It’s hard, the herald angels sang! Can YOU crack the ‘toughest ever’ GCHQ Christmas brainteaser?
For the young spies of tomorrow, this is a mission for your eyes only.
GCHQ has released a brutal Christmas puzzle to test the budding James Bond.
The new head of the spy agency, Anne Keast-Butler, has set her “toughest Christmas task yet” for schoolchildren across the country.
More than 1,000 schools have already pre-registered for the annual competition, which is part of GCHQ’s Christmas card featuring the agency’s wartime home, Bletchley Park.
Aspiring spy students will be challenged to solve seven increasingly brutal puzzles and riddles created by GCHQ’s in-house puzzlers.
GCHQ releases devilish Christmas puzzle (pictured) to test budding James Bonds
The new head of the spy agency, Anne Keast-Butler, has set her “toughest Christmas task yet” for schoolchildren across the country. Each question has a one-word answer that may follow the word “Christmas.”
More than 1,000 schools have already pre-registered for the annual competition, which is part of GCHQ’s Christmas card featuring the agency’s wartime home, Bletchley Park.
Each question has a one-word answer that may follow the word “Christmas.”
To find out the final festive answer, children will need to look at the design on the front of the card, which features a rare image of a 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 is designed to test a range of problem-solving skills and secondary school students may have to work together to uncover the final holiday message.
Aspiring student spies will be challenged to solve seven increasingly brutal puzzles and riddles created by GCHQ’s in-house experts.
To find out the final festive answer, children will need to look at the design on the front of the card, which features a rare image of a snow-covered Bletchley Park from 1940, taken before the mansion’s photography ban was introduced.
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.
“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 is also releasing 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!”
MailOnline will publish the responses when they are published on Friday.