Play the Crowns Puzzle Online
In the crowns puzzle you place exactly eight crowns on an 8x8 board: one in every row, one in every column and one in each of the eight colour regions. And no two crowns may touch, not even diagonally. At Sudoku Sagax there are 800 levels, ad-free and with no sign-up required.
What is the crowns puzzle?
The crowns puzzle is pure logic without a single digit. The board is divided into eight connected colour regions that interlock like puzzle pieces. Your task: place exactly eight crowns so that every row, every column and every colour region holds precisely one — and no two crowns touch.
Many people know the principle from the daily puzzle on the career network LinkedIn. The mechanic itself is free to use; we simply call our version the crowns puzzle and generate every level ourselves.
The appeal is that there is nothing to calculate. You do not enter values, you rule squares out until only one arrangement remains. A round often takes just a few minutes — this is the puzzle for a short break.
The rules, explained simply
Four rules, each of them a single sentence:
- One crown per row. Each of the eight rows holds exactly one crown.
- One crown per column. The same goes for each of the eight columns.
- One crown per colour region. Each of the eight coloured regions holds exactly one crown too — no matter how large or how convoluted it is.
- No touching. Two crowns may not sit on adjacent squares, diagonals included. All eight neighbours around a crown therefore stay empty.
That is all of it. Every puzzle has exactly one valid arrangement.
Techniques to get you started
You do not solve a crowns puzzle by placing, you solve it by eliminating. These moves will carry you through almost any level:
- Start with the smallest region. A region of only two or three squares leaves barely any room. If it also sits entirely within one row, you know at once that this row's crown belongs to that region — and every other square in the row is free.
- Regions inside a single line. When a whole region lies within one row, that row's crown must belong to it. Every other square in the row is ruled out, and a chain of deductions usually follows.
- Block the surroundings straight away. Each crown you place makes eight neighbouring squares impossible. Mark them rather than holding them in your head — the next deduction is usually right there.
- Count backwards. If only one free square is left in a row, column or region, the crown has to go there. That is the most common closing move.
Crowns at Sudoku Sagax
You will find the crowns puzzle from the home screen under "All game types". There are 800 levels of its own, a separate leaderboard and a trophy for your first solved puzzle. Every level you finish counts towards your daily streak and the shared points pool.
Each puzzle is generated from its level number and has exactly one solution — the same level looks identical for everyone, so best times are comparable. Because a round is far quicker than a sudoku, a solved crowns level carries correspondingly less weight in the shared scoring.
Everything runs in the browser, ad-free, with no trackers and locally served fonts.
Frequently asked questions
How does the crowns puzzle work?
On an 8x8 board with eight colour regions you place eight crowns: exactly one per row, per column and per region. On top of that, no crown may touch another, diagonals included. There is exactly one valid arrangement.
How do you start a crowns puzzle?
With the smallest region. The fewer squares a region has, the fewer options remain. The strongest case is a region that lies entirely within one row or column: that line's crown must belong to the region, and every other square in the line drops out.
Do you ever have to guess?
No. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and every step follows from ruling squares out. If you are stuck, you have usually missed a region that sits entirely inside one row or column.
How long does a crowns puzzle take?
Considerably less than a sudoku — practised players often need only a minute or two. That is exactly what makes it a good puzzle for a short break.