Introduction

This is a solver for KenKen puzzles.

Begin by selecting a template (either a blank NxN puzzle, or one of the demos) from the drop-down list over the playfield.

Lay out the cages:

• Click next to a highlighted cell to add the clicked cell to the highlighted cage.
• Click on a highlighted cell to remove the clicked cell from the highlighted cage.
• Click on any other cell to highlight the cage containing the clicked cell.

Use the inputs below the playfield to change the rules governing the highlighted cage. Please note two points:

• The final choice in the dropdown ("produce a result of") assigns an "unknown" operator to the cage; this is how you lay out "no-op" puzzles.
• If you wish to leave a cage completely unconstrained, assign it a blank value.

Click the "Solve" button to search for and display a solution to the puzzle. You may also click the "Make Puzzle" button; this will search for a solution, but it will not show it to you immediately. Instead, it will present the puzzle you just created in our playfield interface. This interface allows you to get cell-by-cell hints, and to continue to work on the puzzle, as opposed to simply seeing the entire answer revealed at once.

Further Reading

You might be interested in some blog articles describing the development of the code behind this solver:

• KenKen vs. Sudoku
• Constraint design
• Constraint objects
• Puzzle representation
• Solver search algorithm
• Performance tuning (Part 1)
• Performance tuning (Part 2)
• Performance tuning (Part 3)
• Generalization to (Jigsaw) Sudoku
• Finding multiple solutions
• 3+ cell difference & division cages
• No-op puzzles
• User-generated puzzles

If you have any questions, please e-mail me.