The take-home · no signup

Try a lock.

Every new hire does this one. It's a real Intern lock, generated just for you: one pin is already set, so drop a pick into the other and turn its dial until it clicks.

Practice

Eight picks. One dial each.

Every pick undoes one kind of scrambling, and its dial is the key the client used. Turn each one until its sample reads.

shift

k 0–25

Letters were moved forward k places. Turn to k to move them back.

Zopw pa Mypkhf

mirror

fold 0–25

The alphabet was folded around a point. Find the fold (25 is plain Atbash).

Ulow gsv zokszyvg

fold

Gpme uif bmqibcfu

flip

block 2–12

Every block of n characters was written backwards.

kcaBdrawni solb skc

block

ckBardwains lo bksc

base64

rot 0–63

Base64 over an alphabet rotated n places. 0 is standard Base64.

cvG9RPe3hASClQayk/B=

rot

rñ½D÷······²·ð

radix

base 2–16

Each byte written as a number in base b. Read the digits to guess b.

110 151 040 146 162 157 155 040 141 040 163 145 156 163 157 162

11109

base

n·(·¢··(·(£··£·¢

rot94

n 0–93

Every printable character rotated n places (47 is ROT47).

#@E2E6 Y6G6CJE9:?8Y

rails

rows 2–9

Written in a zigzag across n rows, then read row by row.

Zaxtwizgepr osg or

rows

Zparx towsigz goer

xor

byte 0–255

Every byte XOR-ed with one secret byte. Always wrapped in an encoding.

72 65 78 07 4f 4e 0a 5d 4f 48 42 45 45 41

byte

rex·ON ]OHBEEA

The clock

Faster ships pay more.

A ticket's countdown starts when you open it. Full pay in the first quarter, then it slides, never below the contract's minimum. Drag the ship time to see.

Mid-level ticket · 3 pins · 3:30 on the clock

shipped at 2:06

Pay

+57

slides with time

Fast-ship +30%

+17

inside the countdown

Clean PR +20%

+11

no senior asked

Ticket total

Ask a senior on one pin (25 gems, and the Clean PR bonus goes)

Your career

Bigger locks, shorter clocks.

An Intern's lock has two pins, one of them pre-set. By Staff it's four pins, two decoys, no clues and thirty-five seconds a pin.

Tier 1 · Intern lock · from Intern 2:00 a pin · 4:00 on the clock

Legacy formats

Hartley Logistics · Claire · Ops Manager

The 2004 dispatch system Base64s every record, then shifts it. Nobody remembers why.

2 pins · pin 1 pre-set by the ticket · clues: all

PIN 1

shift

k 0–25

PIN 2

base64

rot 0–63

no decoys: every pick on the tray belongs in the lock

Start your first contract, free

Unlocked.
Your first day starts now.