Speed comes on its own with practice, without forcing it.

What your time depends on

Two people can take very different amounts of time on the same sudoku, and it's not a matter of intelligence but of several specific factors. The main one is experience: a veteran player recognizes patterns at a glance that take a novice minutes to work out. Method matters too; someone who scans in an orderly way moves much faster than someone jumping from corner to corner. The board's real difficulty matters more than the number of clues, because what determines the time is which techniques are needed. And, of course, the player's state: tired or in a hurry, you make more mistakes, and every corrected mistake is minutes lost.

How to time yourself properly

If you want to improve, measuring is the first step. The key is comparing like with like: always time yourself at the same level so the data actually means something, since a good time on expert and one on easy aren't comparable. Note your personal best per difficulty and try to beat it gradually instead of obsessing over every single game. On MundoSudoku the clock runs automatically and the site saves your record for each level, so you always have the reference on hand without having to keep count yourself.

Record times (to put things in perspective)

Don't let the experts discourage you: the best solvers in the world, in championships, complete considerably hard sudokus in a little over a minute. These are results born of thousands of hours of practice and near-instant pattern recognition. Mentioning it isn't meant for comparison, but for the opposite: to remind you that extreme speed is a heavily trained skill, and that your healthy goal isn't to break world records but to improve relative to yourself.

How to bring your time down

If your goal is to solve faster, the good news is there are concrete shortcuts that work. The most important one is scanning systematically instead of looking at the board at random, and working in bands of three blocks. It also helps a lot to never guess (a mistake forces you to redo half the board) and to save notes only for the genuinely tricky cells. We've gathered all these tips in our guide on 10 tips to improve your sudoku solving time, which is the natural follow-up to this article.

Does time really matter?

I'll close with an important thought: the clock is a motivation tool, not a judge. For a great many people, the appeal of sudoku lies in exactly the opposite of rushing: sitting down, switching off, and enjoying the process without watching the clock. Competing with yourself is great if it's fun for you, but if one day you feel like solving slowly, savoring each deduction, that sudoku is worth no less. In the end, the best time is the one that leaves you wanting to play another round.