Can you solve GCHQ’s ‘toughest ever’ Christmas quiz?

GCHQ chief said it was the ‘trickiest’ annual Christmas quiz ever aimed at secondary school children

GCHQ has released its “trickiest” ever annual Christmas quiz aimed at secondary school children and adults ready to test their code-breaking skills.

The quiz has seven one-word answers, each of which has a one word answer that can follow “Christmas”, before taking letters from the seven answers and placing them into a grid to produce a seasonal message.

To discover the final festive answer, children will need to look to the design on the front of the card, which features a rare 1940 image of a snow-covered Bletchley Park taken before a photography ban was introduced at the mansion.

Now in its third year, the challenge aims to provide an insight into GCHQ’s work and inspire young people to study Stem subjects.

Scroll to the bottom to read the answers.

Question 1

These clocks show a four-letter word. Can you work it out? (PA)

Question 2

Can you solve this riddle? What breaks but cannot fall, can leap but never crawl, can be seized but never gripped, often present, never skipped? (PA)

Question 3

What word links these three words? (PA)

Question 4

Each letter represents a different digit (PA)

Question 5

Find the pairs of letters which come next in each sequence: (PA)

Question 6

We found a scrap of paper with some bars of music on it which we think are concealing a word. Next to themusic were some 1s and 0s, and the numbers 16,8,4,2,1. Can you work out the hidden word? (PA)

Question 7

Look at this message. Can you work it out and find the secret 4-letter word? (PA)

Final question

Can you solve the final challenge below? (PA)

The intelligence agency’s director Anne Keast-Butler said those tackling the puzzle were expected to need to work in teams solve it.

She said: “Our puzzlers have created a challenge which is designed for a mix of minds to solve. Whether you are an analyst, an engineer or a creative, there is a puzzle for everyone. This is one for classmates, family and friends to try to solve together.

“Puzzles have been at the heart of GCHQ from the start. These skills represent our historic roots in cryptography and encryption and continue to be important to our modern-day mission to keep the country safe.”

Colin, chief puzzler at GCHQ, added: “Our mission relies on people thinking differently and finding inventive ways to approach challenges.

“Like the work at GCHQ, solving the puzzles on the card requires a mix of minds, and we want to show young people that thinking differently is a gift.”

Answers

Question 1. The first clock shows 8pm which is the 20th hour of the day. The 20th letter of the alphabet is T. Therefore the four clocks represent: T - I - M - E

Question 2. The answer is: DAY

Question 3. Declan, Jasmine and Sticky = Rice

Sirius, Pitch and Penny = Black

Scarborough, Pudsey, Beverley = Yorkshire

All words that precede PUDDING

Question 4. MI x MI = MAA

12 x 12 = 144

TI + TI = RA

32 + 32 = 64

DO - SO + TI - MI = RE

98 - 58 + 32 - 12 = 60

RE x RE = ?

60 x 60 = 3600

3 = T, 6 = R, E = 0. The answer is TREE

Question 5. TH, RD, ND, ST

4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st

ET, EL, PM, OC

The word ‘complete’ backwards

WU, SQ, OM, KI

Each subsequent letter is two letters before the last in the alphabet

WR, AP, PI, NG

The word ‘wrapping’ as in ‘wrapping paper’

The answer is STOCKING

Question 6. The puzzle is in binary. Filled-in notes are 1s and hollow notes are 0s. Each bar represents a letter and each note within each bar is a number. The first of the five symbols in each bar represents 16, the second 8, then 4, 2, 1.

The first three symbols of the first bar are 0s. The final two are 1s so we add 2 and 1 to get 3. The third letter of the alphabet is C. Therefore the symbols correspond to 00011, 00001, 10010, 01111, 01100 (which translated to decimal gives us: 3, 1, 18, 15, 12) so the answer to the puzzle is CAROL.

Question 7. Assuming that ‘4-hmqqmk’ translates to ‘4-letter’:

First solve the code.

Identify a 4-letter word.

Look everywhere.

Maybe it’s very obvious.

Take the first letter of each sentence and you get FILM

Final question. To solve this puzzle:

• Match the pattern in the top left square to the corresponding item in the image above this quiz
• Match the item to the icon before each question
• Using the answer to the question, find the nth letter of the word using the number in the top right square
• Example: The pattern matches the gingerbread man
• The gingerbread man icon represents question two
• The answer to question two is DAY
• The third letter is Y
• The answer is: YULETIDE FELICITATIONS