Hidato Puzzles

Hidato Puzzles have been one of my go-to puzzles in my file cabinet of puzzles for several years now. I have had great success with getting students interested in these puzzles who haven’t been interested in other logic puzzles like Sudoku or KenKen.

Somehow, these puzzles have never made an appearance on my blog. Today, that is changing!

What are Hidato Puzzles?

Hidato Puzzles (or Hidoku Puzzles) are a creation of Dr. Gyora M. Benedek, an Israeli mathematician. The Hebrew word “hida” means riddle. In a hidato puzzle, you are given a grid with a selection of the numbers already filled in.

Your task is to fill in the missing numbers so that each number connects to the next number either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. 1 must connect to 2, 2 must connect to 3, and so on.

When I use Hidato Puzzles with students, I often have them draw in the lines between the numbers in order to help them check their solutions.

These grids can take the form of a traditional square grid (as seen above) or a beehive shape.

I’ve only ever used the square gridded hidato puzzles with my students. But I think the beehive puzzles could work just as well with students.

If you are looking to post these puzzles for students to solve and want a good explanation of how to solve them, check out this set of solving instructions/worked example online.

Free Download of 22 Hidato Puzzles to Solve

My favorite source of free hidato puzzles for using in the classroom was a PDF of six different levels of puzzles (22 hidato puzzles in total) that sadly no longer appears to be online. I have uploaded the PDF below. If this file belongs to you, please let me know. I can either take it down or attach your name and give you a major shout-out!

I’ve used this packet of hidato puzzles so many times on those unexpected days where you end up only having three students in class due to extracurricular activities or bad weather or whatever else the world decides to throw at you that day. The puzzles start out easy enough, that I’ve found that students were able to teach themselves how to solve hidato puzzles without me having to really do anything at all.

Hidato Puzzles (PDF) (4647 downloads )

Other favorite puzzles I like to use on these odd days where little instruction can occur are Zukei Puzzles, Hashi Puzzles, and Angle Mazes.

Online Sources of Hidato Puzzles

If you would like to play these puzzles yourself, I highly recommend checking out hidato.com to play unlimited free Hidato puzzles in both the classic style and beehive style.

They have a wide variety of puzzles to keep you busy. The online interface to play is pretty slick, as well.

Kathy Henderson has created a Demos Activity with Hidato Puzzles. She also created a separate activity with a Challenge Hidato Puzzle.

Other Printable Hidato Puzzles

Math in English has a wide variety of free printable puzzles.

Alex Bellos shares a video of how to solve beehive puzzles in his puzzle column in The Guardian. There are several free beehive puzzles shared in the article.

The New York Times has a set of three free printable hidato puzzles on their website in PDF form.

Brilliant.org offers up a beehive hidato puzzle. I like the twist where they ask puzzlers to determine the value of the sum of three cells of the grid.