Futoshiki
Each digit once per row and column, and every printed greater-than sign must hold.
⏱10–20 min🧠Easy🔢Numbers & Patterns🖨Printing Recommended
How to play
- Fill the grid so each row and column contains 1 to 4 exactly once.
- Each < or > sign must point toward the smaller of the two numbers beside it.
Tips for solving it
None of these give anything away — they are just how people who do these all the time get unstuck.
- A chain of inequalities is the way in: three squares in a row rising means the smallest cannot be more than N-2.
- The square at the big end of a chain cannot be 1; the small end cannot be the largest digit.
- Handle the signs before the rows. The inequalities are what make the puzzle solvable at all.
- Pencil candidates in each square and prune them against both the sign and the line.
- Once a digit is fixed, sweep its row and column immediately.
An example puzzle
Have a go at this one first — it is smaller than the real thing. The answer key is hidden until you ask for it.
| 4 | < | 3 | ||||
| ∧ | ∧ | |||||
| 1 | ||||||
| ∨ | ||||||
| ∧ | ∧ | |||||
| 4 |
Show the answer key
Answer Key
| 4 | 2 | < | 3 | 1 | ||
| ∧ | ∧ | |||||
| 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |||
| ∨ | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |||
| ∧ | ∧ | |||||
| 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
What to expect on Patreon
It’s a puzzle party in here
Members get something new to solve three times a week — print it, play it, whenever you have the time.
- Monday Weekly puzzle Logic, number and word puzzles — a different kind each week.
- Wednesday Detective mystery A case to crack: suspects, clues, and one answer that fits.
- Friday Weekend Challenge A bigger one, built to last you all weekend long.
- Early access to elimination puzzles
- Early access to mystery party games
- Solve at your own pace — nothing expires
Think you can solve the puzzle?
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