Published catalog report · July 2026

July 2026 Sudoku difficulty report.

A reproducible engine-fact summary of the 60 puzzles in the published catalog batch dated 17–31 July 2026. This is not a player study or a full natural-month observation.

Scope and source

· 15 dates · 60 puzzles

legen-sudoku-engine/1.3.0

legen-ldi/v0/sha256:f541ca7389fce1f8257d6051209f234ddcd83980c1834ea29c078e6af58e0dd7

Daily catalog SHA-256: c74d7ff54917d88a00cddd452b05764149f9a1baefc856e79a7e65d4576fbb26

Headline facts

Puzzles / dates
60 / 15
LDI min / median / max
0 / 21.5 / 95
Logical steps min / median / max
49 / 55 / 65
Highest observed technique
XY-Wing

LDI and logical steps by assigned tier

TierLDI min / median / maxSteps min / median / max
Easy0 / 9 / 1449 / 53 / 57
Medium15 / 19 / 2151 / 53 / 57
Hard22 / 24 / 3553 / 55 / 58
Expert39 / 68 / 9553 / 62 / 65

Hardest-technique counts

  • Hidden Pair5
  • Hidden Single37
  • Locked Candidates6
  • Naked Pair2
  • Naked Single3
  • XY-Wing7

Five highest-LDI puzzles

  1. LDI0-0a49699ec02f55dac179fe08d81a5a32739ada01LDI 95 · 65 steps · XY-Wing
  2. LDI0-17ab0fdee343d133f6081557667d6e21c105c133LDI 87 · 62 steps · XY-Wing
  3. LDI0-1399d1cd52c5113e0b92f011f45986f36505cae7LDI 85 · 63 steps · XY-Wing
  4. LDI0-07c296b8e4ff384332ad2017fd093e174b9e9ea3LDI 75 · 65 steps · Hidden Pair
  5. LDI0-16fa737582509950ea3769f3ef1474f7fd505691LDI 75 · 65 steps · Hidden Pair

Interpretation limits

  • The four difficulty tiers each contain exactly fifteen puzzles by publication design, so tier counts are not a natural population distribution.
  • The period covers the published catalog batch from 2026-07-17 through 2026-07-31, not player activity or a full natural-month observation window.
  • No completion-time, hint, error, region, account, or other player-behavior data is used.
  • Results describe the fixed engine and LDI versions shown in this report.