Can You Crack The World's Toughest Spy Puzzles Set by the NSA & CIA?


The code-makers and code-breakers who work in signals intelligence (SIGINT) are the shooting stars who straddle the divide between art and science, but you don’t have to be Alan Turing to push boundaries.

SPYSCAPE has curated some of the world’s toughest spy puzzles - unique challenges so you can match wits with the sharpest minds in the universe. (Solutions are at the bottom of the page) 

The NSA Sun Puzzle
The NSA Sun Puzzle Challenge

1. The NSA Sun Puzzle

Can you solve this NSA logic challenge (above, left) to help reattach the sun's rays? Due to bizarre and unexplained cosmic fluctuations, the sun's rays have fallen off and you must put them back on in the right way. Here is what you know: i) Each of the 10 rays is uniquely labeled with a number in the range 1-10. ii) The spots between the rays are marked with the absolute difference of the ray labels that are next to them. iii) There are four consecutive rays that have even number labels.

Following the above rules, label each spot on the sun with the number of the ray that goes there. Once the rays are correctly placed, add up the label values of rays that are directly opposite each other on the sun. Convert these values to letters using the substitution 1=A, 2=B, …, 26=Z and read them clockwise starting at the top to find out what the sun can do now that it has its rays again. (Answer below)

Australia code breaker challenge
Australia Signals Directorate (ASD) Codebreaker Challenge

2. ASD Interactive Codebreaker Challenge

Click on the photo above or here to take on the role of a code breaker in this interactive game designed for puzzlers aged 10 and above. Decode the hidden messages about Australia’s history by matching symbols to the correct letters to uncover their meaning.

GCHQ Find the Word Puzzle
Britain's GCHQ Find the Word Challenge


3. GCHQ Find the Word

Madison, Saturn, Do, Nitrogen, Exodus. (Answer below)

New Zealand's Cipher Puzzle
New Zealand code cracker's puzzle


4. New Zealand Code Crackers Challenge

If you can crack this code and others like it there may be a job waiting for you at New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau GCSBspy agency. (Answer below.)


Nasa Gold Records Puzzle
NASA’s Coded Golden Records

5. NASA’s Coded Golden Records

Long before NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars challenged the world to 'dare mighty things', the space agency created a secret language to communicate with aliens.

NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 blasted off in 1977 to study the outer solar system and planets, and the space probes are still out there. Each carries a Golden Record, a message to any extraterrestrial life they might encounter. The records offer greetings in 55 languages, recordings of birdsong and whales, and music ranging from Beethoven to Louis Armstrong’s Melancholy Blues.

A stylus attached to each record can be used to listen to the album from the outside inward. NASA didn’t know how to explain the stylus to aliens, however, so the space agency invented a coded language for the record cover, hoping it would be deciphered by any extraterrestrials that come across Voyager 1 or 2. Can you crack the alien code? (Answer below.)


The Recruit escape room
The Recruit escape rooms in Ottawa, Canada

6. Canada's 'The Recruit' Escape Room

This challenge is for the more adventurous codebreakers as it will require travel for most. Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSEC) intelligence agency has helped build Ottawa’s The Recruit Escape Rooms for potential spies, a real-life challenge to break out of three locked rooms in 45 minutes. One enterprising group even formed a human pyramid to push through ceiling panels looking for (non-existent) clues. Only one person has so far fled the CSEC Escape Rooms - and they’re not giving interviews.

Answers to the World's Toughest Spy Challenges

 1. The NSA Sun Puzzle Solution

The NSA Sun Puzzle Solution

Converting to letters: 19 = S, 8 = H, 9 = I, 14 = N, 5 = E

The final answer is SHINE. For further information on how to get the answer click here.

2. ASD Interactive Codebreaker Challenge

This is an interactive puzzle. You will find hints and the solution online here.

3. GCHQ Find the Word solution:

Each word is the nth in a sequence. US Presidents, planets in the solar system, the tonic sol-fa scale, periodic table, books of the bible. By taking the nth letter in the word you can spell out INDEX.

4. New Zealand code crackers solution:

We're a community of government agencies working together to keep New Zealand safe and prosperous. Working for us is beyond ordinary. 

5. NASA’s Golden Record Code for Aliens 

6. The Recruit Escape Room

You will need to visit the Escape Room in Ottawa, Canada and discover the answer to this challenge yourself.


7. The FBI Dot Code deciphered answer is:

This time we used dot codes for each alphabet character. A little harder perhaps. Well done if you were able to solve it.


8. The Netherlands - 35-Page 2020 Puzzle Solutions


9. National Security Agency ‘Be Nice, Play Fair’ puzzle answer is

Plain Text Decoded. The National Security Agency leads the US gov in sigint and cybersecurity. Our core values are commitment to service, respect for the law, integrity, transparency, respect for people and accountability. To learn more please visit us at sos-vo.org/comeinsideandhaveacuppatea

 

10. CIA Tweet Puzzle Answer: 

Roses are red, violets are blue. Happy Valentine’s Day, from the CIA to you


11. GCHQ Quiz Answer: 

Tim said: “We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges.”
Who is Tim? It is, of course, the inventor of the World Wide Web – Sir Tim Berners-Lee. If you are still stumped, see exactly how to solve the puzzle step by step. Click here for the BBC’s solution in full. 

12. The FBI Native American Puzzle Answer reads as follows:

This is our hardest quiz so far. It is longer, of course, with more than twice as many words as our last cryptographic challenge. It also features a new set of pictogram symbols based on Native American symbols and motifs for each character of the alphabet. Thanks for participating, and kudos on cracking the code.

13. Kryptos

CIA Puzzle, Partial Solution to the first three panels, as solved by the NSA. You will also find the full background and clues on the SPYSCAPE website here.

Can You Crack The World's Toughest Spy Puzzles Set by the NSA & CIA?

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The code-makers and code-breakers who work in signals intelligence (SIGINT) are the shooting stars who straddle the divide between art and science, but you don’t have to be Alan Turing to push boundaries.

SPYSCAPE has curated some of the world’s toughest spy puzzles - unique challenges so you can match wits with the sharpest minds in the universe. (Solutions are at the bottom of the page) 

The NSA Sun Puzzle
The NSA Sun Puzzle Challenge

1. The NSA Sun Puzzle

Can you solve this NSA logic challenge (above, left) to help reattach the sun's rays? Due to bizarre and unexplained cosmic fluctuations, the sun's rays have fallen off and you must put them back on in the right way. Here is what you know: i) Each of the 10 rays is uniquely labeled with a number in the range 1-10. ii) The spots between the rays are marked with the absolute difference of the ray labels that are next to them. iii) There are four consecutive rays that have even number labels.

Following the above rules, label each spot on the sun with the number of the ray that goes there. Once the rays are correctly placed, add up the label values of rays that are directly opposite each other on the sun. Convert these values to letters using the substitution 1=A, 2=B, …, 26=Z and read them clockwise starting at the top to find out what the sun can do now that it has its rays again. (Answer below)

Australia code breaker challenge
Australia Signals Directorate (ASD) Codebreaker Challenge

2. ASD Interactive Codebreaker Challenge

Click on the photo above or here to take on the role of a code breaker in this interactive game designed for puzzlers aged 10 and above. Decode the hidden messages about Australia’s history by matching symbols to the correct letters to uncover their meaning.

GCHQ Find the Word Puzzle
Britain's GCHQ Find the Word Challenge


3. GCHQ Find the Word

Madison, Saturn, Do, Nitrogen, Exodus. (Answer below)

New Zealand's Cipher Puzzle
New Zealand code cracker's puzzle


4. New Zealand Code Crackers Challenge

If you can crack this code and others like it there may be a job waiting for you at New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau GCSBspy agency. (Answer below.)


Nasa Gold Records Puzzle
NASA’s Coded Golden Records

5. NASA’s Coded Golden Records

Long before NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars challenged the world to 'dare mighty things', the space agency created a secret language to communicate with aliens.

NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 blasted off in 1977 to study the outer solar system and planets, and the space probes are still out there. Each carries a Golden Record, a message to any extraterrestrial life they might encounter. The records offer greetings in 55 languages, recordings of birdsong and whales, and music ranging from Beethoven to Louis Armstrong’s Melancholy Blues.

A stylus attached to each record can be used to listen to the album from the outside inward. NASA didn’t know how to explain the stylus to aliens, however, so the space agency invented a coded language for the record cover, hoping it would be deciphered by any extraterrestrials that come across Voyager 1 or 2. Can you crack the alien code? (Answer below.)


The Recruit escape room
The Recruit escape rooms in Ottawa, Canada

6. Canada's 'The Recruit' Escape Room

This challenge is for the more adventurous codebreakers as it will require travel for most. Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSEC) intelligence agency has helped build Ottawa’s The Recruit Escape Rooms for potential spies, a real-life challenge to break out of three locked rooms in 45 minutes. One enterprising group even formed a human pyramid to push through ceiling panels looking for (non-existent) clues. Only one person has so far fled the CSEC Escape Rooms - and they’re not giving interviews.

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The FBI dot puzzle
The FBI Dot Code Challenge


7. The FBI Dot Code Challenge

The cryptanalysts at the FBI Laboratory are pros at code-cracking so don't expect an easy time cracking this dot code. (Answer below.)

Bureau wannabes may want to hone their skills with an FBI practice test, a three-hour exam focused on logic-based reasoning, figural reasoning and situational judgment - and that’s just the first test budding agents must take!

The Netherlands' spy puzzle
The Netherland's annual puzzle runs to more than 20 pages

8. The Netherland's Annual Puzzle

The Dutch are mad about puzzles. The General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) - The Netherlands’ equivalent of the CIA - has been designing the year-end challenge since 2011 and it is not for the faint of heart. The 2020 kerstpuzzel runs to 23 pages.

What started as a slow drip, attracting just 27 people in 2011, now draws hundreds - some years even thousands - of Dutch puzzlers. They don’t just compete to solve the problems, they race to find minuscule mistakes, finding joy in calling out the security service. 

AIVD gives competitors more than a month to submit solutions, and they need it. Some of the problems take hours, and some even days to resolve. Those who score more than 100 points (and no one did in 2017 or 2019) get to join the Club of 100, created to honor like-minded winners. Those who’d rather hold onto their answers and their pride can find a link to the 35-page AIVD Answer Sheet at the bottom of this page. Of course, it would help if you spoke Dutch but if you want to be a spy, learning a new language is all part of the challenge...

NSA Puzzle
US National Security Agency Challenge: Be Nice - Play Fair


9. NSA's 'Be Nice - Play Fair' Challenge

The US NSA challenged code-breakers to solve their puzzle with barely a clue: ‘Everything you need for the solution has been provided.’ The NSA also teased that the puzzle does not require a large cryptography or computer science background to solve - although we’re guessing that would help! Although the NSA doesn’t provide the answer on its website, the agency made an exception for SPYSCAPE readers. The NSA's answer is at the bottom of the page, but no cheating! 

CIA Cipher
Even the CIA can’t solve one of its own puzzles


10. CIA Twitter Challenges

The CIA are master puzzle-setters, regularly Tweeting out challenges including the one above from early 2020. (Answer below.)

There is one puzzle even the CIA can’t solve, however. SPYSCAPE has left the toughest for last, so you’ll need to be patient to discover what’s stumped the Agency’s best and brightest. 

GCHQ puzzles
The GCHQ puzzle is an annual event

11. Britain's Annual GCHQ Puzzle

Anyone who’s heard of Bletchley Park and Alan Turing knows Britain’s code-breakers are among the world’s elite. The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) releases its annual brain teaser at the end of each year and the mind twisters live up to its billing as Britain’s toughest spy puzzle. Helpfully, GCHQ provides a few tips for less experienced code-breakers. 

From time to time, GCHQ also sets puzzles for the BBC and amateur competitors. GCHQ rates the puzzle below as four out of six on its Enigma Rotor Scale meaning the code is a meaty challenge, probably one where puzzlers may want to collaborate with others. Here's a clue: identify Samuel, Louis and Ludwik. There are links between them. (Answer below.)

GCHQ Puzzle
Britain's GCHQ rates the Samuel puzzle above as 4/6 on its Enigma Rotor Scale

12. FBI Code Challenge

When the FBI set the coded puzzle (below) in 2009, the Bureau called it their toughest challenge to date. It remains as incomprehensible now as it was then - that is, unless you know more about the history of code-breaking in the US.

FBI Native American puzzle
Can you break the FBI's code?

Clue to the FBI's Puzzle 12

A US civilian came up with the idea of using the Navajo language as military code during World War II. By September 1942, the US government had recruited several hundred Native Americans to translate English words into the Navajo language. In 2001, 28 Navajo Americans were awarded Congressional Gold Medals, mostly posthumously. (Answer below.)


The CIA Kryptos Puzzle
Even the CIA is stumped by the Kryptos sculpture challenge


13. Kryptos

For three decades, the CIA’s Kryptos puzzle at the Langley, Virginia HQ has confounded agents, academics, computer scientists, and anyone else who dared to dream about solving it. The 12-foot copper statue, erected in 1991, seems to be a collection of random letters known as Kryptos (the Greek word for 'hidden') but it is a riddle for the ages. Only three of the four passages hidden on the sculpture have been decrypted. Can you solve it? 

Puzzle sculptor Jim Sanborn has offered some clues. Here’s the Kryptos transcript in full:

Kryptos Puzzle Four Panels

The NSA’s methods and solution to the first three panels are at the bottom of the page, offering further hints for those who dare mighty things!

Answers to the World's Toughest Spy Challenges

 1. The NSA Sun Puzzle Solution

The NSA Sun Puzzle Solution

Converting to letters: 19 = S, 8 = H, 9 = I, 14 = N, 5 = E

The final answer is SHINE. For further information on how to get the answer click here.

2. ASD Interactive Codebreaker Challenge

This is an interactive puzzle. You will find hints and the solution online here.

3. GCHQ Find the Word solution:

Each word is the nth in a sequence. US Presidents, planets in the solar system, the tonic sol-fa scale, periodic table, books of the bible. By taking the nth letter in the word you can spell out INDEX.

4. New Zealand code crackers solution:

We're a community of government agencies working together to keep New Zealand safe and prosperous. Working for us is beyond ordinary. 

5. NASA’s Golden Record Code for Aliens 

6. The Recruit Escape Room

You will need to visit the Escape Room in Ottawa, Canada and discover the answer to this challenge yourself.


7. The FBI Dot Code deciphered answer is:

This time we used dot codes for each alphabet character. A little harder perhaps. Well done if you were able to solve it.


8. The Netherlands - 35-Page 2020 Puzzle Solutions


9. National Security Agency ‘Be Nice, Play Fair’ puzzle answer is

Plain Text Decoded. The National Security Agency leads the US gov in sigint and cybersecurity. Our core values are commitment to service, respect for the law, integrity, transparency, respect for people and accountability. To learn more please visit us at sos-vo.org/comeinsideandhaveacuppatea

 

10. CIA Tweet Puzzle Answer: 

Roses are red, violets are blue. Happy Valentine’s Day, from the CIA to you


11. GCHQ Quiz Answer: 

Tim said: “We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges.”
Who is Tim? It is, of course, the inventor of the World Wide Web – Sir Tim Berners-Lee. If you are still stumped, see exactly how to solve the puzzle step by step. Click here for the BBC’s solution in full. 

12. The FBI Native American Puzzle Answer reads as follows:

This is our hardest quiz so far. It is longer, of course, with more than twice as many words as our last cryptographic challenge. It also features a new set of pictogram symbols based on Native American symbols and motifs for each character of the alphabet. Thanks for participating, and kudos on cracking the code.

13. Kryptos

CIA Puzzle, Partial Solution to the first three panels, as solved by the NSA. You will also find the full background and clues on the SPYSCAPE website here.

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