Sudoku techniques · Hard
Pointing Triple in Sudoku
A Pointing Triple is a Pointing Pair with three cells instead of two. A number's only spots inside a box lie along a single row or column, so wherever in that line the number ends up, it is inside the box, and the rest of the line, outside the box, can lose it.
Why it works
If a number in a box can only go on one line, that candidate is removed from the rest of that line outside the box.
How to spot it
Run the same box scan as for a Pointing Pair and do not stop at two cells. Three surviving cells in one line work exactly as well as two.
- All three must lie on the same line; a third cell one row away kills the pattern.
- Because a full line inside a box is only three cells wide, this is the widest a pointing pattern can get.
- Solvers who only look for pairs walk past these constantly.
Builds on
Worked example
These are the app's own lesson boards. Step through them the same way a hint does.
- 1
In this box, every cell where 3 can still go lies in the same row.
- 2
So we can remove the candidate 3 wherever it appears in that row outside this box.