A festive brainteaser created by Britain’s top spies annually is now available for solving.
Naturally, as a world-leading intelligence, cyber and security agency, it attracts some of the brightest brains. It has analysts to produce intelligence reports, specialist mathematicians, linguists, and a large number of technical staff.
In order to keep themselves sharp, staff at GCHQ design, create and solve puzzles on the regular. It has revealed this helps “develop their skills in thinking differently and discover new and inventive ways of approaching problems”.
“Whilst this does not mean that staff at GCHQ spend their time putting together jigsaws and filling out crosswords, it does ensure that we attract colleagues who enjoy spending their time creating and solving puzzles,” the agency added.
Puzzles have even made appearances in some of their recruitment campaigns, encouraging people to show off their problem-solving skills to qualify for an interview.
These puzzles and brain teasers are made available for the public to try on the GCHQ website and on the social media platform X. The organisation has even published two puzzle books, the sales from which were donated to mental health charity Heads Together.
What is the GCHQ Christmas Challenge?
Every year, GCHQ also publishes a special festive challenge for 11 to 18-year-olds. It comprises a downloadable PDF with brainteasers and puzzles, designed by the GCHQ crew, and is typically worked on in schools.
The puzzles are not designed to be solved alone and therefore encourage children not only to think laterally, but also as a team.
Last year’s Christmas quiz featured seven complex puzzles, designed to reveal a festive message when solved. It is available on the GCHQ website for those who want to warm up.
GCHQ Christmas Challenge 2024
GCHQ
This year’s quiz is now available to the public as a downloadable PDF. The puzzle answers can be found lower down this page.
The public is tasked to decrypt the names of UK sites in this year’s puzzle, which tests their mathematical, lateral thinking, and codebreaking abilities.
The front features a map of the UK including well-known festive animals, like a dinosaur, a robin, and a lobster. Four numbers have been allocated to each of them.
Looping around them is the route Santa Claus is anticipated to take, which appears to look like morse code.
The card has seven puzzles that lead to a landmark’s name when you flip it over.
The agency says: “The puzzles are not designed to be solved alone, and each student will bring something different to the challenge.
“At GCHQ, we believe the right mix of minds enables us to solve seemingly impossible problems.”
GCHQ Christmas puzzle answers
WARNING – Spoilers follow
Seven puzzles are contained in the UK spy agency’s Christmas card (GCHQ/PA)
PA Media
An image of an American banknote, a monarch, ham, two pals, and a playing card with the ace of spades are displayed in the first clue.
The terms Buck, King, Ham, Pal, Ace, or “Buckingham Palace” are used to characterise them.
“Blue Peter Badge” is the reward, “Brown Paper Bag” is the carrier, “Red Riding Hood” is the protagonist, “Pink Panther Show” is the children’s favourite show, “Yellow Brick Road” is the route, and the “Green Cross Code” is the safety code.
You will get “Black Pool” (or Blackpool) “Tower” from the final three words.
Q3 – University of Cambridge
The three letters BRI form the sequence Great Britain, the letters DGE complete the phrase “Knowledge”, and Old MacDonald’s backwards is CAM.
Together, the letters form the words University of Cambridge.
DENIM, GRUB, CHA CHA CHA, STYLE, GHEE, LORD, KICK IT OUT, and BASSOON are the answers to this crossword puzzle.
The next landmark is Edinburgh Castle, which may be obtained by writing the single letter that appears in both the down answer and the across answer parts.
Finding synonyms for the words yields the following response: soldier – GI, insects – ANTS, basis – CAUSE, and path – WAY.
The Northern Irish Unesco site “Giants Causeway” is the result of the letters put together.
You must follow a series of numbers in order to determine which ones are erroneous. The sequence that results is 19, 20, 15, 14, 5, 8, 5, 14, 7, 5, and you take the difference between them and the right number.
The sixth response, Stonehenge, can be obtained by comparing these to the alphabet’s letters.
Q7 – Principality Stadium
This question, which starts with “PERHAPS READING” and is the key to a substitution cypher (P=I, E=S, R=K, etc.), contains the clue.
The statement is translated as follows: “Perhaps reading it not ciphered is primarily a leading indication to you solving this admittedly devious initially unreadable message” with “Principality Stadium” spelled out with the first letter of each word.
Q8 – Protecting the United Kingdom
The Northern Irish Unesco site “Giants Causeway” is the result of the letters taken together. On the map, each location is marked geographically with an animal.
Finding the alphabetic letters that correlate to the numbers beneath each animal at the bottom will yield the following: EDIN, ECTI, PROT, GDOM, UNIT, EKIN, and NGTH.
“Protecting the United Kingdom” is the answer when rearranged.
