Szlia
Member
The Government Communications Headquarters, true to the tradition of creating puzzles to hire spies, posted a christmas puzzle on its web site. It's one of those "solve step 1 to find step 2, etc" thing.
Step one is a tedious picross puzzle that forms a QR code that leads to:http://www.gchq.gov.uk/puzz
Step 2 is 6 multi-choice questions, so pretty damn tedious to brute force.
Step 3:Director GCHQ's Christmas puzzle
Stage 4:Director GCHQ's Christmas puzzle
Final Stage:Director GCHQ's Christmas Puzzle - Part 5
WHERE
???
SUM
Hoss: 14 orXIV
ALGEBRAIC
Szlia (with the finishing touch by reddit):Kronecker(The first letter of each winning move - Kronecker being the mathematician that gave his name to the matrix multiplication used in the problem).
MANIFOLD AGREEMENT
wtf?
LOOTER
huh?
MESSAGE
Szlia: Letter sudoko with MERRYXMAS as the diagonal. Answer isMXAHRYESP.
GRAPH THEORY
I don't even...
WORDSEARCH
???
REGISTRATION
Szlia: the abscence chart results in the picture of a little duck. So
UCKor DUCKLING.
CROSSWORD
???
CIPHER
???
Step one is a tedious picross puzzle that forms a QR code that leads to:http://www.gchq.gov.uk/puzz
Step 2 is 6 multi-choice questions, so pretty damn tedious to brute force.
Q1. Which of these is not the odd one out?
STARLET
SONNET
SAFFRON
SHALLOT
TORRENT
SUGGEST
My theory is that the answer is SHALLOT. Starlet is the only one without a double consonant, Sonnet is the only one not 7 letters long, Saffron is the only one not ending by T, Torrent is the only one not starting by S and Suggest is the only one being a verb (not super convinced by this last criteria).
Q2. What comes after GREEN, RED, BROWN, RED, BLUE, -, YELLOW, PINK?
RED
YELLOW
GREEN
BROWN
BLUE
PINK
Merrith: The digits of Pi using the value of the snooker balls (a bit lame because no snooker ball is worth 9 so they put a dash instead)
Q3. Which is the odd one out?
MATURE
LOVE
WILDE
BUCKET
BECKHAM
SHAKA
Picasso: SHAKA is the only one without a E. (maybe too simple?)
Palum: SHAKA is the only one whose char index sum is odd.
Troll: the only one whose associated NATO phonetic alphabet is the last name instead of the first name. Victor Mature, Mike Love, Oscar Wilde, Charlie Bucket, Romeo Beckham, but Shaka Zulu.
Q4. I was looking at a man on top of a hill using flag semaphore to send a message, but to me it looked like a very odd message. It began "ZGJJQ EZRXM" before seemingly ending with a hashtag. Which hashtag?
#SGM
#SEM
#SEN
#SGN
#TEN
#TGN
The answer is #SGM for sure. The guy is on the wrong side of the guy signaling so get all the letters wrong. The guy is signaling HAPPY CHRIS(TMAS).
Q5. What comes after 74, 105, 110, 103, 108, 101, 98, 101, 108, 108?
108
101
115
123
111
103
Valechec: Jinglebells in ASCII
Q6. What comes next: D, D, P, V, C, C, D, ?
F
E
D
C
B
A
Valechec: Initial of Santa's raindeers (Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. from a XIXth century poem)
STARLET
SONNET
SAFFRON
SHALLOT
TORRENT
SUGGEST
My theory is that the answer is SHALLOT. Starlet is the only one without a double consonant, Sonnet is the only one not 7 letters long, Saffron is the only one not ending by T, Torrent is the only one not starting by S and Suggest is the only one being a verb (not super convinced by this last criteria).
Q2. What comes after GREEN, RED, BROWN, RED, BLUE, -, YELLOW, PINK?
RED
YELLOW
GREEN
BROWN
BLUE
PINK
Merrith: The digits of Pi using the value of the snooker balls (a bit lame because no snooker ball is worth 9 so they put a dash instead)
Q3. Which is the odd one out?
MATURE
LOVE
WILDE
BUCKET
BECKHAM
SHAKA
Picasso: SHAKA is the only one without a E. (maybe too simple?)
Palum: SHAKA is the only one whose char index sum is odd.
Troll: the only one whose associated NATO phonetic alphabet is the last name instead of the first name. Victor Mature, Mike Love, Oscar Wilde, Charlie Bucket, Romeo Beckham, but Shaka Zulu.
Q4. I was looking at a man on top of a hill using flag semaphore to send a message, but to me it looked like a very odd message. It began "ZGJJQ EZRXM" before seemingly ending with a hashtag. Which hashtag?
#SGM
#SEM
#SEN
#SGN
#TEN
#TGN
The answer is #SGM for sure. The guy is on the wrong side of the guy signaling so get all the letters wrong. The guy is signaling HAPPY CHRIS(TMAS).
Q5. What comes after 74, 105, 110, 103, 108, 101, 98, 101, 108, 108?
108
101
115
123
111
103
Valechec: Jinglebells in ASCII
Q6. What comes next: D, D, P, V, C, C, D, ?
F
E
D
C
B
A
Valechec: Initial of Santa's raindeers (Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. from a XIXth century poem)
Step 3:Director GCHQ's Christmas puzzle
Part 3 consists of four questions. The answer to each puzzle is a single word, which can be used to create a URL.
Q1:Complete the sequence:
Buck, Cod, Dahlia, Rook, Cuckoo, Rail, Haddock, ?
Palum:CUB, the entire sequence is a palindrom.
Q2:Sum:
pest + ?(unfixed - riots) = ?
Answer isZONE. We don't know why.
Reddit knows:
Q3:Samuel says:if agony is the opposite of denial, and witty is the opposite of tepid, then what is the opposite of smart?
Answer isOFTEN. We don't know why.
Reddit knows:
Q4:The answers to the following cryptic crossword clues are all words of the same length. We have provided the first four clues only. What is the seventh and last answer?
1) Withdraw as sailors hold festive sing-song
2) It receives a worker and returns a queen
3) Try and sing medley of violin parts
4) Fit for capture
5)
6)
7) ?
Answer isLAYERED. We don't know why.
Q1:Complete the sequence:
Buck, Cod, Dahlia, Rook, Cuckoo, Rail, Haddock, ?
Palum:CUB, the entire sequence is a palindrom.
Q2:Sum:
pest + ?(unfixed - riots) = ?
Answer isZONE. We don't know why.
Reddit knows:
each word is an anagram of a number in french. PEST = SEPT = 7, UNFIXED = DIX-NEUF = 19, RIOTS = TROIS = 3. So 7 + sqt(19-3) = 11 = ONZE = ZONE.
Q3:Samuel says:if agony is the opposite of denial, and witty is the opposite of tepid, then what is the opposite of smart?
Answer isOFTEN. We don't know why.
Reddit knows:
Each word is the opposite of the other in morse code...
Q4:The answers to the following cryptic crossword clues are all words of the same length. We have provided the first four clues only. What is the seventh and last answer?
1) Withdraw as sailors hold festive sing-song
2) It receives a worker and returns a queen
3) Try and sing medley of violin parts
4) Fit for capture
5)
6)
7) ?
Answer isLAYERED. We don't know why.
Stage 4:Director GCHQ's Christmas puzzle
Part 4 consists of three questions, the answers to which can be combined to make an IP address.
Find the missing number in the following sequences:
A) 2, 4, 8, 1, 3, 6, 18, 26, ?, 12, 24, 49, 89, 134, 378, 656, 117, 224, 548, 1456, 2912, 4934, 8868, 1771, 3543, ...
Szlia: Answer is52. The sequence is the powers of 2 written by skipping every other number. So: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc....
B) -101250000, -1728000, -4900, 360, 675, 200, ?, ...
Answer is30.87. We don't know why.
But reddit knows:
C) 321, 444, 675, 680, 370, 268, 949, 206, 851, ?, ...
Szlia: answer is208.
Because:
Find the missing number in the following sequences:
A) 2, 4, 8, 1, 3, 6, 18, 26, ?, 12, 24, 49, 89, 134, 378, 656, 117, 224, 548, 1456, 2912, 4934, 8868, 1771, 3543, ...
Szlia: Answer is52. The sequence is the powers of 2 written by skipping every other number. So: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc....
B) -101250000, -1728000, -4900, 360, 675, 200, ?, ...
Answer is30.87. We don't know why.
But reddit knows:
The pattern:
9^2 x -5^3 x 10^4
8^2 x -3^3 x 10^3
7^2 x -1^3 x 10^2
6^2 x 1^3 x 10^1
5^2 x 3^3 x 10^0
4^2 x 5^3 x 10^-1
3^2 x 7^3 x 10^-2 = 30.87
9^2 x -5^3 x 10^4
8^2 x -3^3 x 10^3
7^2 x -1^3 x 10^2
6^2 x 1^3 x 10^1
5^2 x 3^3 x 10^0
4^2 x 5^3 x 10^-1
3^2 x 7^3 x 10^-2 = 30.87
C) 321, 444, 675, 680, 370, 268, 949, 206, 851, ?, ...
Szlia: answer is208.
Because:
You have to consider each digit independently, like a 0 to 9 wheel. and from the first three digits you kind of weave a +1 thread a +2 thread and a +3 thread. What I mean is that each thread goes 1st slot to 2nd slot to 3rd slot to 1st slot etc. So:
The +1 thread goes: 3.. -> .4. -> ..5 -> 6.. -> .7. -> etc
The +2 thread goes: .2. -> ..4 -> 6.. -> .8. -> ..0 -> etc
The +3 thread goes ..1 -> 4.. -> .7. -> ..0 -> 3.. -> etc
So the answer is 208.
The +1 thread goes: 3.. -> .4. -> ..5 -> 6.. -> .7. -> etc
The +2 thread goes: .2. -> ..4 -> 6.. -> .8. -> ..0 -> etc
The +3 thread goes ..1 -> 4.. -> .7. -> ..0 -> 3.. -> etc
So the answer is 208.
Final Stage:Director GCHQ's Christmas Puzzle - Part 5
WHERE
???
SUM
Hoss: 14 orXIV
ALGEBRAIC
Szlia (with the finishing touch by reddit):Kronecker(The first letter of each winning move - Kronecker being the mathematician that gave his name to the matrix multiplication used in the problem).
MANIFOLD AGREEMENT
wtf?
LOOTER
huh?
MESSAGE
Szlia: Letter sudoko with MERRYXMAS as the diagonal. Answer isMXAHRYESP.
GRAPH THEORY
I don't even...
WORDSEARCH
???
REGISTRATION
Szlia: the abscence chart results in the picture of a little duck. So
CROSSWORD
???
CIPHER
???