Can You Crack GCHQ's Christmas Challenge for Kids? Test Your Skills!
UK intelligence agency GCHQ unveils its exciting Christmas challenge for young minds, featuring a collection of puzzles in their annual festive card
Why are secret codes and kids connected to Christmas? The UK's biggest intelligence agency, GCHQ, has released its yearly Christmas card, including a series of puzzles designed for Britain's youngest brains.
This year's challenge is the most difficult one yet, according to the organization's statement on Thursday. 11- to 18-year-olds will have to solve a series of seven "complex puzzles" created by the agency's experts in order to reveal the final festive message.
"Puzzles have always been central to GCHQ. These skills reflect our long-standing involvement in cryptography and encryption and remain crucial to our current mission of ensuring the country's security," said Anne Keast-Butler, GCHQ director, in the statement.
The card's festive picture also features in the final puzzle to reveal the last secret message.
GCHQ has designed a Challenge that is suitable for a diverse range of minds to solve. Whether you are an analyst, engineer, or creative thinker, there is a puzzle for everyone to enjoy. It is a great opportunity for classmates, family, and friends to come together and test their problem-solving skills.
You can download GCHQ's Christmas card, which contains puzzles. The card features a snowy photograph of the agency's World War II home, Bletchley Park, where UK cryptologists sought to decipher messages sent by the Nazis, including Alan Turing who famously decrypted coded German messages sent using the Enigma cipher machine.
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"GCHQ's history at Bletchley Park is showcased in this year's Christmas card, serving as a tribute to the significant role this historic site played in our wartime efforts and as the venue for this year's AI Safety Summit," Keast-Butler explained.
There are seven puzzles, each with a one-word answer that can follow the word "Christmas." Players must then determine which letters to place in the grid provided to unveil the final answer.
Access the puzzle answers on GCHQ's website at 7 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) Friday. The agency, headquartered in Cheltenham, England, encourages collaboration among children to improve their chances of solving the puzzles, all of which assess different skills.
