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The Secret Order
Week 3
You have intercepted some communications from a secret society - they seem to have some code words that allow entry into their establishment
Some known words that are accepted are shown in blue below - your job is to find all the valid secret codewords that allow entry
The following list of english words might be useful
Your colleagues have been unable to spot the rule(s) that determine whether a word is or isn't valid - can you crack it?
A reminder, if you are completely lost, hints will be released after 24 hours - or you can ask in the various social media groups at the bottom of the page
to allow yourself to travel in time, you might first want to affix a flux capacitor to your car's fuse box
an ox and cow go moo, a fox goes aaa, a deer might grunt, an ill child with the flu might go achoo, the crowd sometimes boo, blackbeard says ahoy while a student might say oops if they didn't ace the test
past the abbey bells in the fresh alps air, the hills were abuzz with singing about female deer called do
it has been proven that even chimps know how to add
despite the buzz of the old cpu, the ace gamer likes to play old floppy disc demos on his dell computer, old crt monitor and almost dead gpu to relive lost memories
it is said by the abbot that the abbey hosts the presence of a deity, while others believe it is aglow with the air of a ghost
fish lay eggs, have gills to breathe and fins to swim away from predators like eels
when clicking "begin", the ios app got stuck in an infinite loop
long ago the moors built many a fort atop the hills
the dewy fields would gloss and glow in the mornings, giving the valley a sense of quiet glory.
the lorry driver would accept the help of the gps when lost deep in the new city
the criminal boss was knotty and full of envy when having to abort due to the alarm beeps and locking doors when trying to chop their way into the glossy gold cells of fort knox
dim ted was abuzz with news that something most strange was now afoot at the circle k
there is a hint the oort cloud exists as a belt of objects deep in space
the pirate was asleep in their cosy cabin when the booty was lost overboard in the choppy seas
in europe, christmas in the alps air with the aim of hearing slay bells, watching films and drinking gin is popular, while in the hot australia they might drink beer, fry eggs and have a bbq
with a mop, a bop, a hop, and even time to act, mary cleaned the dirty floor and made it glow
it's low to aim or hit below the belt
the programmer's stage name was dj fizz buzz
i can allow accept and deny, but I will disallow reject
sudo apt get install mysql && cd /var/www/mysite && ls -lh && ps -xau | grep mysql && ip route
adios amigos
Hints
Hints will be released at the start of each of the following days - e.g. the start of day 3 is 48 hours after the challenge starts
| Release Day | Hint |
|---|---|
| 2 | Ultimately, characters are numbers - perhaps comparing the ASCII codes of a couple of valid vs invalid words might help |
| 3 | Although not a valid word, you have learnt from your sources that "abc" would be accepted, but "bac", "bca", "cba" and "cab" won't |
| 4 | In some secret documents your group has obtained about this secret society, you notice a mention of "Abecedarian words" |
| 5 | If you look carefully, no single-letter word like "a" is accepted |
| 6 | Try looping through all the words in the file mentioned - for each word, loop through each character and ensure the ASCII code for each is greater than or equal to the preceding character, returning false/breaking from the loop if any character breaks this rule. If you got to the end of the word, then output this word as a valid Abecedarian word |