3×3 Digit Hunt Puzzles
These 3×3 Digit Hunt Puzzles challenge you to find and shade 3 squares so that the digits 1-9 are included exactly one time each.
What is a Digit Hunt Puzzle?
A digit hunt puzzle is a logic puzzle that features a square grid of shapes. Each shape contains 3 digits inside it. The goal of the puzzle is to shade exactly three of these shapes so that the shaded shapes contain the digits 1-9 exactly once.
Here is a sample digit hunt puzzle and solution to help you better understand the rules.
DIGIT HUNT PUZZLE
DIGIT HUNT SOLUTION
Puzzle Origin
I ran across a single puzzle of this style (Puzzle #82) in the book Retos matemáticos para Primer Ciclo de Secundaria by Juan Diego Sánchez Torres.
I thought the puzzle structure was brilliant and a great way to practice logical thinking skills by having students develop an algorithm of sorts to solve this type of puzzle.
With a little help from AI, I was able to create a python generator to create various sizes of these puzzles which I am naming “digit hunt puzzles”. While I have tested many of the puzzles, please let me know if you run into any issues.
Instructions and File Details
Shade exactly three shapes in the 3×3 grid so that, between them, every digit from 1 to 9 appears exactly once.
The file for these 3×3 digit hunt puzzles contains 16 puzzles across 4 different pages for your logical puzzling fun.
Files
These digit hunt puzzles are available as a PDF and an editable PPT file. The PowerPoint file will need to be unzipped before you can edit them.
3×3 Digit Hunt Puzzles (PDF)
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PPT (in ZIP Folder)
Click here to SAVE the file to your device.3×3 Digit Hunt Puzzles (PPT in ZIP)
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Puzzle Solutions
Puzzle solutions are available on a password-protected solution page. I do not openly post the puzzle answer keys because one of my goals as a resource creator is to craft learning experiences for students that are non-google-able. I want teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms without the solutions being found easily on the Internet.
Please email me at sarah@mathequalslove.net for the password to the answer key database featuring all of my printable puzzles and math worksheets. I frequently have students emailing me for the answer key, so please specify in your email what school you teach at and what subjects you teach. If you do not provide these details, I will not be able to send you the password.
Not a teacher? Go ahead and send me an email as well. Just let me know what you are using the puzzles for. I am continually in awe of how many people are using these puzzles with scouting groups, with senior adults battling dementia, or as fun activities in their workplace. Just give me enough details so I know you are not a student looking for answers to the puzzle that was assigned as their homework!