GCHQ Christmas Challenge: Test your codebreaking skills with previous fiendish festive puzzles as spy agency releases annual brainteaser

From cryptic Christmas cards to mysterious coded baubles, GCHQ’s festive puzzles have always been fiendishly difficult to solve.

This year’s challenges were released today, prompting thousands of Britons to get to work to try to solve it. 

Among the tests is a quiz about clocks, a word hidden in a series of musical notes and a clue in the form of a picture of Second World War codebreaking HQ Bletchley Park in the winter.

Last year’s test included the question: ‘If a French ailurophile fancies a chat, what does a Polish cynophile fancy?’

And in 2021 – the first time GCHQ released a puzzle designed for Children – the centrepiece was a Christmas tree filled with glowing nodes that were linked to a series of questions.

Below, MailOnline reveals this year’s challenge, along with previous festive puzzles going back to 2020. At the bottom are the answers to the questions. 

QUESTIONS 

2023

This year’s challenges were released today, prompting thousands of Britons to get to work to try to solve it 

This year there are seven questions that get increasingly difficult. 

Each of the questions have a one-word answer which can follow the word ‘Christmas’.

To discover the final festive answer, children will need to look to the design on the front of the card, which features a rare 1940 image of a snow-covered Bletchley Park taken before a photography ban was introduced at the mansion.

The image was found in the personal family album of codebreaker Joan Wingfield, a talented cryptographer working on breaking 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 pupils may need to work together to reveal the final festive message.

This year there are seven questions that get increasingly difficult. Each of the questions have a one-word answer which can follow the word ‘Christmas’ 

The architect of the quiz, known only as Colin, has set a final test for pupils to find a hidden word in his quote: ‘Christmas is a great opportunity for GCHQ to engage young people, hence our annual Christmas Challenge.

‘Our mission relies on people thinking differently and finding inventive ways to approach challenges.

‘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.

‘In order to read 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 Challenge to introduce young people to how we work at GCHQ, but we also intend it to be fun!’

To discover the final festive answer, children will need to look to the design on the front of the card, which features a rare 1940 image of a snow-covered Bletchley Park taken before a photography ban was introduced at the mansion 

2022

Last year’s test challenged students to solve a series of seven puzzles, based on the Christmas tree image on the front of the card.

There was also a special twist to challenge secondary pupils in lateral thinking, ingenuity and perseverance. 

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

Six of the puzzles had one-word answers.

Last year’s test challenged students to solve a series of seven puzzles

Using the design on the front of the card, wannabe sleuths had to 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 contained a third address. 

Once the locations had been found, children needed to take a single word from each address, joining them together to discover the secret GCHQ message.

Using the design on the front of the card, wannabe sleuths had to 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 

2021

There were also seven questions in 2021, the first year that the puzzles were designed for children.

Alongside an image of a Christmas tree made from glowing nodes were questions set for children aged from 11 up to 18.

Among them was a Harry Potter-themed question, along with a number grid that when solved revealed a four-letter word.

Also on the list of questions was a mnemonic and a Venn diagram concealing a six letter word. 

The final question, for the oldest school pupils, was a code concealed in a series of letters. 

There were also seven questions in 2021, the first year that the puzzles were designed for children. Alongside an image of a Christmas tree made from glowing nodes were questions set for children aged from 11 up to 18

Among the questions was a Harry Potter-themed test, along with a number grid that when solved revealed a four-letter word

2020

On the front of the 2020 Christmas card was a circuit board pattern in the shape of a bauble, with space for nine answers.  

There were nine letter sequences on the inside of the card which needed to be fed into the decoration to reveal a message. 

On the front of the 2020 Christmas card was a circuit board pattern in the shape of a bauble, with space for nine answers 

There were nine letter sequences on the inside of the card which needed to be fed into the decoration to reveal a message 

2019

The test in 2019 came in the form of a snowflake made from hexagons and featuring a series of letters and different colours. 

Participants had to colour in the depiction so that each circle of six hexagons surrounding a grey hexagon used each of the colours once.  

The test in 2019 came in the form of a snowflake made from hexagons and featuring a series of letters and different colours

ANSWERS 

2023

2022 

2021

2020

2019

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