The Challenge

In honour of the SC2010UK event held at Bletchley Park, we have decided to put forth a coding challenge loosely based on the historic efforts of the WWII code breakers.

This challenge is inspired by the Lorenz cipher and Colossus computer used by the WWII code breakers at Bletchley Park.

There will be 5 questions you need to solve. Good Luck! Enjoy!

To Access the Challenge

To obtain the questions for the challenge you will need to use a JSON service to request each question. An example on how to use the JSON REST API is found here: https://gist.github.com/1490292

Please note that you will need to use the 'reference-url' attribute in the JSON data to get the information needed to solve the question. Once you have successfully completed a question, then you will be redirected to the next question in turn.

If you need any help, please do not hesitate to contact us at minisculus@minisculuschallenge.com

You can start the challenge by requesting https://minisculuschallenge.com/start.

Challenge Format

• The challenge works with a JSON-based REST API
  
  - (documentation at https://gist.github.com/1490292)
• A question is in the following format:
  
  - {"question":"Strong NE Winds!","reference-url":"/questions/14f7ca5f6ff1a5afb9032aa5e533ad95"}
• You should then surf to the “reference-url” for more info on how to solve the question
• The answers are HTTP PUT in the following format to the question URL:
  
  - {"answer": "3"}
  - Example Question URL: https://minisculuschallenge.com/14f7ca5f6ff1a5afb9032aa5e533ad95

Promote the Challenge

The Minisculus Challenge is suitable for focus groups, code retreats or individuals who want to sharpen their coding skills or learn a new language. Solutions to the challenge can be submitted using any coding language.

If you organize a code retreat using the Minisculus Challenge and would like us to promote the event on this website, then please email minisculus@minisculuschallenge.com.

Hall of Fame

Below is a list of the brave souls who have completed the challenge and lived to tell the tale...

• Luke Redpath - WINNER OF ORIGINAL CHALLENGE!
  (Luke's solution code)

• aimee daniells (solution code) (co-author)
• Steve Tooke (co-author)
• Todd Anderson (co-author)
• Chris Parsons
• Leo Antoli (solution code)
• Paul King (solution code)
• Xavier Shay (solution code)
• German DZ
• Colin Jones (solution code)
• Jared Ning (solution code)
• Miguel Ángel García (solution code)
• Despo Pentara
• Kerry Buckley (solution code)
• Stuart Gale
• Gavin Heavyside (solution code)
• Tom Mortimer-Jones (solution code)
• Syd Lawrence (solution code)
• Rupesh Dubey (solution code)
• Krzysztof Pazowski (solution code and description)
• Arun Jayabalan (solution code)
• Jenny Ramsay (solution code)
• Alberto J. Rubio (solution code)
• Karun Japhet (solution code)
• Manali Latkar (solution code)
• James Mills (solution code)
• Felix Chapman (solution code)
• Richard Vodden (solution code)

Special thanks to Spencer Turner for the design of this website.