The world's hardest games and puzzles: solutions and clues
Spoilers ahead: answers and hints for some of the internet's most taxing conundrums
WARNING: These are the answers to six brain-taxing puzzles, which you can find here.
1. Tricky Bongard problem
This conundrum continues to stump the wisest of puzzle buffs. However, there is some information here to help solve it.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
2. Boolos question
Puzzlers extraordinaire Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern, from the University of California, have kindly shared what they describe as the "simple solution to the hardest logic puzzle ever" in an eight-page answer here.
3. World's hardest Sudoku
After taking three months to create, here is the solution to the world's most difficult Soduku:
4. Einstein's riddle
Four internet gamers, known as the PoETheeds, claim to have cracked Einstein's riddle in this video:
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"90220","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]
5. GCHQ
This is how the completed GCHQ puzzle should look when the correct boxes are shaded in black. However, the puzzle does not end here. The image is a QR code that, when scanned with a smartphone, will take you to the next step. There are five steps in total. However, more than a month after GCHQ set its "fiendishly difficult 'fun' Christmas quiz", not a single person has managed to get all of the answers right, says the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper offers help with the other four steps here.
6. Dot-town suicide riddle
Peter Winkler, professor of mathematics and computer science at Dartmouth College, explains the answer to the Dot-town suicide riddle, along with several other puzzles in a five-page paper here.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Puppet shows, pagodas and pho: a guide to Hanoi
The Week Recommends Vietnam's capital city blends the ancient with the new
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
'There are benefits, but not acknowledging them would tell only half of the story'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
What Trump's win could mean for Big Tech
Talking Points The tech industry is bracing itself for Trump's second administration
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Can you crack the GCHQ Christmas card code?
Puzzles and Quizzes This year’s festive brainteaser has been specially designed for ages 11-18
By The Week Staff Published
-
The world's hardest games and puzzles: from GCHQ to Einstein's riddle
Speed Read Six infuriatingly complex puzzles that are unsolvable to all but the sharpest of minds
By The Week Staff Published