Free printable Kakurasu with answers
Kakurasu is a shading puzzle driven by sums. Each column is worth its position number toward its row total, and each row is worth its position toward its column total. Shade cells so each row and column of shaded squares hits the target printed on its edge. Every puzzle here has exactly one solution.
By size
Size is what makes a Kakurasu harder: a bigger grid has more cells to weigh and larger sums to balance. Start on a 4 by 4 and work up to a 7 by 7.
Easy Kakurasu
Free printable easy Kakurasu with answers. A gentle 4 by 4 grid that solves in a couple of minutes, with the shaded answer on page two. No sign-up.
Medium Kakurasu
Free printable medium Kakurasu with answers. A 5 by 5 grid for everyday solving, each with one shading. Print with the answer.
Hard Kakurasu
Free printable hard Kakurasu with answers. A 6 by 6 grid with larger sums to balance. One shading, printed with the answer.
Large Kakurasu
Free printable large Kakurasu with answers. A 7 by 7 grid for a long sum-logic solve, with the shaded answer on page two. No sign-up.
By audience
A gentle grid for a child or a beginner uses the same rule, with smaller sums to add up.
One answer, every time
The thing that makes a Kakurasu book worth printing is the guarantee most sellers cannot make: that the edge targets fix exactly one shading. Every puzzle is generated by drawing a shading, reading its true sums, and running a solver that proves one shading matches. The shaded grid prints as the answer key.
How to solve a kakurasu
Shade squares so the weighted totals along each row and column match the numbers on the edges.
The method
- 1Know the weights. In each row a shaded square is worth its position from the left, 1, 2, 3 and so on; in each column, its position from the top.
- 2Hit each target. The shaded squares in a line must add up to that line edge number. Find the combinations that reach it.
- 3Use the extreme totals. A small target keeps the big-weight squares blank; a target near the maximum shades most of them. Start where the choice is forced.
- 4Cross rows with columns. A square must satisfy both its row target and its column target. Where only one choice does both, lock it in.
- The one rule
- Shade squares so each row and column of shaded weights adds up to its edge target.
- What the answer page shows
- The solved shading is printed at the back.
- How the grades differ
- Larger grids bring bigger targets and more combinations to weigh.
- Good for
- Solvers who like a little arithmetic with their logic.
Make one now
Pick a size from a gentle 4 by 4 up to a 7 by 7, then print the puzzle and its answer. No sign-up, no watermark.