Gen Z Spy Challenge: Solve GCHQ’s Fiendishly Difficult Puzzle

To give you a small competitive edge, SPYSCAPE has GCHQ’s puzzle tips below and a few hints.

Britain’s codebreakers at the Government Communications HQ design a mind-bending holiday puzzle every year to taunt the best and brightest cryptographers.

The 2021 cryptic challenge has a twist, however. It’s aimed at 11- to 18-year olds although the challenge is for all. There are seven puzzles increasing in difficulty and the seven answers combined will uncover a hidden festive message.

“No single one of you will have all the answers,” GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming said. “You’ll each have different strengths and ways of seeing things, and you’ll have to work together - to use your mix of minds - to find the solution.”

GCHQ dropped a clue to solve the 2021 challenge saying the card “sets a not-so-secret mission”. The answer will be revealed in the weeks after the holiday season on GCHQ’s website &Twitter account.
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Solve GCHQ’s 2021 Puzzle for 11 to 18-year-olds

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Hints and practice tests‍

Don’t despair if you’re initially stumped. SPYSCAPE has summarized GCHQ’s puzzle-solving tips below. Wiseguys may also want to check GCHQ’s 2020 challenge and the agency's Alan Turing puzzle to understand how spy games work. You can also warm up with our Bletchley Park Puzzle Books, or sign up for SPYSCAPE’s free weekly online crosswords delivered directly to your email.

Of course, if you’re the type of person who doesn’t need much help, crack on with SPYSCAPE’s Top 10 Toughest Ciphers & Codes including the CIA Kryptos puzzle set in 1991. Even the NSA’s top minds haven’t solved Langley’s brain-twister yet!
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GCHQ’s puzzling past‍

The year-end card is sent to national security partners worldwide who work with GCHQ on organized crime and terrorism operations. GCHQ created cryptic crosswords in World War II to assess potential code-breakers who worked out of Bletchley Park. 
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It didn’t work quite like The Imitation Game, where codebreaker Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) recruits Joan Clarke (Keira Knightly) and others by asking them to take a timed test.

Instead, Britain’s Daily Telegraph organized the competition to help the British government identify candidates. Keen crossword solvers were invited to test out a new crossword style at the newspaper’s London HQ without knowing they were applying for a job. Those who excelled were shortlisted and invited for a top-secret interview.

Since WWII, GCHQ has become an international agency in partnership with the US and Commonwealth countries.
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