The Museum
- Explorers
- Levels 1 and 2
- Cipher grid
The museum vault’s Cipher Grid gives away only five runes. Every move has to be earned. Fill each row, column and 2×2 quarter with 1–4.
Fill every row, column and 2 × 2 quarter with 1, 2, 3 and 4, each once.
This one comes back on . You can solve it then, signed in.
Last set on . The answer stays inside Kiwimath, and here is why.
What the board shows
- The grid gives five numbers and leaves 11 squares to fill.
- Among the given numbers, 1 two times, 2 once, 3 not at all and 4 two times.
What is a cipher grid?
A cipher grid is a 4 by 4 sudoku. Each row, each column and each of the four 2 by 2 quarters must hold 1, 2, 3 and 4 exactly once. There is no adding or taking away anywhere in it.
The numbers already printed are the clues. A well-made grid never needs a guess: every empty square can be worked out from the clues and the rule.
Children who like it often start talking in “because” sentences, which is exactly the habit that olympiad logic questions reward.
What it trains: Logic by elimination and keeping several rules in mind at once.
Puzzles like this are part of olympiad preparation from the first classes. See the plan for Class 1 or Class 3.
What to ask while your child works
Questions like these keep a child thinking without giving anything away. They work for every puzzle of this kind.
- Can you say the rule in your own words?
- Why did you put that number there?
- Did you check the new number against its row, its column and its quarter?
Warm up with one like The Museum
This warm-up is not the puzzle above, and its answer is below. It is a different puzzle of the same kind, made for this page, so your child can practise before The Museum comes back.
Fill every row, column and 2 × 2 quarter with 1, 2, 3 and 4, each once.
See the warm-up answer
The finished grid, row by row: 4 2 3 1; 3 1 4 2; 2 3 1 4; 1 4 2 3.
- The bottom row has 1 and 3, so it needs 2 and 4 in the middle. The second column already has a 2, so the bottom row is 1, 4, 2, 3.
- The bottom-left quarter now has 3, 1 and 4, so its last square is 2. The third row is 2, 3, 1, 4.
- The first column now needs 3 and 4 at the top, and the top row has a 3 already, so the top row is 4, 2, 3, 1. The second row is what is left: 3, 1, 4, 2.
Questions parents ask about The Museum
When can my child solve The Museum?
The Museum is due back as the Explorers puzzle of the week on Saturday 10 October 2026, opening at 6 PM India time. Your child can solve it then, signed in, with hints that open one at a time.
Who is The Museum for?
It is an Explorers puzzle, for Levels 1 and 2, roughly Class 1 to 4. A younger child can try it with a grown-up reading the story aloud; the thinking matters more than the reading.