Article • Rankings

How GridRank Rankings Work

GridRank is a competitive puzzle platform for Sudoku, Calcudoku and Killer Sudoku, and the ranking system is what makes it competitive. This article collects everything GridRank publishes about how ranks are decided: what is measured, how your time is calculated, how ties are broken, where you appear on the leaderboards, and how each play mode and the fair-play rules affect your standing. The official answers live on the FAQ and About pages; this page explains how they fit together.

What gets ranked: your time on each puzzle

Your rank on a puzzle is determined by the time it takes you to solve it. Faster is better: the clock decides.

The clock starts as soon as you start a puzzle, and it is tracked on the game server rather than on your device. You cannot pause it. Closing the browser or leaving the game does not stop the clock, so a puzzle you open and walk away from keeps accumulating time until you come back and submit the correct solution.

How your final time is calculated

Once you submit the correct solution, GridRank works out your time in three steps:

Start with the total clock time from the moment you started the puzzle until the correct solution was submitted.
Add any hint penalties. Each hint currently adds 30 seconds.
Subtract processing time. GridRank keeps a running total of the time the game server spends processing your moves and deducts it, so players are not penalized for playing at peak times when the server is busier.

Times are reported to the thousandth of a second.

A worked example

Suppose your clock reads 4 minutes 10.250 seconds when you submit, and you took two hints along the way. The two hints add 60 seconds, giving 5 minutes 10.250 seconds. The server's processing time for your moves is then deducted from that figure to give your final ranked time. If you had solved the same puzzle without hints, you would have been a full minute faster on the leaderboard.

Breaking ties

Because times are measured to the thousandth of a second, exact ties are rare, but they can happen. When two players have exactly the same time, GridRank also considers the number of moves each made. The player who solved the puzzle with fewer moves ranks higher. A solve without wasted entries or corrections therefore has the edge in a tie.

Where you are ranked

Each solve can place you on several leaderboards at once. GridRank ranks players:

Globally, against everyone who solved the puzzle.
By country, using the country stored with your account.
By age group, using the birth year you provide when you sign up.
By gender, which is optional.

GridRank says it ranks players in these ways "and more", so this list may grow. The personal data involved is limited: GridRank stores your nickname, country, a device ID and language, plus an optional birth year and gender for rankings. No email or phone number is required, and you play under a nickname.

How rankings work in each play mode

Mode	Who you play against	How it works
Solo	The world	Your time is ranked globally, in your country, in your age group and in your gender.
Duel	Another player's solution	You see the other player's progress while you solve. You can be challenged by a friend or find your own duel.
Tournament	The other tournament players	A group of puzzles must be solved before the tournament ends. You see a provisional ranking while you play; final rankings are decided at the end.
Mirror	Your younger self	Available after six months of play. You replay puzzles you have played before to see if you can beat your previous time.

Tournaments can last days, weeks or months, and the puzzles in one tournament may all be the same style or a mix of styles.

Hints and abandoning a puzzle

Once you start a puzzle you have two choices: solve it or abandon it. Anyone can finish any puzzle by using hints. A hint reveals the correct value for a random cell, which may be a blank cell or one that currently holds a wrong value. You cannot choose which cell is revealed. There is no limit on the number of hints, but each one carries the 30-second penalty described above.

If you abandon a puzzle, you will not see it again, except in mirror mode. In a tournament, abandoning a puzzle means you do not get another chance to solve it.

Fair play

Cheating means solving a puzzle using something other than your own strategy and logic. GridRank does not ban players from the game for cheating, but it keeps cheaters out of the rankings to be fair to everyone else. Behavioural signals are used to flag unnatural solves. Offenders are removed from rankings, and serial abusers lose all ranking eligibility, though they can still play casually.

GridRank does not publish the details of its detection logic, because that would make it easier to evade. It does say that the order in which cell values are entered plays a role. As a result, if you solve a puzzle offline, for example with pencil and paper, and then type in the finished solution, you are likely to be flagged. If you believe you were flagged by mistake, you can contact support at support@gridrank.games.

What this means for your solving

Start a puzzle only when you have time to finish it. The clock runs on the server and cannot be paused.
Weigh each hint against 30 seconds. A hint is worth it only if you expect to be stuck for longer than that.
Solve in the app, in order. Entering a solution worked out elsewhere is likely to be flagged.
Avoid unnecessary corrections. In a tie, the player with fewer moves ranks higher.

The replays on the Solutions page show these rules in practice. You can compare clock time, hint penalties and total time for real solves, and step through every move.

Related: FAQ • About GridRank • Calcudoku guide

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