Hidden Quad

Intermediate

Four digits confined to the same four cells in a unit; very rare.

How It Works

Extension of Hidden Triple. Extremely rare and very hard to spot manually. The principle is the same: four digits confined to four cells means all other candidates in those cells can be eliminated.

Example

583461
2479
156
1359
629758
1456
2358
468
741932
156
468
2378
164895327
937624851
258317469
492573186
876149532
315286974
Key cells of the techniqueCells where elimination is appliedCandidate to be placedEliminated candidate (crossed out)

Box 3: Digits 2, 3, 7, and 9 only appear in R1C7, R1C9, R3C7, and R3C8 → Remove all other candidates from those four cells.

Practice with a Real Puzzle

This 9×9 puzzle is solver-verified to require this technique on its solution path.

Medium26 givens