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The first puzzle I created was a multiplication puzzle for my younger brother. It made him cry because he couldn't solve it. At that point, I had no idea what to do with this hobby and so I stopped doing anything about it. However, after I got into programming when I was 16, everything changed. Programming and solving puzzles became my way of relaxing, meditating, and getting away from all other daily problems. When you're working on something new in your head, you can let go of all other things.

When I discovered the online community at Puzzling, it felt like coming home – a place where people not only share their own work but also help each other out by giving feedback or suggestions. I started contributing to the site as well and I'm one of the admins there. There are so many talented puzzlers who inspire me every day!

What makes a good puzzle?

I think a good puzzle always has a clear goal. A puzzle should be solved in its entirety; otherwise, it would just be a memory exercise. At the same time, there has to be enough room for trial and error. The best puzzles have a very simple solution, but finding it is hard. If a puzzle turns out to be too easy, then maybe the author didn't really try to make it challenging enough. On the other hand, if it's too hard, it might just be too obscure.

What puzzles do you enjoy creating most?

I don't really have any favorite ones. I love creating puzzles for all sorts of different topics. For example, the last time I created a puzzle was for the theme challenge on Puzzling, where we were asked to come up with a clever way of hiding an elephant in a picture. I went for an image of a person standing next to the elephant, but they hadn't seen that there was an elephant behind them yet. It turned out that it wasn't possible to hide the elephant perfectly, but I still thought it was a fun puzzle.

What advice do you have for someone looking to get into creating puzzles?

My biggest piece of advice is: just keep trying! Most of us start off by making very simple puzzles, but there's no better way than practice to improve. Don't worry too much about mistakes; even a wrong answer doesn't mean you've failed. In fact, mistakes often lead to new ideas. Just try again and be patient.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I want to encourage everyone to get involved and to contribute to the community. We're all here because we love puzzles and we want to learn as much as possible about this great subject. Even if you don't feel like contributing right away, take some time to look around and give feedback on other people's work. I hope to see more and more people participating in the monthly topic challenges and that the community grows bigger and stronger.

_{* Dangerously wrong information striked out, all other false statements left untouched.}