Are these hard shikaku free to print?

Yes. Generate the puzzle above and print it with its answer, at no cost and with no sign-up.

Does every puzzle have one solution?

Yes. Every puzzle is generated and checked so the numbers fix exactly one cut, verified before it prints. The answer is on the second page.

Can I make a Shikaku book to sell on KDP?

Yes. The free tool makes one puzzle. The KDP Shikaku maker generates hundreds of graded puzzles at any KDP trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and solutions PDF.

Free printable

Hard Shikaku

A hard Shikaku puts about a fifth of its cells under a number. The big rectangles start ambiguous and are pinned by what has to happen around them, so you spend as long on the empty cells as on the numbers.

Difficulty

Bigger boards that allow bigger rectangles are harder. Every puzzle cuts one way.

10×10 board. Cut the grid into rectangles so each one holds exactly one number and has that many cells.

Two pages: the puzzle and its answer. Every puzzle is proved to cut exactly one way by the same engine as our KDP studio.

Want the whole book?

This makes one puzzle. Sign up to turn it into a full Shikaku book for Amazon KDP: hundreds of graded puzzles at any trim, as print-ready PDFs.

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Preview

The puzzle and its answer, as they print.

Shikaku Hard

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Shikaku Hard · Solution

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How to solve a shikaku

Cut the grid into rectangles so that every rectangle holds exactly one number and has exactly that many cells. Every cell ends up in one rectangle, and no rectangle may hold two numbers.

The method

1Start with the numbers that have only one shape. A prime number is a single row or a single column and nothing else, so a 5 or a 7 is already half placed. A number as wide as the grid has nowhere to slide at all.
2Use the other numbers as walls. No rectangle may contain two numbers, so a shape that would swallow a neighbouring clue is out. On a crowded board that removes more options than the sizes do.
3Look for cells only one rectangle can reach. Corners and edges are the place to look: a cell in the corner can only be covered by rectangles that reach into it, and often there is just the one. That is the same move the solver makes, and it is usually the first real foothold.
4Count what is left. The numbers always add up to the number of cells, so once a region is sealed off the clues inside it must account for exactly its area. A region that comes up short or long means something earlier is wrong.

The one rule: Rectangles only, one number in each, area equal to that number, every cell used exactly once.
What the answer page shows: The finished cut is printed at the back.
How the grades differ: Harder grades are bigger boards that allow bigger rectangles, so each number has more shapes it could be and more places each shape could sit.
Good for: Solvers who like times tables and a tidy finished page.

Making a whole Shikaku book?

This page makes one puzzle. To publish a book on Amazon KDP, the KDP Shikaku maker generates hundreds of graded puzzles at any trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and solutions PDF.

More printable Shikaku

See every printable Shikaku

Questions

Are these hard shikaku free to print?: Yes. Generate the puzzle above and print it with its answer, at no cost and with no sign-up.
Does every puzzle have one solution?: Yes. Every puzzle is generated and checked so the numbers fix exactly one cut, verified before it prints. The answer is on the second page.
Can I make a Shikaku book to sell on KDP?: Yes. The free tool makes one puzzle. The KDP Shikaku maker generates hundreds of graded puzzles at any KDP trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and solutions PDF.