GCHQ sets festive quiz for budding Bonds…can you crack the code?

Mince spies! GCHQ sets fiendish festive quiz for all budding Bonds… but can you crack the cryptic code?

  • Sir Jeremy Fleming, GCHQ leader, has released a ‘seemingly impossible’ puzzle 
  • The Christmas-themed conundrum is based on key skills needed to work there 
  • It is set to be downloaded by schools across the country from the GCHQ website

It’s a Christmas conundrum designed to test the spies of tomorrow. 

Sir Jeremy Fleming, the spy chief who leads GCHQ, has set a mission for schoolchildren to solve this challenge in time for the 25th. 

The fiendish Christmas card puzzle is designed for children aged 11-18, but classes can also work as a team to solve the ‘seemingly impossible’ quiz. 

The seven-step puzzle, which is based on the key skills needed to work within the intelligence agency, features code-breaking, engineering, languages, analysis, maths, coding and cyber security. 

Sir Jeremy Fleming, the spy chief who leads GCHQ, has set out a seven-step puzzle to be solved in time for the 25th

But this year GCHQ’s team of puzzlers have built in a special twist to challenge secondary pupils in lateral thinking, ingenuity and perseverance. 

Once they solve the puzzles, aspiring young James Bonds will have to look to the Christmas card design for the answer. 

Six of the puzzles have one-word answers. Using the design on the front of the card, wannabe sleuths must arrange these words to form two what3words addresses – using the online geocode system designed to identify any location with a resolution of around three metres.  

The remaining puzzle contains a third address. Once the locations have been found, children will need to take a single word from each address, joining them together to discover the secret GCHQ message. 

The card is set to be downloaded by classes across the country from the GCHQ website, with three times as many schools requesting the puzzle compared to last year. 

But adults can also take on the challenge to pit their wits against GCHQ spooks. 

The card will be sent to partners in the UK and around the world who work with the intelligence, cyber and security agency to counter threats, including hostile state activity, terror groups and organised crime gangs. 

Yesterday the GCHQ director said: ‘From breaking Enigma to harnessing the latest cutting edge technology, our brilliant people have worked together throughout our history to help keep the country safe.

‘This year’s GCHQ Christmas Card Challenge gives an insight into the skills we need every day as part of our mission – from languages to coding. But skills alone won’t be enough to crack this one. Puzzlers need to combine a mix of minds to solve the seemingly impossible.’ 

If you can’t wait until Christmas, the Daily Mail will exclusively reveal the answers tomorrow.

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