GCHQ Christmas challenge answers revealed: Did you crack the spymasters’ most fiendish festive head-scratcher yet…so how many did you get right?
For the young spies of tomorrow, it was a mission for your eyes only.
The Government Communications Center (GCHQ) today released a fiendish Christmas puzzle to test the budding James Bond.
The new head of the intelligence agency, Anne Keast-Butler, has given her “toughest Christmas challenge yet” to schoolchildren across the country.
Now GCHQ has given MailOnline answers to its tricky questions.
The annual competition is part of GCHQ’s Christmas card, which features the agency’s wartime home, Bletchley Park.
For the young spies of tomorrow, it was a mission for your eyes only. GCHQ today released a fiendish Christmas puzzle to test the budding James Bonds.
The new head of the intelligence agency, Anne Keast-Butler, has given her “toughest Christmas challenge yet” to schoolchildren across the country.
The aspiring spy students were challenged to solve seven increasingly brutal puzzles and riddles created by GCHQ’s staff puzzlers.
Each question has a one-word answer that may follow the word “Christmas.”
To find out the final festive answer, children had to look at the design on the front of the card, which features a rare image of snow-covered Bletchley Park from 1940, taken before the mansion’s photography ban was introduced.
The image was found in the personal family album of codebreaker Joan Wingfield, a talented cryptographer working to break Italian naval codes who later married GCHQ’s seventh director, Arthur Bonsall.
The challenge has been designed to test a range of problem-solving skills and secondary school students may have to work together to uncover the final holiday message.
Ms Keast-Butler, the first woman to head GCHQ, said she would test the code-breaking, mathematics and analysis skills that form part of the agency’s secret work.
“Puzzles have been at the heart of GCHQ from the very beginning. These skills reflect our historical roots in cryptography and encryption and continue to be important to our modern mission to keep the country safe,” she said.
This year, to celebrate the new headteacher’s passion for maths, GCHQ has also released a bonus puzzle with side questions.
“The history of GCHQ at Bletchley Park is featured on this year’s Christmas card as a reminder of the role this historic site played in our wartime efforts, and as the location of this year’s AI Security Summit.
“Our puzzles created a challenge for different minds to solve. Whether you’re an analyst, an engineer, or a creative, there’s a mystery for everyone. This is a problem that classmates, family members and friends should try to solve together.”
This year, to celebrate the new director’s passion for mathematics, GCHQ also released a bonus puzzle with side questions.
The quiz creator, known only as Colin, gave students a final test to find the hidden word in his quote: “Christmas is a great opportunity for GCHQ to engage young people, hence our annual Christmas competition.”
“Our mission relies on getting people to think differently and find creative ways to solve problems.
“Like working at the Government Communications Centre, solving flashcard puzzles requires a combination of minds, and we want to show young people that thinking differently is a gift.
“To deliver the final message, these different approaches need to be brought together, demonstrating the value of teamwork as the final piece of the puzzle.
“Not only do we want the Christmas competition to introduce young people to how we work at the Government Communications Centre, we also want it to be fun!”
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