Sudoku and Numberlink are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Numberlink 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: Rectangular
- Closeness to Sudoku: Distant
- Also called: Arukone, Nanbarinku
What is Numberlink?
Connect each pair of matching numbers with a path so the paths never cross and, in the classic form, fill every cell. Here are the rules in full:
- Join each pair of equal numbers with a single non-crossing path.
- Paths run horizontally and vertically and never overlap.
- In the standard version every cell is covered by exactly one path.
What a Numberlink looks like
Numberlink joins each pair of matching numbers with a non-crossing path, filling the grid. Here is a small solved one: the 1s joined along the top, the 2s along the bottom, with no paths crossing.
The 1s joined (red), the 2s joined (blue) — non-crossing paths that fill the grid.
Both are single-solution logic puzzles solved without guessing, and both reward ruling out routes that would strand a cell. But you draw connecting paths, not digits placed once per line, and the matching numbers are labels, not values — a distant relative.
What Numberlink shares with Sudoku
- Both are single-solution logic puzzles solved without guessing.
- Both reward ruling out routes that would strand a cell or clash with a rule.
How Numberlink differs from Sudoku
- You draw connecting paths, not digits placed once per line.
- The matching numbers are labels, not values, and there is no no-repeat rule.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
Nothing places a digit, so no technique transfers — but the elimination habit, "this cell has only one way to be reached", mirrors Sudoku's.
The verdict
Numberlink shares Sudoku's deductive discipline but is a path-connection puzzle at heart.