Sudoku·5 min read·May 24, 2026

Sudoku pointing pairs and triples: the easiest intermediate technique

If cross-hatching and naked singles are the two techniques you use on every easy puzzle, the pointing pair is the third one — and the one that finally cracks medium and hard puzzles that scanning alone won’t solve. It’s simple, immediately useful, and you can spot it without much effort once you know what you’re looking for.

The rule, in one sentence

If a digit’s candidates inside a 3×3 box are all in the same row (or same column), that digit can’t appear anywhere else in that row (or column) outside the box.

That’s the whole technique. Spotting the pattern lets you eliminate the digit as a candidate from up to six cells across the rest of the row or column, which usually unlocks placements you couldn’t see before.

Why it works

Take a 3×3 box. The box has to contain every digit 1-9 exactly once. So a given digit (let’s say 7) will be placed in somecell within that box. You don’t know which cell yet — but if your pencil marks say 7 is only possible in two or three cells, and all those cells happen to share the same row, then whichever of those cells gets the 7, it definitely goes in that row.

And every row contains each digit exactly once. So now the 7 is locked into that one row, inside the box. Which means no other cell in that row, outside the box, can be a 7. Erase 7 as a candidate from those cells.

The same logic works for columns: if a digit’s candidates in a box are confined to a single column, you erase that digit from the rest of the column outside the box.

What it looks like on the grid

┌──────────┐ ← one 3×3 box │ . . . │ │ 7? 7? . │ ← the only places 7 can go in this box, │ . . 7? │ all in the bottom row of the box └──────────┘ If 7 is the only candidate in 2 (or 3) cells of this box and all of those cells share one row, then 7 is locked into that row WITHIN this box. → Erase 7 from the rest of that row outside the box.

A worked elimination

Suppose you have the middle-row band of three boxes. In the leftmost box, your pencil marks show that 4 can only go in the two cells that sit in the same row (let’s call it row 5). Both of those candidates are on row 5. You can’t yet say which of the two is the 4.

That’s your pointing pair. You can now scan the rest of row 5 — the six cells in the other two boxes — and eliminate 4 as a candidate from every one of those cells.

If any of those cells now has only one remaining candidate, you’ve made a placement. Often you can chain two or three placements off a single pointing-pair elimination, which is what makes the technique feel powerful.

Pointing triples

Same idea, three cells instead of two. If a digit has candidates in exactly three cells inside a box, and all three share a row (or column), you can still do the elimination. Triples are slightly less common than pairs but otherwise identical.

Once you find one, the elimination is sometimes more dramatic — three candidates pulled out of the wider row instead of two, which often domino-cascades into placements.

The cousin: box-line reduction

Box-line reduction is the same technique in reverse. Where a pointing pair goes box → row/column, box-line reduction goes row/column → box:

If a digit can only go in two or three cells of a row, and all of those cells are within the same 3×3 box, then the digit must end up somewhere in those cells — which means it can’t go anywhere else in the box, even the cells of the box on different rows.

You’ll often see both techniques used on the same puzzle, on the same digit. They’re sometimes lumped together as “locked candidates,” with pointing being “Type 1” and box-line being “Type 2.”

When to scan for pointing pairs

Always start with cross-hatching and naked singles. Those take less mental effort, and once you place a few cells, the pointing-pair patterns often emerge naturally.

When scanning stalls, fill in pencil marks for the cells you can’t resolve yet. Then sweep one digit at a time across each box: are this digit’s candidates all in one row or column? If yes, you’ve found your pointing pattern.

This is mechanical enough to be a real habit. On a medium puzzle you might find 2-4 pointing pairs across the whole grid; each one usually unlocks 1-3 new placements.

Why it matters

Pointing pairs are the threshold between “intuitive scanning solver” and “deductive solver.” Most players never quite formalize the pattern; they still manage to solve medium puzzles by luck and naked singles. Knowing the rule explicitly:

Cuts solve time on medium puzzles by 30-50%. Instead of wandering the grid hoping for a naked single, you systematically scan for the pattern.
Unlocks half the “hard” puzzles that don’t need anything fancier. Many puzzles rated Hard are really just “Medium plus a pointing pair you didn’t see.”
Sets up the next techniques. Naked pairs, X-wings, swordfish — all of them are extensions of the same idea, that you can deduce where a digit can’tbe even when you don’t yet know where it is.

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Sudoku pointing pairs and triples: the easiest intermediate technique

The rule, in one sentence

If a digit’s candidates inside a 3×3 box are all in the same row (or same column), that digit can’t appear anywhere else in that row (or column) outside the box.

Why it works

The same logic works for columns: if a digit’s candidates in a box are confined to a single column, you erase that digit from the rest of the column outside the box.

What it looks like on the grid

A worked elimination

That’s your pointing pair. You can now scan the rest of row 5 — the six cells in the other two boxes — and eliminate 4 as a candidate from every one of those cells.

Pointing triples

Once you find one, the elimination is sometimes more dramatic — three candidates pulled out of the wider row instead of two, which often domino-cascades into placements.

The cousin: box-line reduction

Box-line reduction is the same technique in reverse. Where a pointing pair goes box → row/column, box-line reduction goes row/column → box:

When to scan for pointing pairs

Always start with cross-hatching and naked singles. Those take less mental effort, and once you place a few cells, the pointing-pair patterns often emerge naturally.

This is mechanical enough to be a real habit. On a medium puzzle you might find 2-4 pointing pairs across the whole grid; each one usually unlocks 1-3 new placements.

Why it matters

Cuts solve time on medium puzzles by 30-50%. Instead of wandering the grid hoping for a naked single, you systematically scan for the pattern.
Unlocks half the “hard” puzzles that don’t need anything fancier. Many puzzles rated Hard are really just “Medium plus a pointing pair you didn’t see.”
Sets up the next techniques. Naked pairs, X-wings, swordfish — all of them are extensions of the same idea, that you can deduce where a digit can’tbe even when you don’t yet know where it is.