NYTimes Sudoku Answers, Hints, Clues For Today February 19, 2025

A daily numbers puzzle challenges players to fill in a grid of nine 3×3 squares with sequences of the numbers 1-9, ensuring no repeats in the columns, rows, or 3×3 sections. Each day, three puzzle quizzes are published by the New York Times in the ‘games’ section.

How To Play NYT Sudoku

NYTimes Sudoku is like any classic Sudoku game. A more polished interface and interactive clues are two of its USPs.

To play NYT Sudoku, you need to know the rules. Once you have done that, you'll have the confidence to attempt any game. You have to keep the following things in mind:

• You will have to insert numbers 1 to 9 in the 9 3x3 boxes.
• You will also need to insert numbers from 1 to 9 in all the rows and columns. A number must not get repeated.
• If an entry is incorrect, a red dot will appear at the bottom right corner of that cell.

Note: NYT releases Sudoku games at 10 p.m. EST from Tuesday to Saturday and 6 p.m. EST from Sunday to Monday.

Difficulty Levels of NYT Sudoku

In addition to rules, New York Times Sudoku has three levels viz. Easy, Medium, and Hard. You can select a level depending on your capability.

Assessing the difficulty level of an NYT Sudoku puzzle is rather easy. As you look at a grid and see the way the numbers are scattered, you will understand what the level of the game is. A hard game will have very few numbers and an easy one will have few empty cells. A medium-level game has virtually equal number of blank and filled boxes.

NYT Sudoku Modes

Normal and Candidate are the two NYT Sudoku modes. You can simply fill up the numbers that you are sure about in Normal mode. Whereas in Candidate mode, you can add and remove the probable options of the number that you feel will be the correct entry for an empty cell. 

Key Concepts and Techniques

Each puzzle will vary in difficulty based on its number starting and its placements. Whereas, easy puzzles may be filled with, but this not be the case for harder puzzles, meaning the chances of entering are significantly increased.

• Before the game begins, players have to choose their preferred difficulty levels. In total, there are three levels: “easy,” “Medium” and “harder”.
• After the puzzle mode is selected, players will see the grid of 9 x 9. Now studying the board and elevating columns and rows will reduce the number of available to choose from.
• When you are ready to enter the number, click or tap on the square and it will get highlighted in yellow colour. Try to put the number between 1 to 9 and do it very carefully.
• The game will give feedback if you enter a clash with only the selected row, column, or block.