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Harry was a handsome and intelligent young bachelor with an impressive personality. One day he went to a leading IT firm for an interview. As he entered the room, he got stunned by seeing the beauty of the boss of that company. She was hot, sensual, in her mid-twenties with a black geek specs, which doubled her hotness.

The interview has begun and after going through his resume, she asked him some random technical and HR questions. He answered most of them and tried to impress her.

Once she finished asking the questions, she took his resume in her hands and said "I need to double-check it" and then she started writing something in it. After writing something she stopped and said "I am afraid this post is not apt for you. Even if you don't get this job, don't be disappointed. You have to move on, to a position that suits you". Then she continued writing.

Hearing that Harry got disappointed. She handed over his resume back to him and said "Thank you". Harry greeted her back with a sad smile and left the room while she was glancing at him with a mischievous smile.

After reaching his room Harry checked his resume to see what she has written on it.

TDRB NDZDJJDT

IDQN FQ

"What is this. What kind of language is this. Is this some kind of a test or something? May be I will get the job if I crack this", he thought.

He wrestled with the codes for hours, but failed to end up in any meaningful solution. He was not willing to give up. Harry was thinking about her beauty. He desperately needed to get close to her. He fell in day dreaming. He recollected everything, her beauty, her smile, expressions, style, voice and all. Then he decided to give it another try.

Once he is cracked the first code he became happy and yelled "Yaahooo" with waving hands in the air with joy.

Then he sat down and started cracking the next code. Within 30 minutes he cracked that too, and became happier. Not just happier, but he felt like he is the happiest man in the world and started jumping over his bed going crazy with joy.

Now tell me what the code was and how Harry cracked it.

Just like Harry, if you succeed in finding out the first message, you too become happy (as I will +1 your answer) and will be double happy if you succeed in finding the second message (as I will mark your answer as accepted)

Note: She (The boss) hasn't used computer or any other device for encoding the message. She did everything in her mind (Definitely she can. After all she is a 'nerd')

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    $\begingroup$ From your story I get a feeling that the first message would be a typical filmy "you got the job" and second would be "I love you" $\endgroup$
    – skv
    Nov 24, 2014 at 10:52
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    $\begingroup$ May be. Prove it if you think it is. I put this story up like this, so that someone can guess the answer and then try finding a method to reach that answer, if the code seems difficult to crack. Also this is the main reason I added "Now tell me what the code was and how Harry cracked it." in the question. So simple guessing won't be enough. $\endgroup$
    – AeJey
    Nov 24, 2014 at 10:59
  • $\begingroup$ It looks to be basically a caesar cipher, but with an additional per-digit modifier (ie 1st character is bumped by 1 char, second by two). My feeling is that it's something to do with her phone number (as the first line could fit a phone number length) which would also suggest the second line may be "call me" $\endgroup$
    – Jon Story
    Nov 24, 2014 at 13:17
  • $\begingroup$ I have been all day thinking about this enigma and I can't figure it out! I was leading the "tomorrow" clue dmg posted and d'alar'cop got there before me. A better last word with 2 letters that has occurred to me is "xo". But still working on it and I can't figure out. $\endgroup$
    – ctutte
    Nov 24, 2014 at 17:09

3 Answers 3

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The first part is as d'alar'cop explained. In short,

The message was codified doubling the letter value (mod 26, of course)

so that

JOIN (10 15 9 14) => TDRB (20 4 18 2)

And so on. As per the second,

The difference is the position of the letter in the string.

What you have to do is,

Instead of just doubling, you have to add the position value too.

So the second message is

DATE ME (4 1 20 5 0 13 5 => 9 4 17 14 0 6 17)

DETAILS ADDED BY OP

Clue for first code was in her word "I have to double check it". Also she indirectly hinted, in order to make sure he is brilliant and smart enough for her to date, she want to double check him by adding a double encoded code too. "You have to move on, to a position that suits you" was the clue for second code. She was indirectly hinting that the characters are shifted according to their position values too. From these words Harry got the idea how to solve the codes. That is why his attempt succeeded after recollecting everything about the meeting with her (especially, her words)

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  • $\begingroup$ Consider summarizing "the first part"; even if someone else solved the puzzle first, you may repeat the solution so long as the answer is your own. $\endgroup$
    – TheRubberDuck
    Nov 24, 2014 at 18:53
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First Part:

Initial analysis yielded that "NDZDJJDT" probably meant:

"TOMORROW"

This made sense given the clue.

This meant that:

N=T,D=O,Z=M,J=R,T=W

Which gives a transformation pattern of the numeral alphabet positions of the characters of:

$13 \rightarrow 26$
$15 \rightarrow 4$
$18 \rightarrow 10$
$20 \rightarrow 14$
$23 \rightarrow 20$

I noticed a possible formula:

$(real*2) \bmod 26 = coded$. Additionally, this is supported by elements of the clue, such as "double-check" and "move on, to a position that suits you".

Which I can reverse like so:

$\frac{(coded+(26y))}{2} = real$ where $y \in \{0,1\}$ - because we know that the results of $(real*2)$ can never be more than $52$ (Yes, there s case that breaks this, when $real=Z=26$, but $Z$ is rare enough to ignore).

So TDRB is:

20:4:18:2

Which when I apply the formula is:

10(J) or 23(W):2(B) or 15(O):9(I) or 22(V):1(A) or 14(N)
JOIN looks good here for a coherent word and pairing of words.

Giving us:

JOIN TOMORROW



Second part:

Loading...

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    $\begingroup$ @d'alar'cop: Awesome. You are right with the first message. Waiting for the second one. I will comment on the hints you used (or update the question with hints separated from question), tomorrow if you/anyone else can't find the answer ;) $\endgroup$
    – AeJey
    Nov 24, 2014 at 17:03
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I'll depict ciphered letters with UPPER CASE and decoded ones with lower case. Through some simple analysis of NDZDJJDT - pattern matching, I got a list of words that match the pattern (for example the two Js are the same letter in the decoded text, the three Ds also are the same letter, etc.). The most relevant match was "tomorrow". Substituting in the first word I got woRB. So the answer of the first part is work tomorrow

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    $\begingroup$ @AeJay One could do character substitution easily without any device. So, "tomorrow" is absolutely correct, I reckon? $\endgroup$
    – No. 7892142
    Nov 24, 2014 at 13:54
  • $\begingroup$ @No.7892142: yes you are right $\endgroup$
    – AeJey
    Nov 24, 2014 at 17:23

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