Schoolchildren across the country will put their puzzle-solving skills to the test after Britain’s spy agency launches its annual Christmas challenge.
GCHQ sent out Christmas cards to more than 1,000 secondary schools with the challenge featuring a rare image of Bletchley Park covered in snow on the front.
It includes seven increasingly complex puzzles that test skills such as code-breaking, math and analysis, encouraging students to work together as a team to uncover the final congratulatory message.
It also includes a math-based bonus puzzle that is said to be the most difficult ever.
Anne Keast-Butler, Director of GCHQ, said: “Puzzle has been at the heart of GCHQ since the beginning.
“These skills represent our historical roots in cryptography and cryptography and remain critical to our modern mission to keep our nation safe.
“GCHQ’s history at Bletchley Park is represented in this year’s Christmas card as a reminder of the role this historic site played in the wartime effort and as the home of this year’s AI Safety Summit.
“Our puzzle enthusiasts have created challenges designed to combine different types of thinking to solve them. Whether you’re an analyst, engineer, or creative, there’s a puzzle for everyone. This is something that classmates, family, and friends will try to solve. Together.”
Bletchley Park was the wartime home of GCHQ and the remarkable image, taken in January 1940, was discovered in the personal family album of Joan Wingfield, who worked to decipher the Italian Naval Code.
Now in its third year, the challenge aims to provide insight into GCHQ’s work and encourage young people to study Stem subjects.
Now for the answer – how many did you get right?
Source: news.sky.com
