About

Welcome to the 2022 (and second) iteration of the MDSC Puzzle Hunt! We hope that this will be an enjoyable side-activity to occupy you during the week. Moreover, there are a whopping 4000 challenge points up for grabs through these puzzles, so solving them will heavily increase your chances of winning some sweet sweet MDSC merch!

What are these "puzzles"?

These puzzles are of the “puzzle hunt” style. They aren’t jigsaws, nor are they standard crosswords or sudokus. Instead, they come with twists; it is part of each puzzle to figure out what the twists are! These puzzles are all themed around medicine.

Can I see some examples of puzzles?

Check out last year's puzzles and their solutions. However, we've significantly changed how this year's puzzle hunt runs, so please read on for detailed instructions.

Credits

Puzzle-writing and website credits go to Allen Gu (MD4) and Daniel Tao (MDSC Convenor, MD3). Let us know what you think of our puzzles if you run into us at the conference!

Instructions

Overview
  • There will be four puzzles this year, each worth 500 challenge points.
  • One puzzle is released at 9am each day from Monday 27th June to Thursday 30th June. Puzzles will be open for solution submission as soon as they are released.
  • Solution submissions for all puzzles will remain open until 11:59pm Friday 1st July. After this time, the solutions will be released, and no further submissions will be accepted.
  • Bonus points: If you solve a puzzle within 9 hours of its release (ie. by 6pm), you will receive an additional 500 bonus points for that puzzle.
  • If you're really stuck on a puzzle and want a hint, send an email to Allen (gua@student.unimelb.edu.au) outlining your progress.
Puzzle solution submission
  • The solution for each puzzle is a short string of letters (ie. comprised of only the 26 letters of the English alphabet).
  • If you think you have the solution for a puzzle, enter it into the solution checker associated with that puzzle.
  • The solution checker is case-insensitive and will strip all non-letter characters from your submissions before evaluating them. For example, if you guess I love PuZzLeS!!123, the solution checker will treat this as ILOVEPUZZLES.
  • The solution checker will tell you whether your submitted guess is correct.
  • You need to provide your Student ID and full name every time you guess. Please ensure that your Student ID is correct, otherwise you will not receive points for correct solutions!
  • You have an unlimited number of guesses for every puzzle. However, please don't abuse this by spamming guesses constantly, as that might crash the website and ruin the fun for everyone.
Miscellaneous instructions
  • Feel free to work in teams! Many brains make light work. Ensure all members of your team submit correct guesses if you all want the points.
  • You can (and are encouraged to) use any resource at your disposal, including the Internet, Google, Wikipedia, reverse image searching etc.
  • We strongly recommend using Google Chrome on a computer or a large tablet to view these puzzles. Website performance may vary on mobile devices and other browsers.
  • This website hasn't been extensively debugged. If you notice a bug or technical issue, email Allen (gua@student.unimelb.edu.au). If the website crashes, be patient and it will be fixed in due course.
  • Points earned through puzzles will not automatically be tallied in the MDSC App; instead, the App will be updated with puzzle points daily. Go to the puzzles leaderboard to keep track of earned puzzle points.
  • Keep an eye on the announcements page for important puzzle-related updates.
  • Most importantly, have fun!