PHP — 2,580,210の手がかり
これにより、最初にすべてのボックスの最後の行と列、および右下隅が削除されます。次に、各セルをクリアし、変更のたびに単純なソルバーを介してボードを実行して、ボードがまだ明確に解決できることを確認します。
以下のコードの多くは私の古い答えの1つから変更されました。printBoard空のセルには0を使用します。
<?php
// checks each row/col/block and removes impossible candidates
function reduce($cand){
    do{
        $old = $cand;
        for($r = 0; $r < 9; ++$r){
        for($c = 0; $c < 9; ++$c){
            if(count($cand[$r][$c]) == 1){ // if filled in
                // remove values from row and col and block
                $remove = $cand[$r][$c];
                for($i = 0; $i < 9; ++$i){
                    $cand[$r][$i] = array_diff($cand[$r][$i],$remove);
                    $cand[$i][$c] = array_diff($cand[$i][$c],$remove);
                    $br = floor($r/3)*3+$i/3;
                    $bc = floor($c/3)*3+$i%3;
                    $cand[$br][$bc] = array_diff($cand[$br][$bc],$remove);
                }
                $cand[$r][$c] = $remove;
            }
        }}
    }while($old != $cand);
    return $cand;
}
// checks candidate list for completion
function done($cand){
    for($r = 0; $r < 9; ++$r){
    for($c = 0; $c < 9; ++$c){
        if(count($cand[$r][$c]) != 1)
            return false;
    }}
    return true;
}
// board format: [[1,2,0,3,..],[..],..], $b[$row][$col]
function solve($board){
    $cand = [[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[]];
    for($r = 0; $r < 9; ++$r){
    for($c = 0; $c < 9; ++$c){
        if($board[$r][$c]){ // if filled in
            $cand[$r][$c] = [$board[$r][$c]];
        }else{
            $cand[$r][$c] = range(1, 9);
        }
    }}
    $cand = reduce($cand);
    if(done($cand))  // goto not really necessary
        goto end;    // but it feels good to use it 
    else return false;
    end:
    // back to board format
    $b = [];
    for($r = 0; $r < 9; ++$r){
        $b[$r] = [];
        for($c = 0; $c < 9; ++$c){
            if(count($cand[$r][$c]) == 1)
                $b[$r][$c] = array_pop($cand[$r][$c]);
            else 
                $b[$r][$c] = 0;
        }
    }
    return $b;
}
function add_zeros($board, $ind){
    for($r = 0; $r < 9; ++$r){
    for($c = 0; $c < 9; ++$c){
        $R = ($r + (int)($ind/9)) % 9;
        $C = ($c + (int)($ind%9)) % 9;
        if($board[$R][$C]){
            $tmp = $board[$R][$C];
            $board[$R][$C] = 0;
            if(!solve($board))
                $board[$R][$C] = $tmp;
        }   
    }}
    return $board;
}
function generate($board, $ind){
    // remove last row+col
    $board[8] = [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0];
    foreach($board as &$j) $j[8] = 0;
    // remove bottom corner of each box
    $board[2][2] = $board[2][5] = $board[5][2] = $board[5][5] = 0;
    $board = add_zeros($board, $ind);
    return $board;    
}
function countClues($board){
    $str = implode(array_map('implode', $board));
    return 81 - substr_count($str, '0');
}
function generateBoard($board){
    return generate($board, 0);
}
function printBoard($board){
    for($i = 0; $i < 9; ++$i){
        echo implode(' ', $board[$i]) . PHP_EOL;
    }
    flush();
}
function readBoard($str){
    $tmp = str_split($str, 9);
    $board = [];
    for($i = 0; $i < 9; ++$i)
        $board[] = str_split($tmp[$i], 1);
    return $board;
}
// testing
$n = 0;
$f = fopen('ppcg_sudoku_testing.txt', 'r');
while(($l = fgets($f)) !== false){
    $board = readBoard(trim($l));
    $n += countClues(generateBoard($board));
}
echo $n;