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Rectangles 7×7

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Also known as Shikaku

Rectangles Puzzle

Carve the grid into rectangles — one number per rectangle, and the number is its area. Try one right here.

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Rectangles and Shikaku: one puzzle, two names

If you found this page hunting for the Rectangles puzzle from a newspaper app or puzzle collection, you're in the right place — Rectangles is the English publisher name for Shikaku, the rectangle-division puzzle Nikoli has printed in Japan since 1989. Some apps call it Divide by Box or Cellblocks; the rules never change.

Those rules in full: divide the whole grid into rectangles and squares so that every rectangle contains exactly one number, and that number equals the rectangle's area. A 4 can be a 1×4 strip, a 4×1 strip, or a 2×2 square. Pieces can't overlap, and no cell may be left over. Each puzzle has exactly one valid carving — finding it is the game.

Why the Rectangles format is worth your coffee break

Rectangles hits a rare balance: the rules take thirty seconds to learn, but the deduction runs genuinely deep. Because every number constrains shape as well as size, information compounds fast — a placed rectangle walls off its neighbors, a prime number can only stretch in a line, and a crowded corner may leave one clue a single legal home. On our harder boards you'll chain those observations several steps ahead.

Every board on this site is machine-verified to a single solution and graded easy, medium, or hard by a solver that mimics human technique — so you never need to guess, and a difficulty label actually means something. Start with the board above, then browse all sizes from 5×5 to 20×20 or make the daily puzzle a habit.

Rectangles puzzle FAQ

Is the Rectangles puzzle the same as Shikaku?
Yes — Rectangles is the common English name for Shikaku, the Nikoli logic puzzle from 1989. The rules are identical: divide the grid into rectangles so each contains exactly one number, and that number equals the rectangle’s area in cells.
How do you solve a Rectangles puzzle without guessing?
Work the forced moves: a 1 is always a single cell, prime numbers must be thin strips, and clues near an edge have few ways to grow. Every board on this site is verified to a single solution, so a chain of forced moves always exists from start to finish.
Where can I play Rectangles puzzles for free?
Right on this page — the board above is fully playable. Beyond it there’s a new shared daily puzzle at midnight Eastern, a permanent archive, and more than 600 free boards from 5×5 up to 20×20 in three difficulty tiers.