Find the Cat #183: 8x8 Grid Puzzle (Medium)

medium

Tap a square: ✕ (ruled out) → 🐱 (cat) → clear

0 / 8 cats · 0:00
Red (7)Orange (6)Yellow (4)Green (11)Teal (11)Blue (15)Purple (9)Pink (1)

Can you place all 8 cats? One per row, one per column, one per color -- and keep them at least one square apart in every direction.

  • One cat in every row and every column.
  • One cat in every color region.
  • Cats can’t touch — not even diagonally.

Step-by-step solution

Squares are written as R<row>C<column>, counting from the top-left. Cross out the squares listed, and place a cat wherever a step says so.

  1. The Pink region has only one open square left: R8C8. Put a cat there.
  2. Wherever the cat in the Orange region ends up, it rules out R2C4. Cross that square out.
  3. Wherever the cat in the Yellow region ends up, it rules out R1C1, R2C1, R3C1, R4C1, R5C1, R6C2 and 1 more. Cross those squares out.
  4. Wherever the cat in the Red region ends up, it rules out R4C3 and R5C3. Cross those squares out.
  5. Wherever the cat in the Purple region ends up, it rules out R6C3 and R7C5. Cross those squares out.
  6. Wherever the cat in the Red region ends up, it rules out R1C2, R2C2 and R3C2. Cross those squares out.
  7. Wherever the cat in the Teal region ends up, it rules out R3C5. Cross that square out.
  8. Wherever the cat in column 6 ends up, it rules out R6C7. Cross that square out.
  9. Wherever the cat in column 7 ends up, it rules out R1C6, R2C6, R3C6 and R4C6. Cross those squares out.
  10. Wherever the cat in column 6 ends up, it rules out R4C5, R5C4, R5C5 and R6C5. Cross those squares out.
  11. Wherever the cat in column 5 ends up, it rules out R1C3, R1C4 and R2C3. Cross those squares out.
  12. The Yellow and Purple regions can only use rows 6 and 7, so rows 6 and 7 are already spoken for. Cross out R6C6 and R7C6.
  13. The Green region has only one open square left: R5C6. Put a cat there.
  14. The Red region has only one open square left: R4C2. Put a cat there.
  15. The Teal region has only one open square left: R3C4. Put a cat there.
  16. The Orange region has only one open square left: R1C5. Put a cat there.
  17. The Blue region has only one open square left: R2C7. Put a cat there.
  18. The Purple region has only one open square left: R7C3. Put a cat there.
  19. The Yellow region has only one open square left: R6C1. Put a cat there.

About this puzzle

Where to start: the Pink region is a single square, so its cat is already decided. Its 8 color regions range from 1 square (Pink) to 15 squares. It can be solved in 19 deduction steps using grouped row/column/region deductions.

If a row and a color both have only two open squares and share them, those two lines are locked together -- neither can use squares anywhere else.

Every puzzle on this site has exactly one solution that can be reached by pure deduction. If you find yourself guessing, look again for a region or line with only a few open squares left.

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