About Beat the Puzzle Master

Published by me, ActualRandy, and updated whenever I feel like it. Send me an Email!

The Sunday Puzzle

Each week, Puzzlemaster Will Shortz and Hostess Liane Hansen broadcast the Sunday Puzzle on NPR. Will (crossword editor for the New York Times) presents a puzzle to solve, and the winner gets to play a simpler puzzle on the air, assisted by Liane.

I like to solve the puzzle with my coding skills. When I can solve the challenge, I share my solutions on this site, in case you may enjoy them. But if you don't, I also post a interactive challenge for you to try. My online challenge has questions similar to Will's on-air challenge, but never duplicated. So even non-programmers can enjoy the site!

• Question: Isn't it cheating to use a computer? Answer: Solving the puzzle with a computer program is generally a lot harder. However, I am more likely to solve Will's puzzles when I use a computer.
• Question: Can't other people look at your solution and use it to cheat? Answer: No solutions are ever published before Thursday's deadline!

What's In it For You?

• Puzzle-solving (old fashioned paper and pencil style) is a great way to exercise your brain
• Puzzle-solving with computers is a great way to improve your coding skills
• Or, a great way to learn programming! (You can download Visual Studio Express for free and have a great programming environment.)

About Me

I am a professional programmer based in the Pacific Northwest. I generally use C# and ASP.NET to write code, but I have written code in many languages, including Fortran, Visual Basic, JavaScript, Cobol and Pascal. Though many may doubt, programming is one of the most creative, but demanding, professions active today.

I get paid to write relatively stupid programs that merely fetch and display database information. While my friends are content to exercise their brains keeping up with the latest trends in software engineering, I am harder to satisfy.

Being a math major, I believe the purpose of computers is to solve problems. Solving novel problems that require skill, creativity and a bit of inspiration, is my idea of fun. Computers provide a fascinating way to optimize solutions, especially compared to paper-and-pencil, which is also creative, but less systematic.