Puzzling Stack Exchange
Puzzling Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [computer-puzzle]

A tag for puzzles dependent upon some degree of computer literacy - for instance, requiring basic familiarity with operating system usage, encryption or programming.

As discussed in "Tag proposal for puzzles that require computer literacy", this tag is designated for questions where the solution requires computer literacy.

Vaguely, this means that the puzzle may have:

  • Some element of operating system usage skill
  • Some requirement of computer programming skill
  • Some knowledge of image and/or other encoding techniques
  • Familiarity with digital communication

Compare with the tag.

450 questions
37
votes
14 answers

Debugging with printf()

Bob, a C programmer and a believer of printf-debugging, gets hired by a failing software company. The company is not doing well because they adopt an archaic source code management system which does not allow any modification to any lines of code…
user24855
26
votes
1 answer

Self-Description

Part of the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #35: Restricted Title 1 This text has ? l's and ? n's, but its ?th most frequent letter is f. This text also has ? letters that are used ? times or less. Its got thirty? uses of the letter it uses ?th most…
stacksfiller
  • 10,545
  • 3
  • 29
  • 54
19
votes
2 answers

Reverse (Big) Boggle

This is a puzzle that I've worked on-and-off for quite a few years, but not being a competent coder, I haven't worked out a definitive solution. I suspect the 1st part is impossible but haven't proved it and the subsequent iterations are enough of a…
Channel_Swimmer
  • 191
  • 2
14
votes
2 answers

Quick Puzzle: What is it?

What is it? Is it zebra? 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0…
John
  • 373
  • 1
  • 11
12
votes
3 answers

Programming News Paper Puzzle

This puzzle appeared in my local paper, while I am unable to solve it - maybe you guys can take a crack at it. Page 1 Page 2 They were scanned at pretty high resolution, so you should be able to see better when you zoom in. Feel free to suggest…
user34897
11
votes
2 answers

Determining Call Chain

There were 25 kids in a class and each kid had some best friends. To simplify the problem, let's call each kid by their initial name. Here is a list of each kid's best friends: a: [l, h] b: [k, m, i] c: [f, l, n, j] d: [g, m, o] e: [h, n] f: [c, m,…
Jamal Senjaya
  • 17,864
  • 2
  • 41
  • 147
11
votes
2 answers

A curious circuit

During our latest space mission to Mars, humankind has retrieved a curious alien circuit. Our historians think it must be a calendar of some sort. After speaking with some alien linguists, we know now that the characters are symbols of counting and…
Carl Löndahl
  • 5,280
  • 1
  • 18
  • 29
10
votes
1 answer

Help me decompress this old file

A long time ago in a basement far far away I created my own operating system. Unfortunately I made a foolish mistake when designing the file system. I choose a single byte for representing file sizes. Since that means that no file can be bigger than…
raggy
  • 293
  • 1
  • 8
10
votes
3 answers

Little bit of a code in binary :)

Decode it and prove it :) Share if you think someone else can solve it. Here is a little bit of a challenge for lovers of code and encryption, the hints should be evident, but I think that I would love to chat with who ever cracks this little…
Christopher Vardeman
  • 109
  • 6
10
votes
2 answers

What does this C function do?

C source code at: http://pastebin.com/6Bywk5mf Will also function in Java. Note that in C this won't work for values above 127 unless you change char to unsigned char. Two questions: Easy - What does the function do? This shouldn't require more…
Alex Meiburg
  • 219
  • 1
  • 6
9
votes
1 answer

"Brainf*ck, but not really."

Yesterday, I organized a contest with various challenges the participants had to solve. I put 6 very simple puzzles that were solved almost instantly, and the deadline was supposed to be until Sunday. So, while the fastest user was figuring out the…
AlexINF
  • 353
  • 1
  • 6
9
votes
2 answers

Why did it crash?

You are on your computer on June 23rd, 2021 at 10:24:58 am, when it suddenly becomes bricked. Your electronic devices all fail, except for your newest technology. Why? Hint 1: Look at the year and the time passed since it began. Hint 2: T1J11…
misc544
  • 309
  • 1
  • 12
8
votes
2 answers

From one color to another

white turns to blue blue turns to red red turns to aquamarine but green stays the same People from StackOverflow might appreciate this one.
rovyko
  • 203
  • 1
  • 6
8
votes
3 answers

What date encoding could this be?

40 years ago I read a book, but couldn't remember the title. I've been looking for it for a while, and I finally (finally!) found it! And then I worked out why it took so long. It hasn't been released yet! In fact, according to this website I found…
John Burger
  • 191
  • 5
8
votes
3 answers

Easter egg puzzle

A friend of mine sent me a puzzle which has eggs labeled with numbers 76 95 228 361 158 171. The puzzle is asking, which egg doesn't belong in the nest. All of the eggs have different colors too which might matter: I tried a bunch of different…
Mantas Kandratavičius
  • 183
  • 5
1
2 3