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.
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.”
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
What word links these three words?
All words that precede PUDDING
Question 4. MI x MI = MAA
12 x 12 = 144
TI + TI = RA
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?
Each letter represents a different digit
