Experts Provide Advice for GCHQ’s Annual Christmas Challenge

Are you still pondering the GCHQ Christmas challenge? This year, the public has been invited to decipher the names of UK landmarks, a task designed to assess abilities such as codebreaking, mathematics, and lateral thinking. The yearly mental exercise, intended to stimulate the minds of individuals aspiring to careers in intelligence, is presented as a Christmas card issued by Anne Keast-Butler, the director of the national intelligence agency. To assist in its resolution, we consulted several puzzle specialists for their insights on how to approach the demanding tasks. Please read on, and rest assured – we have not disclosed the solutions. Ms. Keast-Butler’s sole recommendation, shared on BBC Breakfast earlier on Wednesday, was to collaborate in a group and “bring a rich mix of minds.” Bobby Seagull, a mathematics teacher, author, and enthusiast of the challenge, supports this method. “We all remember from our school days, different people have different skillsets,” he states. “Some may think in a mathematical way, others are visual learners or more linguistic.” He concludes, “It shows that lots of different skills matter.” The initial – and simplest – question presents five images that represent a place name. Susan Okereke, a mathematics teacher who has crafted puzzles for BBC Radio 4, mentioned feeling daunted by the challenge at first. “I thought, GCHQ – no way!” However, she successfully deciphered the code by vocalizing the clues. “I was looking at it thinking, what does it sound like?” she recalled. “Then I thought, it has to be a location – so that narrowed it down.” Dr. Barry R. Clarke, who has authored several puzzle books, took approximately two minutes to solve the first puzzle. The second, however, required more contemplation. “My first idea here was London underground tube lines, because of the colours… but I wasn’t getting anywhere.” He suggested examining the columns horizontally instead, looking for potential connections. One of the more difficult problems requires participants to determine the discrepancy between the quiz setters’ output and the numbers one to 20. “It looks like it is set up for a rotation of some kind,” Dr. Clarke observes. “You could possibly start in the middle and wind out, to get one to 10.” Mr. Seagull employs a distinct two-pronged strategy for the GCHQ challenge, which he considers the highlight of his “puzzling year.” He advises, “It may take a few hours or days, but let it incubate in your brain.” He elaborates, “The first step is analytical or brute force. Take the puzzle, underline key words, work out what you do and don’t know.” Alan Connor, the crossword editor for The Guardian and a puzzle consultant for BBC One’s puzzle-based detective series Ludwig, advised against worrying about feeling uninformed. “The thing to remember is that the person setting the puzzle wants you to solve it.” He added that “A puzzle that’s presented to the general public is not going to be asking you for things that you don’t know.” He further noted that while GCHQ personnel create numerous puzzles requiring specialized knowledge, “they set those for each other for their own private amusement.” He added that the desired experience for the public is “to feel you’ve achieved something because you’ve struggled a bit.” The primary difficulty, he explains, lies in understanding the actual question posed by the puzzle. He clarifies: “Unlike with a sudoku or a crib crossword it’s not clear what the puzzle is to begin with – you don’t know what it is you’re decoding. First of all you have to work out what the question is and then what the answer is.” The complete challenge is accessible on GCHQ’s website via this link. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available.