The Warehouse
- Explorers
- Levels 1 and 2
- Cipher grid
Detective Kiwi finds the thief’s first Cipher Grid. Fill every row, column and 2×2 quarter with 1, 2, 3, 4, each once, to spring the lock. Six runes are already etched in.
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 six numbers and leaves 10 squares to fill.
- Among the given numbers, 1 two times, 2 once, 3 two times and 4 once.
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 Warehouse
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 Warehouse 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 1 3 2; 2 3 1 4; 3 4 2 1; 1 2 4 3.
- The top-right quarter already has 3, 2 and 4, so its empty square must be 1.
- The bottom-right quarter has a 4. The third row needs 1 and 2 at its end; the 1 cannot sit under the 1 you just placed, so the row ends 2, 1, and the last square of the bottom row is 3.
- Each remaining square now has one number left: the top row starts 4, 1 and the second row starts 2, 3; the bottom row starts 1, 2.
Questions parents ask about The Warehouse
When can my child solve The Warehouse?
The Warehouse is due back as the Explorers puzzle of the week on Saturday 5 December 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 Warehouse 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.