Do you like doing Sudoku puzzles? They are a hot favorite all around the globe. As for me, the first time I noticed a Sudoku puzzle was on a newspaper. I tried it and despite my unfriendliness with numbers, I was hooked.

A Sudoku puzzle is a number-placing game, which needs only logic and no mathematical skills. The objective of the puzzle is to fill up a 9×9 grid with numbers such that every row, every row, and all of the nine 3×3 sub-grids, is filled with all the numbers from 1 to 9. The Puzzle will be partially filled and the solution for each puzzle will be unique. Other versions of the puzzle are also available with a smaller 6×6 grid or a larger one with interlinked 9×9 grids.

The puzzle became a huge success globally in the year 2005. The puzzle appeared for the first time in Japan by a company named Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984. This puzzle was later customized and renamed Sudoku which became an instant hit.

The first Sudoku puzzle appeared on The Times in Britain on 12 November 2004 and became an instant hit with readers even complaining that they overlook other responsibilities while doing the Sudoku. The first newspaper to publish a Sudoku puzzle in the United States of America was The Conway Daily Sun (New Hampshire), in 2004.

The puzzle usually appears at easy, medium and difficult levels. Even world-wide Sudoku Championships are being conducted from the year 2006.