LinkedIn’s Mini Sudoku is a clever twist on the classic puzzle

I love sudoku, so I just couldn’t resist checking out LinkedIn’s new Mini Sudoku game that it launched this week. Two puzzles in, I can already tell you that I like it a lot.

The rules in Mini Sudoku are quite similar to regular sudoku: you need to fill in all of the blank spots of a puzzle with a number, but a number can’t repeat in a line, row, or box. But the twist with Mini Sudoku is that it uses six numbers instead of nine, meaning the game has smaller puzzles that are a little easier to take in across a mobile phone screen. You can also make notes and ask for hints if you need them.

The smaller puzzles have also (so far) been faster for me to solve. The New York Times’ easy sudoku puzzle usually takes me more than five minutes to finish (could be a skill issue), and the first two Mini Sukoku puzzles have taken me about two and four minutes to complete, respectively. I know that’s not a huge jump, but every minute counts when I’m trying to finish a puzzle before my toddler wakes up in the morning.

The most annoying thing about Mini Sudoku is that it’s on LinkedIn, so it means I’ve found myself accidentally scrolling my LinkedIn feed. But I might have to learn to deal with that to finish my daily puzzle. I’m even thinking of trying LinkedIn’s other games.