Puzzle 190 ("USSQT Redux", Sudoku)

I constructed a Classic Sudoku for the 2023 US Sudoku Qualifying Test!  (Past me would be in shambles rn.)  Wei-Hwa essentially constructed an entire contest in three days; I decided to chip in a random Sudoku because I had no intentions of actually competing.  

The grid below is not the puzzle appearing on the actual test.  Instead, it was the "first draft" of that puzzle -- one I sent to Wei-Hwa first before finding the harder grid.  (At least, it's harder according to Andrew's Sudoku Solver; the USSQT puzzle has grade 82, while the below puzzle has grade 51.)

Online interface (puzz.link)

Online interface (Penpa) 

Puzzle 172 ("Tilted", Sudoku)

Oh my, a Classic Sudoku!  I'm not good at constructing these, but I decided to give them a shot for the Open.  This was originally the most difficult Sudoku, but we decided to nerf the round a bit and so this puzzle got chopped.  

Online Interface (f-puzzles)

Online Interface (puzz.link) 

Puzzle 79: Discount GMP Week #1.4 (Thermo Sudoku)

Thursday's puzzle is a 3.5 star Thermo Sudoku, which made me pretty nervous.  Although I started puzzle solving with Sudoku puzzles -- and my second puzzle on this blog is a Thermo variant -- I haven't really touched Sudoku construction since then.  Sudoku just isn't really my thing; I prefer puzzles with more "geometry" to them and, in particular, find scanning in Sudoku puzzles to be a bit of a pain.  However, this "geometry" inclination does make Thermo sudoku one of the more interesting variants to me, so at least I got a bit of a break there.  (I would not have been prepared to make a classic!)

This puzzle took a long time to get working -- long thermometers are surprisingly restrictive, and I found my grids to break in completely unexpected ways, which made me sad.  That being said, although I needed a significant amount of help from f-puzzles near the end, I did manage to make the following work.  Apologies for the two-cell thermometers along the sides of the grid; there wasn't much I could do there.

I wasn't aiming to make a 3.5 star puzzle this time, but any comments about difficulty would be appreciated regardless.

Online interface (f-puzzles)

Online interface (Penpa)

 

Puzzle 2 (Sudoku Variant)

The second puzzle I wrote was a Sudoku variant in early August 2020.  I had recently gotten into puzzles through the Cracking the Cryptic Youtube channel and wanted to give Sudoku setting a try.

Normal Thermo Sudoku rules apply.  In addition, each given two-cell cage must contain a prime number when read left-right or top-down.

f-puzzles link: here