Naked Pair
A Sudoku solving technique · level 3 · first needed around SE grade 3
By The Hardest Sudoku Team · Last updated
TL;DR
A Naked Pair is two cells in the same unit that share the same two candidates, letting you remove those two digits from every other cell in the unit.
How does the Naked Pair work?
If two cells in a row, column or box both hold exactly the same two candidates, those two digits are 'locked' between them — one each — so neither digit can appear elsewhere in that unit.
When does it apply?
When two cells in a unit show an identical two-candidate set.
A worked example
If two cells in a column both have only {3,7}, then 3 and 7 can be erased from the rest of that column.
See where this fits on the difficulty scale on the SE grade page, or browse every technique in the glossary.