Sudoku and Dominosa are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Dominosa is distant to Sudoku. Below we lay out what the two share, where they part ways, and whether the skills you have built on Sudoku will carry over.
- Grid: Grid of pips
- Closeness to Sudoku: Distant
- Also called: Domino Solitaire
What is Dominosa?
Divide a grid of numbers into a full set of dominoes so that every domino combination appears exactly once. Here are the rules in full:
- The grid holds one number in every cell.
- Partition it into dominoes, each covering two cells.
- Every possible domino (0-0, 0-1, … up to the set's maximum) appears exactly once.
See a Dominosa grid
Dominosa splits a grid of numbers into a full set of dominoes, each combination used exactly once. Below, a 0-1 domino sits above a 2-2 domino - every pair appears just once in a complete puzzle.
Two dominoes: 0-1 (purple) and 2-2 (green) - each combination used exactly once.
The "each combination used exactly once" rule echoes Sudoku's each-digit-once discipline, and it is solved by elimination with a single solution. But you lay dominoes over fixed numbers rather than filling blanks, and there are no rows, columns or regions - only the complete domino set. A distant cousin.
What Dominosa shares with Sudoku
- The "each combination used exactly once" rule echoes Sudoku's each-digit-once discipline.
- It is solved by elimination and a single solution, never guessing.
How Dominosa differs from Sudoku
- You lay down dominoes over fixed numbers rather than filling blanks.
- There are no rows, columns or regions to satisfy - only the complete domino set.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
No technique transfers directly, but "this domino can only go here, so cross the others off" is the same candidate-elimination reasoning as Sudoku.
The verdict
Dominosa turns Sudoku's use-each-once idea into a domino-matching puzzle over a fixed grid of pips.
Where to play it
If it was Sudoku you came for, the level is the choice that matters more than the variant - Dominosa and Sudoku part ways on the rules, but a Sudoku grid can be a two-minute warm-up or an hour of work depending on nothing but how much of it you are given.
Difficulty and type are two separate dials here: the type sets the extra rule, the level sets how much of the grid you start with. Easy Sudoku leaves 36 of the 81 cells filled, so there is always an obvious next move somewhere; Evil Sudoku leaves 23, with no easy moves at all. Take it at the gentler end while the pattern is still new, and move up once it stops being a fight.