Sudoku and Tapa are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Tapa 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: Turning A Pattern
What is Tapa?
Shade cells into one connected wall so each clue matches the run-lengths of shaded cells around it, with no solid 2×2 block. Here are the rules in full:
- A clue cell is never shaded; its numbers give the lengths of the shaded runs among its eight neighbours.
- All shaded cells connect into one wall.
- No 2×2 area is fully shaded.
What a Tapa looks like
Tapa shades cells into one connected wall so each clue matches the run-lengths of shaded cells among its eight neighbours, with no solid 2×2. Here is a small solved grid: the "3" clue has a run of three shaded cells around it.
A "3" clue: three shaded cells run along its neighbours, all part of one connected wall.
Both are single-solution logic puzzles solved without guessing, and both reward reading a clue for what it forbids. But you shade a wall rather than place digits, and clues describe neighbours, not the cell itself — connectivity and the no-2×2 rule have no Sudoku parallel. A distant relative.
What Tapa shares with Sudoku
- Both are single-solution logic puzzles solved without guessing.
- Both reward reading a clue for what it forbids as much as what it allows.
How Tapa differs from Sudoku
- You shade a wall, not place digits, and clues describe neighbours, not the cell itself.
- Connectivity and the no-2×2 rule have no Sudoku parallel.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
Nothing places a digit, but the discipline of proving each shaded run before committing is the very patience Sudoku builds.
The verdict
Tapa keeps Sudoku's logic-only spirit but plays out as a connected wall of shaded cells.