LinkedIn Mini Sudoku: the 6×6 rules, the three techniques that finish it, and today's grid

How 6×6 differs from 9×9

The box shape is the whole difference. A 9×9 sudoku has square 3×3 boxes; LinkedIn's 6×6 has rectangular boxes, two rows tall and three columns wide (every board in our archive uses this shape). That asymmetry matters: the board splits into three horizontal bands of two boxes and two vertical stacks of three boxes. A box shares its two rows with only one other box, but shares its three columns with two other boxes. So a digit seen in one box of a band confines the other box's copy to one row — three cells — while a digit seen in two boxes of a stack confines the third box's copy to one column, which is only two cells tall inside that box. Column-wise scanning across a stack is the sharper of the two.

There is also far less to track. With six digits and boxes of six cells, the advanced 9×9 techniques — X-wings, swordfish, colouring — have no work to do here: when we ran a step-by-step solver over all 37 boards in our archive, every one finished with naked and hidden singles alone. If you find yourself reaching for anything fancier, you've missed a simpler move.

The three techniques, and which ones you need

Hidden single in a box. Take a box and a digit not yet in it. Cross out every cell in the box that shares a row or column with that digit elsewhere. If one cell is left, the digit goes there. The same question works on a row or column: where can this digit go? On 9 of the 37 boards in our archive this kind of move was required — repeated naked-single scans alone ran out before the grid was full.

Naked single in a cell. Take an empty cell and list the digits not in its row, column or box. If one digit is left, place it. On 28 of the 37 archived boards, repeating this scan finished the grid on its own, start to end.

Row-box interaction (pointing pairs). If, within a box, a digit can only go in cells that all sit in one row, that digit is confined to that row within the box — so it can be eliminated from the rest of that row. It is the next tool after singles, and because every box spans only two rows it is easy to spot. None of the 37 archived boards needed it, so if you are reaching for it, rescan for a single first.

A solving order

Begin with the box that has the most givens, and for each missing digit run the hidden-single check. Then sweep the stacks: a digit present in two of a stack's three boxes leaves the third box only one column, two cells tall, and a row given often settles which. Naked singles are worth taking whenever you see them — on most boards in our archive they carry the solve by themselves — so after each placement look at the cells in its row, column and box for one that has just become forced.

When the board stalls with no naked singles, switch to hidden singles: pick a row, column or box with two or three blanks and ask, for each missing digit, where it can legally go. In our archive that switch was needed on nine boards, and it was always enough.

A worked grid: Mini Sudoku #391

Mini Sudoku #391 ran on Sunday 6 September 2026 and is a good specimen because it cannot be started with naked singles: at the outset no empty cell has only one candidate. Givens (row by row, dots for blanks): · · 1 · · · / 2 3 · · · · / 1 4 · · · · / · · · · 2 4 / · · · · 3 5 / · · · 6 · ·. Ten givens, twenty-six blanks.

Row 3 has 1 and 4. Where can its 2 go? Columns 4, 5 and 6 of row 3 lie in the middle-right box, which already holds the 2 at row 4 column 5. That leaves column 3 as the only home: 2 at row 3 column 3. Row 4 has 2 and 4. Its 1 cannot go in columns 1–3, because the middle-left box already has a 1 at row 3 column 1, and columns 5 and 6 are filled, so 1 goes at row 4 column 4.

Row 5 has 3 and 5. Its 1 is barred from column 1 (1 at row 3), column 3 (1 at row 1) and column 4 (the 1 just placed in row 4), so it goes at row 5 column 2. Each of these is a hidden single — the cell had other candidates, but the digit had nowhere else to go — and after a few more of them naked singles start to appear. The board finishes with singles alone; no pair or pointing move is needed. The full grid is in the archive.

The tools and the daily rhythm

LinkedIn's help page lists the controls: tap a cell, then pick a number from the keypad below the grid. Hint highlights a cell and offers a suggestion or tells you a number is wrong; Undo reverts the last move and Clear starts over. Two settings are worth knowing: Count remaining numbers shows how many of each digit are still to place, and Highlight sections lights up the row, column and box of the selected cell. Notes mode lets you pencil several candidates into one cell.

LinkedIn hasn't published a difficulty schedule, but our archive of 37 boards (3 September to 10 October 2026) shows one. Monday boards carried 14–16 givens and every one finished with naked singles; Saturday and Sunday boards carried 10–12, and six of those ten needed hidden singles. Puzzle numbers count up by one a day — our archive has #388 on 3 September 2026, consistent with #1 on the 12 August 2025 launch.

Technique cheat-sheet

The three techniques again, with how often each was needed across our archive of 37 boards (3 September to 10 October 2026).

Mini Sudoku versus the other LinkedIn logic games

If you play Queens and Tango, the transfer is direct — and the differences are worth naming.

• Like Queens: each line takes each symbol once; eliminations drive everything.
• Like Tango: counting per line decides most cells; the last line of a box fills itself.
• Unlike both: six symbols instead of one or two, so candidate tracking matters more, and the box shape (2×3) is the thing to keep in view.
• Tools: Mini Sudoku is the only one of the three whose help page describes a notes mode and a Count remaining numbers setting; Queens instead offers Auto-place X's.

Mistakes to avoid

Assuming 3×2 boxes. LinkedIn's boxes are 2 rows by 3 columns. Picture them the other way and you will eliminate digits from cells the box doesn't touch.

Filling by row alone. Every placement must satisfy row, column and box. The box is the one people forget in the small grid.

Guessing at the end. Every board in our archive has exactly one solution and finishes with singles, so a forced move always exists. If two cells seem to swap, look for the digit that has only one legal home in a row, column or box.

Nikoli, Snyder, and why this Mini Sudoku is hand-set

LinkedIn's help page says the puzzles are "handcrafted by the originators of 'Sudoku' and the 3x World Sudoku Champion", and the launch announcement names them: Nikoli, the Japanese puzzle magazine, working with Thomas Snyder. Nikoli's place in the story is real — Wikipedia's history of sudoku records that the modern puzzle first appeared in Dell magazines in 1979 as Number Place, became popular in Japan when Nikoli published it in 1984, and got the name sudoku from Nikoli's president Maki Kaji in 1986.

What hand-setting means in practice is visible in the archive: the boards are not uniform. Givens range from 10 to 16, Monday boards are the most generous, and the boards that demand hidden singles cluster at the weekend. All 37 have a single solution.

A note on the number keypad

According to LinkedIn's help page, you tap a cell and then pick a number from the keypad below the grid. Erase removes notes, Undo reverts your last move, and a Notes toggle switches to pencil-mark mode, where one cell can hold several candidates; placing a number hides the notes, and removing it brings them back. On most boards notes aren't needed, but they help on the boards that need hidden singles.

Reader questions

"Why 2×3 and not 3×2?" LinkedIn hasn't said; every board in our archive uses boxes two rows tall and three columns wide.

"Can there be more than one solution?" Not on the boards we have checked: an exhaustive count over all 37 boards in our archive found exactly one solution each.

"Is there a harder version?" Not on LinkedIn, which releases one Mini Sudoku a day. In our archive the weekend boards had the fewest givens.

A note on speed

Speed comes almost entirely from not re-scanning. Visit each box once, sweep the stacks once, take naked singles as they appear, and switch to the hidden-single question only when nothing is forced. Scanning the whole grid again after every placement is the slow way to find the same digits.

Glossary

Terms as used on this site.

• Box — one of the six 2×3 regions.
• Given — a digit printed on the starting grid.
• Hidden single — the only cell in a unit that can hold a digit.
• Naked single — a cell with only one possible digit.
• Pointing pair — a digit confined to one row within a box, eliminating it from the rest of that row.
• Unit — a row, column or box.

A weekly rhythm

In our archive of 37 boards (3 September to 10 October 2026), givens fell through the week: Mondays 14–16, Tuesdays 12–14, Wednesdays 10–12, Thursday to Sunday mostly 10–12. No Monday or Thursday board needed anything beyond naked singles; Tuesday and Wednesday each had one board that needed hidden singles, Friday one, and Saturday and Sunday three each. If a Monday board seems to need advanced logic, you've missed a single — rescan the boxes.

Notes mode, and when it earns its keep

The Notes toggle writes candidate digits small inside a cell instead of committing one. On most 6×6 boards it's unnecessary; naked singles carried 28 of our 37 archived boards. It earns its keep on the boards where naked singles run out: marking the two or three candidates in the cells of one row or box makes the digit with a single legal home visible at a glance. Use it for one unit at a time, clear it when the unit resolves, and never for the whole grid. LinkedIn's Count remaining numbers setting does part of the same job for the keypad.

Frequently asked questions

Recent Mini Sudoku answers

Every past puzzle is in the Mini Sudoku archive. New here? Start with the Mini Sudoku guide.