How to Play Greater Than / Less Than Sudoku

Greater Than Sudoku is a variant where inequality signs (< and >) appear between adjacent cells. Each sign shows which of the two neighbouring cells must hold a larger digit. Standard Sudoku rules apply — every row, column, and box contains 1–9 exactly once.

Each inequality sign tells you the relative order of two neighbouring digits. If you see A > B, then A must be greater than B. You can chain inequalities — if A > B > C, then A is at least 3 and C is at most 7. Propagating minimum and maximum values through chains of inequalities is the core solving technique.

Find cells that sit at the end of a long chain of inequalities pointing toward them — these cells must hold either the minimum or maximum value in the chain. A cell where five arrows all point away from it must hold the largest digit in all five relationships; combined with Sudoku constraints this often pins the digit immediately.

It depends on difficulty level. Easy Greater Than puzzles are comparable to medium classic Sudoku. Hard and expert puzzles require systematic bound propagation across many overlapping inequality chains, which is substantially harder than any classic Sudoku difficulty.

Mostly yes — the inequalities involve relative ordering, not sums or products. The key skill is tracking minimum and maximum possible values for each cell as constraints propagate. Some players find this more intuitive than cage arithmetic in variants like Killer or Arrow Sudoku.

Easy puzzles take 8–18 minutes. Medium puzzles run 18–35 minutes. Hard puzzles average 35–65 minutes and expert puzzles can take over 90 minutes. Longer inequality chains dramatically increase solve time at hard and expert levels.