Spy agency challenges school kids to a tricky brain teaser - with code to crack

14 December 2023 , 09:50

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The festive brainteaser isn't easy (Image: PA)

Keep your kids quiet this Christmas with this challenging code-breaker.

Every year, GCHQ releases its annual brain teaser designed to occupy 11-18 year olds. Over 1,000 secondary schools across the nation signed up for this year's code - which is based on a Christmas card sent by director of the intelligence agency Anne Keast-Butler.

Each challenge is harder than the last and is designed to test our mathematical and analytical skills. All seven questions have a one-word answer that can follow 'Christmas'.

So, do you think your or your kid have what it takes to crack the festive code? Let's begin.

The first challenge (remember this is the easiest one) shows four clocks at different times which apparently show a four-letter word. Can you work it out?

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Can you work it out? (PA)

Getting a little harder now, the second question asks kids to solve the following riddle: "What breaks but cannot fall, can leap but never crawl, can be seized but never gripped, often present, never skipped."

Code three states that nine gift tags have been jumbled up. These are: Declan, Beverley, Jasmine, Pudsey, Penny, Pitch, Scarborough, Sirius, and Sticky. You must split them into three groups and find the one word that links each group.

Got it? Cool, onto the next one. If MI X MI = MAA, TI+TI=RA, and DO-SO+TI-MI=RE. What does RExRE =? Remember, you're looking for a collection of letters that once again form a word that can come after 'Christmas'.

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Now, which pair of letters come next after the following sequence:

• TH, RD, ND, ??
• ET, EL, PM, ??
• WU, SQ, OM, ??
• WR, AP, PI, ??

If you haven't lost all hope, there are two more questions. There is an image below with four bars of music on - which is secretly concealing a word. Using 1s and 0s as well as the numbers 16,8,4,2,1 - can you discover the hidden word?

The challenge is the hardest to date... (PA)

Lastly (kind of) is a message you need to decode to find out the secret four-letter word:

• Agklq ldhum qom ndem
• Gembqgax c 4-hmqqmk vdke
• Hddp mumkxvomkm
• Ycxim gg'l umkx diugdsl

"Like the work at GCHQ, solving the puzzles on the card requires a mix of minds, and we want to show young people that thinking differently is a gift," Colin, a chief puzzler at the spy agency, said. You can download the GCHQ Christmas Challenge 2023 here.

Can you break the code? Let us know in the comments section below

Liam Gilliver