How are medallists for the challenge chosen?

[eel-eel]

Hi everyone, I’m sorry if the answer to this question comes across as obvious but this is my first (and unfortunately last) time doing the challenge and I’ve just cracked 9B. I imagine that multiple people get the maximum amount of points each year and since I have gotten this far I want to know generally how people get chosen for prizes and awards? Thank you everyone!

[spetznap]

wait, have you only done challenge 9b or have you done the entire 2024 mystery?

[Mrs-Robot]

You can check href=”https://www.cipherchallenge.org/medals/”>here

I think that it’s the top 200 people on the overall Challenge B Leaderboard, but I’ll hand this question over to Harry, Jodie or the ELFs team for confirmation

That is pretty much it, though the actual number of places will depend a bit on how many guests are invited and we may need to make a selection from the top places if there are more than 200 with the same position. Harry

[eel-eel]

Hi everyone, thanks for your answers!
For some background (You can skip for my question):
I have completed every challenge so far and I am still in joint first with everyone on the leader board and I scored all the points on 9B as well so I will be on there next week too and having gotten this far, so long as I manage to do well on 10B I expect to finish in the top 200. This is my first time doing the challenge because I only found out about it this year but I’m in year 13 so this is the only opportunity I have to win any prizes but I plan on continuing doing the NCC in the coming years because it is very fun! I’m surprised I didn’t hear about the NCC sooner because I’ve been interested in cryptography and cyber security in general for a number of years now.

What I’m asking is:
I am hopeful for the chance to win a gold medal, having gotten far into the challenge without missing any points, but I understand that very few are given out each year so if this information is available to the public, I would like to know how two people who scored all the available points for the challenge in a given year are differentiated to choose who would win a gold and who would win a silver. My main thought is that it would be the actual time taken to solve 10B (or maybe even prior chapters too) as opposed to the amount of points earned. For example if one person submitted a correct answer to 10B at 4pm and another submitted an answer at 5pm, the person who solved it by 4pm would be more favourably considered for a gold medal. This is what I wanted clarification on but the link above and Harry’s response have been extremely helpful for me to see the scope of the prizes too so thank you everyone!

We do take actual speed on Challenge 10 into account, but we use that to invite potential winners to send us an account of how they solved the final challenge, including any computer programmes they wrote/used and the thought process behind the solution. The prize committee then selects the prize winners from among the submitted replies. If you are one of those chosen to send a written account then you will be contacted via the messaging system here on the site to be told what to do, so you need to make sure you keep an eye out for messages. Good luck to everyone. Harry

[E-Galois]

Hi Harry,

If I read your reply correctly, you are suggesting that time within the first time category makes a difference. I was just wondering if this will take account of people who due to having school, are only able to start the challenge at 5 O’clock?

The fact that speed is only one element in the final decision is intended to help.  Harry

[Author]

Posts