Thanks

[Harry]

We get a lot of thank you emails during the competition and we are very grateful for them all. It is lovely to know that you are enjoying the competition as much as we are.

We thought it would be nice to show our sponsors how grateful we all are for their support. Without them the competition would not be possible, so if you would like to join us in giving them our deepest thanks, then please do post your comments here.

Harry

[someone]

This has been an amazing challenge although i must admit that chapter 10 is like 10x harder than all the others!

Thank you! Really glad to hear that! (And yes, I do mean both parts!) Harry

[cribbage]

A huge thank you to the sponsors, as well as to Harry and the rest of the Cipher Challenge team for this amazing competition. The excitement generated by the competition lasts in my school for weeks, and students aged 11 to 18 take part. The accessibility of the first few weeks means that new participants can jump in each year, and the subsequent gradual increase in difficulty means that they develop a significant number of skills over the course of just one Cipher Challenge year. The toughness of the final rounds makes any success achieved there a worthy achievement and I know that many students at my school have talked about what they have learnt through the latter stages on their university applications, even if they weren’t one of the final winners. Judging by the forums, there are still lots of people working hard at the 10B cipher this year which, at the time of writing this post, is just over 8 days after it was first published online. In a world where everyone is used to getting answers so quickly online, it is wonderful to have so many people immersed in a single problem for days on end. This shows incredible resilience on their part and, as someone who believes strongly that intellectual development comes from thinking hard about something, even when completely stuck, the personal benefit these participants must obtain is surely considerable.

The quality of the puzzles and the story mean that there is a lot of intrinsic value in the competition, but the lure of the big prizes should not be underestimated, and this certainly helps the Cipher Challenge to command attention. The competition is now in its 23rd year, and I hope that it runs for many more as there is nothing else quite like it. Thank you again to all the sponsors and to everyone else who makes it possible.

Thanks Cribbage, and a huge thanks to you and all the other teachers who do so much to encourage your charges to get involved! Best wishes, Harry

[TheCipherCrackers]

Thank you to all involved for all the work that clearly goes into this every year. It’s been really fun working on cracking all of the codes and following along with the story. We’re still working on 10B but are hopefully we’ll finally solve the mystery!

[The_Bombe]

Before this challenge, I had an idea of what crryptography meant. I was aware of famous examples such as Enigma, but I probably coudn’t solve anything more complex than a Caesae cipher. When I started reading about ciphers using the handbook provided, a fire was lit. All of a sudden, the competition was all I could think about, and all of a sudden, cryptography became my biggest passion. It all just clicked. I’ve always been interested in maths, but this challenge has given me guidence as to the specific areas which I am particularly interested in, as well as sparking my passion in cryptography. I only wish there were more challenges like this available online. The sheer quality of the challenges and obscurity-levels of the hints (apart from maybe 10B) have been perfect. Thank you so much for making this amazing competition (I can only imagine how much work went into making the challenges).

P.S. I’m still very stuck on 10B and praying that Case File 10.8 is at least alightly less obscure than the others for 10B! 🙂

[dsse_0]

Thank you Harry and Jodie for everything you’ve done for the competition!!! Even though at times we hated you for the hard puzzles we really appreciate all the work you put into this every year. This was our first year but we’ll definitely be back next time!! Thank you again, DSSE+C

We really appreciate it, thank you! Harry

[Zgrb]

Thanks for 10B was a tricky one !

[someone]

Harry and Jodie this is my first time ever competing in this challenge as i did not realize that it existed before, but anyway it has given me some amazing coding projects and sparked a new hobby of cryptography! I will definitely be back for this amazing challenge next year(and hopefully with a lot more experience), and that made me wonder – does each challenge each year link together to construct a massive storyline or does it change each time(like to another era of famous cryptographers)? Overall i’d say it is a great challenge and i now see the time and effort needed to bring it yearly!

So glad you liked it! There is a brief outline of each of the stories on the BOSS Case File Archive page. If you take a look you will get a sense of the range of the stories, but you might also find some threads running between them and there are some significant connections. Probably best to think of it as a universe rather than a single story! Maybe other longer term participants have some thoughts of their own on the threads! Harry

[Codebreakers]

Thank you so much for this challenge! It has commanded the last few months of my life and I have enjoyed it so much! Thank you so much to the sponsors and everyone involved in making this amazing experience! This was my team’s first year but I will definitely be back next year! I was also wondering if next year, when you give the official decrypt, you could add the cipher and any key used if that would be possible? I was also wondering if you could put in the rules that you won’t get eliminated if you don’t do a challenge because [either I misread it, missed it completely, or it wasn’t there] I thought I would get eliminated if I didn’t do a challenge. It’s fine if you can’t though. Thank you so much again!

The_Codebreakers.

Thank you! Will think about adding info about the ciphers in solutions, though to be honest we quite like the debates about them that arise between you all on the forum at the moment! Will certainly clarify that point in the rules, thanks for the suggestion! Harry

[Callum_McC]

Thank you Harry and team. Will be back next year.

Great to hear it! Have a good year! Harry

[Mrs-Robot]

I have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS CHALLENGE!!!
For the past few months, I have always looked forward to every Thursday awaiting a new chapter and it never disappoints! The thrill and satisfaction of decoding the ciphertext always brings me great excitement
I have learned new skills in cryptography that I will take with me for life , and I will be certain to partake in next year’s challenge!

With my fondest regards, Mrs-Robot

Thanks so much Mrs-Robot, we look forward to welcoming you back! Harry

[Labymxk7]

Thank you to everyone behind this challenge, I have had so much fun participating over the last months, even with how many hours I spent staring at 10B (those slashes are ingrained in my mind). My only regret is not discovering this challenge sooner, as I have missed out on so many years of ciphers, and am looking forward to going back to try and crack them as well! Already looking forward to this year’s challenge, even if it is several months away, and will absolutely participate in all the years to come. Hope you all are able to get some rest before then, and I’m excited to see whatever the future holds!
Yours gratefully, [Username edited out by Harry!]

[F6EXB_the_frenchy]

In the euphoria of my success at 10B, I forgot to thank the whole team for this challenge and that diabolical 10th hurdle, the other participants whose clues put me on the right track, and Madness who gave me a helping hand. Even though I was able to finish thanks to the “case files”, I appreciate the gesture.
I think the last such difficult mission was the Weatstone Cryptograph in 2020.
I hope to see you all again next year. Happy New Year and exam success to all students.

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