Community puzzle challenge #3 - Squares order

Hot on the heels of the second challenge, here’s another gem of a puzzle to ponder.

Using the solutions per day formula…

Haunted Manor - 271 days, 22 solved - 0.08
CodinDice - 89 days, 12 solved - 0.13
Squares order - 277 days, 40 solved - 0.14

Haunted Manor (the subject of the first challenge) is still on top. Next is the very fun CodinDice, but I’ve made the executive decision that it hasn’t been around long enough (89 days) to be featured yet. Maybe next month…

So that leads us to Squares order. This simple and elegant conundrum (provided by master puzzle craftsman, @VilBoub) is described in 3 short sentences:

Squares have been drawn with ASCII characters on a grid.
The objective is to find each of their sizes and in which order they were drawn.
(Each square overlaps another one.)

Sounds simple enough? Obviously not! According to the puzzle’s summary page, only 23% of people who have attempted the puzzle have succeeded in solving it. Here is a list of published solutions at this time:

[CG]Nonofr (Javascript)
player_one (C#)
VilBoub (Python3)
martin (Ruby)
Plopx (Java)
superredlark ©
daifei4321 (Java)
Doomer3D (C#)
Asynchronaut (Python)
SatineChatounette ©
magaiti (C++)
SatineChatounette (C++)
Velicko (Java)
melmi (C++)
fgeo (C#)
draos (Python3)
djjeck (Java)
Stilgart (Haskell)
Orabig (Perl)
cocoche007 (C++)
Visual (Javascript)
Kyran (Javascript)
dwarfie (PHP)
ValNykol (Ruby)
dupdob (C#)

Want to add your name to the list? I honestly think that Squares order is more accessible than either of the two previous challenge targets. Give it a shot!

  • danBhentschel
2 Likes

OMG. Plopx codes in Java.
I’ve seen it all.

It was a momentary lapse of reason…

2 Likes

18 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Community Puzzle] Squares order

Huh! Perhaps I was wrong!

Squares order - 310 days, 45 solved - 0.15

In the past month, Squares order has only been solved by an additional 5 coders. Here’s the list of new published solutions:

Bibiche (Python3)
Blackfich (Java)

Congratulations to our intrepid puzzle solvers, and congratulations to @VilBoub for a devilishly tricky problem!

  • danBhentschel
1 Like