Instructions for the Holiday Season Sudoku Contest
To participate in the contest, you must register.
Instruction booklet and practice
The instruction booklet (IB) will be published on or around December 14 on the instruction booklet page. It contains a mix of very well-known Sudoku variants and more innovative types. Since the Sudokus in the contest are quite challenging, we have created an instruction booklet with completely new puzzles. That alone makes the booklet worth checking out! After we publish the IB, a daily practice puzzle will follow, covering all puzzle types at least once. The practice puzzles are also quite challenging, some of them even tougher than the contest puzzles. By solving them, you will be well-prepared for what awaits you in the contest.
How can you participate in the HSSC?
You can start the contest by going to the Participate page. Before starting, you can download the puzzle booklet; it is password-protected. When you are ready to begin, press the Start button. The contest lasts 2.5 hours (150 minutes). You may choose your own starting time between Wednesday, December 24 at 12:00 (CET) and Wednesday, December 31 at 23:59 (CET). From the moment you press Start, you have exactly 150 minutes to submit your answers using the answer form. After pressing Start, you will automatically be redirected to the answer form. At the top of the answer form page, you will find the password for the puzzle booklet. The puzzle booklet is in PDF format, so make sure you have a program installed that can open and print PDFs (such as Acrobat Reader).
How can you submit answers?
For each Sudoku, there are two rows, two columns, or a combination of a row and a column that you must submit as the solution code. Which rows and/or columns these are is clearly indicated with arrows next to and/or above the puzzles.
Use the designated answer form to submit your solutions. To submit, enter the solution codes for the puzzles you have solved and click Submit at the bottom of the page. You may submit your answers as many times as you like within the time limit. The form remembers your previous entries, so you do not need to re-enter the codes for puzzles you have already submitted. If you discover that you submitted an incorrect answer, you can correct it and submit again. Only the most recently submitted solution counts (even if the most recent one is incorrect and a previous one was correct). Submit your answers without spaces, commas, or any other characters. It is not possible to submit answers after the time limit has expired, so make sure you send your final answers before time runs out. A timer on the answer form counts down from 150 minutes to 0 to help you. Solutions submitted after the contest ends will not be accepted.
If you unexpectedly encounter a problem with the answer form during the contest, take a screenshot of the form with your answers, including your computer’s system time, and email it to WCPN (wcpn.pzzl@gmail.com).