Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions
Ask Author
Back to course home

0% completed

Vote For New Content
Sudoku Solver (hard)
Table of Contents

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible

Problem Statement

Write a program to solve a Sudoku puzzle by filling the empty cells.

A sudoku solution must satisfy all of the following rules:

  • Each of the digits 1-9 must occur exactly once in each row.
  • Each of the digits 1-9 must occur exactly once in each column.
  • Each of the digits 1-9 must occur exactly once in each of the 9 3x3 sub-boxes of the grid.

The '.' character indicates empty cells.

Example 1:
Input:

            {'5', '3', '.', '.', '7', '.', '.', '.', '.'},
            {'6', '.', '.', '1', '9', '5', '.', '.', '.'},
            {'.', '9', '8', '.', '.', '.', '.', '6', '.'},
            {'8', '.', '.', '.', '6', '.', '.', '.', '3'},
            {'4', '.', '.', '8', '.', '3', '.', '.', '1'},
            {'7', '.', '.', '.', '2', '.', '.', '.', '6'},
            {'.', '6', '.', '.', '.', '.', '2', '8', '.'},
            {'.', '.', '.', '4', '1', '9', '.', '.', '5'},
            {'.', '.', '.', '.', '8', '.', '.', '7', '9'}

Output:

            {'5'', '3'', '4'', '6'', '7'', '8'', '9'', '1'', '2''},
            {'6'', '7'', '2'', '1'', '9'', '5'', '3'', '4'', '8''},
            {'1'', '9'', '8'', '3'', '4'', '2'', '5'', '6'', '7''},
            {'8'', '5'', '9'', '7'', '6'', '1'', '4'', '2'', '3''},
            {'4'', '2'', '6'', '8'', '5'', '3'', '7'', '9'', '1''},
            {'7'', '1'', '3'', '9'', '2'', '4'', '8'', '5'', '6''},
            {'9'', '6'', '1'', '5'', '3'', '7'', '2'', '8'', '4''},
            {'2'', '8'', '7'', '4'', '1'', '9'', '6'', '3'', '5''},
            {'3'', '4'', '5'', '2'', '8'', '6'', '1'', '7'', '9''}

Explanation: The given output is the only valid Sudoku solution.

Constraints:

  • board.length == 9
  • board[i].length == 9
  • board[i][j] is a digit or '.'
  • It is guaranteed that the input board has only one solution.

Try it yourself

Try solving this question here:

Python3
Python3

. . . .

.....

.....

.....

Like the course? Get enrolled and start learning!

Table of Contents

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible

Contents are not accessible