Expert sudoku, rated by the techniques you need

Many people who search for expert sudoku want the same thing: puzzles that test their logic rather than their patience. The problem is that difficulty labels vary from app to app. This page explains how Hush measures difficulty, what the Expert level asks of you, and how to build up to it.

What makes a sudoku truly hard

Two things are often confused: the number of givens and the techniques needed.

• Givens are the numbers printed at the start. A puzzle with few givens is not automatically hard. It may still be solved with simple, direct steps.
• Techniques are the logical patterns you need to spot. Harder techniques look across more cells and more candidates, and the hardest ones take several steps to see.

Givens still matter a little, because they set the starting point. The techniques decide how far you must reason before the next number becomes clear.

Labels such as “evil”, “master” or “extreme” are names chosen by each app. They do not tell you which techniques a puzzle needs, so it helps to check how an app defines its levels.

What to look for in an expert sudoku app

Use this checklist, whichever app you choose.

• A stated standard. Does the app explain what makes a puzzle hard? A stated standard is easier to judge than a label alone.
• Exactly one solution. Every puzzle should have one answer. In Hush, every puzzle has exactly one solution.
• No guessing required. Check that a puzzle can be solved by logic alone. In Hush, no puzzle needs guessing.
• Practically endless puzzles. Hush is built on 2,400 base puzzles – 600 per level – each graded by a solver and checked for exactly one solution. Every time you start a game, Hush reshuffles one of them: it relabels the digits, swaps rows and columns within their bands, swaps whole bands and may mirror the grid. That gives more than a trillion different-looking versions of every base puzzle, all with the same logical path and the same difficulty – so you will practically never see the same puzzle twice.
• Tools that help you think. Notes that clean themselves up, highlights for the row, column, box and matching numbers, undo and hints all help on hard puzzles.

Expert puzzles are where many players first get stuck, so the way an app handles mistakes matters. Hush has no mistake limit, which means there is no game over after three errors. A wrong entry does not end the game, so you can undo it and keep reasoning, and try again. The fill in all notes option gives you a full set of candidates when you are ready to reason through a grid.

How Hush rates expert puzzles

Hush rates difficulty by the techniques a puzzle requires, and each level adds new ones:

The XY-Wing guide also explains XYZ-Wing briefly, so the learn guides cover all three Expert techniques.

Harder than Sudoku.com?

Many players report that the top levels in some apps feel easier than their names suggest, and that the highest levels can be solved with the same basic techniques as the middle ones. We could not verify how Sudoku.com rates its levels, so we won’t judge them here. It also offers events and daily challenges, which some players value more than harder logic.

Hush’s Expert level takes a different approach: it needs at least one of Swordfish, XY-Wing or XYZ-Wing. Whether a puzzle feels hard is personal, so compare the two apps yourself. The Hush vs Sudoku.com comparison sets out what each app offers, and the Sudoku.com alternative guide looks at the ads and the mistake limit.

Play Expert your way

Many strong players like a bare board. Hush lets you strip it down: in Settings you can switch off mistake marking, the timer, highlights for row, column, box and matching numbers, automatic note clean-up and haptics – each on its own. There is no mistake limit either way, and a hint only ever fills in one correct number, so you decide how much help you take.

Your progress is tracked privately on your device: games played and solved, flawless solves, best and average time per level, and your day streak for the daily puzzle. On an iPad or an opened iPhone Duo with a keyboard, you can play entirely from the keys – arrow keys to move, digits to enter, N or Space for notes, Delete to erase and Command-Z to undo.

Free puzzles and Hush Plus

The first 10 solved Hard or Expert puzzles are free in Hush, which gives you a fair chance to see whether the harder levels suit you. After that, Hush Plus unlocks unlimited Hard and Expert puzzles for $4.99 once, at the time of writing.

A practical path to Expert

If Expert feels out of reach, build up one level at a time:

1. Master the singles. Start with how to solve sudoku, then read the tips for beginners.
2. Add the Medium techniques. Locked candidates are a good step after singles, followed by the pairs.
3. Practice Hard before Expert. X-Wing is a Hard technique and a useful one to know before the Expert patterns.
4. Then go to Expert. Swordfish and XY-Wing are the Expert techniques.

Expert sudoku across apps

Competitor details from public App Store listings and price databases, checked November 2026. Prices vary by region and can change. Sources: App Pricing Lab – Sudoku.com in-app purchases; App Store – Good Sudoku by Zach Gage; TapSmart – Good Sudoku review; App Pricing Lab – ⋆Sudoku in-app purchases; App Store – ⋆Sudoku listing and reviews; App Store – ▻Sudoku – Classic Brain Game; App Pricing Lab – PeopleFun Sudoku.

Each app names its levels in its own way, so compare the techniques rather than the labels. Compare what each app does at its top level, not just which level has the most impressive name. The comparison hub has a guide for each app.

When Hush is not the right choice

• Variants. Hush is classic 9×9 sudoku only. For Killer Sudoku or another variant, look elsewhere.
• Lessons inside the app. Hush has hints, but the technique explanations are on this site, in the Learn guides, not in the app.
• Social play. Hush has no leaderboards, events or multiplayer. Good Sudoku is widely praised for its global leaderboards and daily challenges.
• Devices. Hush is for iPhone, iPhone Duo and iPad with iOS 26 or later. There is no Android, Mac or web version.