Welcome

[Harry]

Welcome to the Forum for the 24th National Cipher Challenge, A Tale of Two Secrets.

This is a great (and safe) place to give us feedback, to ask questions, to support one another and to spend some time getting to know the others taking part. To keep it that way we have a few simple rules:

Be friendly
Keep on topic (start a new thread if you want to veer off in a new direction)
Don’t publish anything which you could be embarrassed about later
Don’t publish anything which gives away your identity

If you are unsure about anything or there is anything we can help with that you don’t want to make public, then email us at [email protected]. We are always pleased to hear from you.

[ByteInBits]

18 September 2025 — Hoory, NCC is up and running again!
Though I am a non contestant I always look forward to this and I am sure those who are in it for the (possibe) ‘glory and fame’ do too.

I will hopefully post some fun stuff to the forums soon to keep us occupied between the competitions ciphers as I hope others will too.

Thanks to Harry and all involed for their time and hard work to make this possible and the many sponsors that have joined along the way.

[Nihii]

Heya! I’m delighted to be back again for the National Cipher Challenge. I can’t believe it’s already my third year competing! I haven’t done Challenge 0 yet, so I haven’t gotten a chance to see what the plot is about this time. The story’s definitely one of my favourite parts of this challenge, so you bet I’m going to start theorising about it soon.

A massive thanks to Harry and the elves for creating what will indubitably be another brilliant challenge. I can’t wait to see what the cipher challenge has in store for us this year.

[F6EXB_the_frenchy]

Here I am again. Thank you to the whole team for this new adventure.
There are already two mini texts to decipher on the challenges page, and even three for those who had carefully read the presentation page at the beginning of the month.

Great to see you back! Hope you enjoy it. Harry

[BBM92]

I’m back for my 2nd year of the competition. I really, really enjoyed it last year, and eveloped a huge passion for ciphers. I’m trying to open the introduction challenge, but it just takes me to the challenges page – is anyone else having this problem?

Sorry about the issue with the link. We are not seeing that problem here, so if anyone else is seeing the same behaviour could you let us know. Also, could you let us know whether or not you are logged in as a user when having the issue. Thanks, Jodie

OK, we have tracked down and fixed the redirect issue with the link. Apologies again for the problem. If you are still seeing the wrong page you might need to clear your browser caches (we have cleared the server caches already) so your browser forgets the broken link. Thanks again for flagging it! Jodie and the Elves

[AYTech]

Throwing a hat in now, since yesterday had to be missed.
| |
Looking forward.

Well we do like a hat round here! Harry

[BBM92]

It’s working now, thank you!

[Cribbage]

Really excited that the new Cipher Challenge competition is nearly here – thanks, as always, to Harry, the team and the sponsors.

[Harry: the image below is a screenshot from episode 2 of BBC’s Destination X, just in case it is not allowed to use on the forum.]

A gentle warm-up for the competition …

If you watched Destination X over the summer, you will have seen this anagram from episode 2 explained, but did you spot the other hidden clue that was not explained?

[AES_of_spades]

What’s the age limit for joining? Is it inclusive, i.e. if I’m 18 can I join?

Welcome to the challenge. The rules say 19 and under and in full time school or sixth form level education. If you fit that description then you are welcome to compete. Even if not, you are welcome to take part for fun. Hope you enjoy it. Jodie

[ByteInBits]

Destination X
I enjoyed it, though my knowledge of Europe is poor so didn’t do too well over all.
I realy enjoyed Ludwig although it wasn’t interactive (thanks for the referal Harry).

About Cribbage’s post:

They kept saying Throne in mart!
Where did the ‘in’ come from? Anyway it was simple enough:

012345 6789
THRONE MART (ORDER NOW!) [<- the hint]
MATTERHORN
6709521324 [<- first occurence from left)

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
00000000001111111111222222
01234567890123456789012345

18 22 9 18 18 [but why 9 & not 8?]
S W J S S

[aberfal]

Hi all, I am brand new to the Cipher Challenge and am going to be running it as a club in a secondary school. Would love to hear any tips from teachers/others about how best to support student teams. Thank you!

[ByteInBits]

I wonder why the forum is named T.E.M.P.E.S.T. and not just TEMPEST

[CSTeam]

Hi there
I am new to the cypher challenge. Please can someone tell me if the groups have to be registered before Thursday – or can they register after the start of the competition?
Thanks

[upsidedown]

You can register at any time while the competition is ongoing; the first three challenges are “practice” and don’t count towards your groups’ positions on the leaderboard. Challenge 4 is the first challenge that “counts” (they are all worth doing!) as far as the main competition and prizes are concerned and that’s released on 6th Nov (which you can see on the challenge schedule), so aim to register before then.

[Robb27]

@ByteInBits
We can have fun guessing. How about – The Encryption Machine Protects Every Secret Transmission

[Author]

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