A New Puzzle Hunt From Jane Street!

** JANE STREET'S OPPORTUNITY **
Learn more about Jane Street’s educational programs:
bit.ly/4arUmyC
Try to solve Postcard Pursuit, the brand new puzzle hunt that Simon attempts in the video:
bit.ly/4cPa88n
Thanks to Jane Street for their sponsorship of this video. Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Singapore.
They currently have a few educational programs that are accepting applications in both their New York and London offices for pre-university and university students. These programs are part of Jane Street’s commitment to give as many people as possible the chance to learn more about what they do.
The programs themselves are all a bit different, but focus on topics you might be interested in - things like complex mathematical theory, programming, statistics, and more!
An important thing to emphasize - you don’t need to have a background in finance to apply. Jane Street is looking for curious people from any background with a passion for technology and creative problem solving. In other words, people like you.
Check out the link above to learn more about their open opportunities and see if one of them could be a fit. Applications will close in just a few weeks!
** NEW SANDRA & NALA FOG PACK **
A bonus sudoku pack was released on Patreon this week of 5 fog of war sudokus to celebrate the arrival of spring (in the Northern hemisphere) from Sandra & Nala. It's completely free - just click our Patreon link below.
Other treats on Patreon include:
- the new James Bond sudoku hunt competition;
- Simon's latest forays into the world of Islands Of Insight;
- Mark's video looking at the new OneUp puzzle from Rodolfo Kurchan;
- his solve of Region Geometry by Emre Kolotoğlu (3hr 36min long...!);
- and Mark's latest solve of The Times Club Monthly cryptic crossword
/ crackingthecryptic
** GET OUR FOG KICKSTARTER DELUXE & OUR BOOKS **
Check out this link for the kickstarter books and Fog Novella we've created over the years:
coffeebean.gam...
▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀
You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us:
iOS:
apps.apple.com...
Steam: store.steampow...
Android:
play.google.co...
ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”
▶ Contact Us ◀
Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic
email: [e-mail]
Our PO Box address:
Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB
(Please note to use our real names rather than 'Cracking The Cryptic'.)
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We also post the Wordle In A Minute videos on TikTok.

[@khazidhea790]

7:20 - Simon "These are probably are gonna be quite easy these clues" Me "Literally none of these are solvable"

[@AlaskanWolf16]

He's entered two answers so far and I have immediately realized how out of my depth I am here.

[@laincoubert7236]

every time they do cryptic crosswords it looks like mandarin or something to me. i barely solved like 5 clues myself 😭

[@57thorns]

And once all the clues are done, there is still almost 20 minutes left for the final word.

[@flowerdolphin5648]

Same, I was like "what? Easy?" lol, I can't even figure out cryptic crosswords in my own language

[@maciejoe]

In this edition of Cracking the Cryptic: A global investment firm attempts to dox a sudoku enthusiast

[@BigMorTeXx88Max]

As french guy, it's very hard for me to assimilate some english wordplays but I still found some words by myself and I'm very proud. Thank you Simon for all your videos, I love this content

[@nikibordeaux]

I'm not a native English speaker either, but I found none. What I found very interesting was that my thinking works quite differently from Simons.

[@Ditocoaf]

"you can't just say 'odd [a word' and take the odd-numbered letters", Simon says. Meanwhile as an outsider to the "cryptic" clue style, I'm thinking... why not? That doesn't sound any more bizarre and arbitrary than most of what seems to go on in cryptic clues.

[@olpabas]

My guess is there might be a difference there between British and American language and cryptics. I'm no pro, but I am an American who does some American cryptics and it seemed fine to me too.

[@tonibuus]

The way reacted made it seem like he thought it was too easy tbh

[@laincoubert7236]

whatever jane street employee creates these puzzles is a genius 😭 like how can you even set this??

[@57thorns]

It is generally easier to craete a hard clue like this than solving it.

[@lancelot848]

tbf, it's not uncommon to see these stuff. I am absolutely horrible at solving cryptic crosswords but I have made a few (admittedly not too great).

[@TheMeanderingduck6]

I got APE for the first clue, patted myself on the back, and then promptly gave up.

[@SweDennis]

One of my most enjoyable CTC moment in quite some time, absolutely Love it. Simon is quite simply well ... something else, just wow.

[@quententhomas7583]

Wow. I finally got through it. Took me several days! I’ve not really done cryptic clues before. I find it just astounding that Simon finished it about an hour! He was breezing through clues that had me completely stumped.

[@inawoodenhouse]

Simon: maybe there are American detectives that are very famous my brain: Monk 🤣

[@russellsefton3368]

This is only funny because I watch that show, and it is amazing, highly recommend it to everyone.

[@Cloiss_]

I definitely felt that the Neon clue was a little too hard - with the help of the context of starting to piece together the clues I was able to get every clue except that one. I also didn't know the Orkneys, so I wasn't able to finish the puzzle without a hint from the video, but it was still very fun!

[@kbsanders]

Good thing this wasn't a live stream or Simon would have doxed himself.

[@sebastienlecoq3956]

I want to hope that watchers of this channel (and this kind of videos) are smarter than the average doxer... But you only need one..

[@laincoubert7236]

@@sebastienlecoq3956 with the size of this channel i would say the probability someone would've leaked that info is 99.99%. the internet is vicious, look at streamers getting regularly swatted and traumatized for life. it's good that Simon was proactive about the footage and literally wrote those timestamps down AND used a blur that's good enough. cause some blurs are reversible and people don't know.

[@RichSmith77]

It's taken me multiple hours over three days, plus I needed to see Simon thinking about the address lines at the end to trigger the thought that they related to the striped patterns on Jane Street on the front of the postcard - I'd given up ever getting there by myself. (I'd even resorted to converting the yellow and white stripes to 0s and 1s, and reading them as binary numbers - not sure sure where I thought that was going 😂). I also never worked out the significance of the order of the city elements on the front of the postcard - I just tried the first anagram of the letters I had that I thought of. I don't usually enjoy cryptic crosswords, but for some reason this captured my interest.

[@Darkstar2342]

the stripes were literally the first thing that I noticed on the postcard, and I thought "wow that looks like binary or something".... But I wouldn't have figured it out

[@IlliniRocket]

Finally had a chance to give this a try and thrilled to say that I made it through the first and second parts reasonably quickly (90 minutes or so). And I while I did notice the yellow stripes on the letters in the postcard, and I figured the address lines were also significant, I failed to make the link between the two in a timely manner, so I needed a hint from Simon before I could finish. I found the initial clues more approachable that the clues in the weekly cryptic crossword videos that Simon does. These clues were certainly more American-friendly and also I didn't have to worry about dividing the clue into definition and wordplay.

[@LuanMerlin]

I think it's actually a pretty nice puzzle to get used to identifying indicator words in cryptic crossword clues

[@jackk5024]

This was a lot of fun to solve along with! I'm normally not able to do cryptic crosswords, but I found most of these clues quite doable, and I got the construction right for all of them. With only a little bit of prodding from Simon, I was able to do the full thing.

[@ritchards]

That creature is a Merlion from Singapore

[@laurv8370]

yep, their national simbol and singha means lion, in a couple of asian languages

[@-BooBoo]

Yes, the Merlion statue/water fountain is very famous.

[@LiviennaLives]

I love that when I wake up ungodly early at like 5am there’s always a new CTC to watch 😇 ❤ love u Simon!!

[@ezra7088]

Yes. I definitely woke up early and haven't stayed up till 5 am. Why would I do that??😅

[@caiodavi9829]

simon is so clever… it’s unbelievable

[@Manigo1743]

Now, the next time you have to enter your address into a webside, it will suggest newsstand. :-)

[@davidh.4944]

Browsers usually use the name or label set on a textbox to detect and trigger the auto form-filling function. As guessed, something about that field's text, probably "street", falsely matched a stored entry. I'd say its matching algorithm is just a bit too broadly set.

[@WeaselOnaStick]

Gonna hijack top comment to give this advise: next time use incognito

[@BeheadedKamikaze]

@@WeaselOnaStick Incognito will still offer to fill saved fields. Better suggestion is use a different browser to your daily driver

[@kmw8775]

It could be matching the ID or the name for the text box (which don't show in the page) which you could be "street". The browser's algorithm might be just fine.

[@stevieinselby]

There's absolutely nothing in the source code that indicates the browser should treat it any differently to the other fields. But with a bit of detective work, it looks like Simon is using Microsoft Edge, because that's prompting me to fill in my address in that field as well (but Opera/Chrome and Firefox aren't) ... so yes, it looks like Edge is parsing the word "Street" in the adjacent text and interpreting it as an address field even though it isn't marked up as such.

[@davidh.4944]

@@stevieinselby Nice bit of sleuthing. No surprise that it's Microsoft's fault. 🤷

[@stangerrits6712]

That was a very nice puzzle to solve along. All the extra context and hints made it much more entertaining and enjoyable than a regular cryptic crossword imo. Saw that the striped letters on the postcard looked a bit funny, so probably held a clue of some sort, but would have never found out the exact meaning myself I think 😅

[@chitraagarwal8259]

It's new year's day today for many regions of India and South East Asia and this is a wonderful unexpected gift!

[@leyubar1]

How will you celebrate?

[@Schming]

I got 16 of the initial clues before coming back to watch you crack the rest. I had already spotted the picture clues earlier, but never would have been able to put it all together like that at the end!

[@kielblanton]

This was a pretty fun video to watch, as someone who doesn't really dabble in cryptic crosswords. I do, however, find some of Simon's solving style to be rather frustrating (similar to his sudoku solves). When he happens upon a discovery, he'll stop working, go on for about a minute about how brilliant it is, and then ramble about how he found it, all before he actually tells us what he's found. Frequently he will get an idea, execute the idea partway, and then stop to ponder whether the idea makes sense, when just finishing the work in front of him would show us whether the answer makes sense or not. Like when he deduced the clue that contains experimental, but then typed in a different word for that function because he was wondering if there was a different anagram indicator, instead of just trying experimental to begin with. Or when he begins solving the letters for the final solution, and keeps stopping to remark about how these letters might not make a valid anagram. Finally, I love how he erases the final solution to retype the same final solution before submitting. He's brilliant and very quirky.

[@emilywilliams3237]

This was very interesting - I came late to watching it because of busyness, but I'm very glad I found time for this video. Thanks, Simon!

[@loisflower4993]

I tried this myself! I got most of it, but had to come here for a few hints. Very fun puzzle hunt, really enjoyed it!

[@yadt]

43:50 the audio gets a bit trippy for a second...

[@irrotational]

I think the mic connection gets jostled for a second, it sounds exactly like a loose plug in a socket.

[@bobblebardsley]

I suspect his computer did something that caused the recording to lag momentarily, you see his cursor switch to the 'busy' icon right after the mic glitch. Although that could just be the mic reconnecting if it came loose, maybe? Especially if it's USB.

[@mykdavies]

Gaah, newsstand stopped me dead. I could work out everything else, but without that word I couldn’t complete it. I’m glad to see it also stumped you for more than half a second!

[@adipy8912]

7:53 Imagine this was a live solve

[@graham581]

Did everyone get Simons address? All round to his house for tea next weekend. :D

[@anthonyhastings5961]

And chocolate cake

[@eclectichoosier5474]

I got halfway through this and my browser crashed. Tried again, same result. Something on the janestreet website seems to like hogging all the CPU. I did manage to get all but the end, though, after setting the browser priority to "Very low." I got stuck on the same clue Simon did, and had to resort to the same tactic. Then that last part defeated me. Had to watch the video -- and I don't think I would ever have made that connection. Neat puzzle, overall.

[@bobblebardsley]

That's interesting, was it at around the same point where Simon's audio glitched at 43:50? It wasn't like he had filled in an answer at that exact moment though so I'm not sure what caused that.

[@eclectichoosier5474]

@bobblebardsley It seemed to be time dependent. It acted like it was filling up memory, although the memory monitor didn't show it. If I had to guess, it might have been the elements that checked for correct answers, but not sure why they would be active when they don't have focus.

[@okmarshall]

@@eclectichoosier5474 Maybe it's a crypto miner in disguise, knowing that people will keep the tab open for quite a while to solve the clues :D

[@ZonieMusic]

Haven't finished the video but I guess that Amsterdam is "Headless rodent returned furious" And Singapore is "Perform tipsy opera"

[@PassionPopsicle]

It seems it's the same with sudoku and cryptic clues - I can't do 90% of it, but the simple clue I *can* do is one Simon struggles with for ages (in this case the Odd Insult 😂)

[@marsh_usa]

The moment when Simon realizes that the Jane Street letters contain the code was just WOW. I would have never seen that.

[@Showsni]

I had the same leftover cryptic clue as you did, and also resorted to software to find it. Mean of them to make the hardest one the one that exposes your address! I was having difficulties on the final part; I parsed the third line of the address as referring to double definitions (ground = floor), and that it was only crossed out because Customs were confiscating all definitions. It didn't occur to me that it might be referring to deletions themselves.

[@YellowBunny]

The only 2 parts of this, I was able to figure out, were that the final letters could be found on the front of the postcard and the order of Singapore and Hong Kong.

[@eddeh0772]

As with all these videos, my personal measure is to try and get just ONE clue solved before Simon. I typically fail, but this time I got the “Retrograde or ding”, and am now sat here, undeservedly smug!

[@thomasmarvelle7498]

Singapore is known for the merlion, probably already got told about this… sorry catching up on your videos after being out at sea for a couple months!

[@guruone]

Don't forget Cyadonia for a streaming game. It's free. It's basically Sokoban on speed ;)... A tip, if a level is too hard, just skip and go back later.... There is a full walkthrough on here too

[@johnh2052]

To stop the "address problem", just put a letter into the box. Now, it won't match, and it'll stop trying that fill. (If your address happens to begin with a letter, make sure the one you use is different from it.)

[@Sandra_and_Nala]

That was interesting to watch and impossible for me to solve myself 😅

[@theskyisteal8346]

Don't know that I would have gotten many of the cryptic clues but I have played enough point and click games to immediately recognise that the letters of JANE STREET on the front were a key for something.

[@nouration9685]

this was a really fun watch, but impossible to solve on my own, I only got a few while watching the video thanks to the famous crossword techniques you showcased here, I don't think I would've gotten a single clue on my own lol

[@reubenmckay]

A national animal/symbol for Singapore is the merlion. If you look cloasely at the postcard you'll see that the statue in the middle is a lion's head on a fish's tail....

[@KDBA]

I was convinced that Hong was 'Empty Hoping'

[@no-feetmcgee5577]

That last step took me quite a while, but I got there! Also, what I've learned from this video is that Simon apparently lives in a news-stand...

[@Salman-os7pr]

21:05 Simon following the candidates 😍

[@anthonyhastings5961]

From a Times Cracking the Cryptic I got Odd Insults and simple beginning - Odd insult is ISL AND beginning of Simple is S. I got it straight away but only because I've watched a lot of these.

[@gnfnrf]

I tried the puzzle with very little cryptic crossword experience, got APE immediately, couldn't figure out any of the others, then lost confidence that APE was right (I didn't notice that the bold was an indicator) and gave up, thinking I had misunderstood the basic premise.

[@Alex6STV]

Simon: "I know if I phone up Mark, he will be gleeful. And I don't want to make him gleeful unnecessarily." Just got to make sure Mark doesn't watch this video. :)

[@LorisLaboratory]

This was super delightful to watch! Be careful with text boxes on any future livestreams! 👀

[@nate_storm]

Apparently I’m way better at making cryptic clues than solving them because I actually got the 2nd part by myself (and also the neon stick clue).

[@iabervon]

Merriam-Webster might be a better dictionary for Jane Street puzzles than Chambers.

[@57thorns]

That last one about the order of the letters is really a matter of "obvious to some, but not all".

[@derekjc777]

The Merlion is definitely from Singapore

[@nedb147]

This was a remarkable solve

[@DakotaFiles]

i was thoroughly convinced condor had to be what avian was referring to due to the 'ondo' in the centre, took me down a different and entirely wrong path for that clue

[@RoderickEtheria]

And what do you do when you "get them"? You START.

[@bobh6728]

He should have typed in NE for neon then his address would stop showing unless it has NE as part of the address.

[@jannestagle]

Can someone explain Avian Outside Empty Newstand?

[@zmaj12321]

A LOON is a type of bird (so it's an avian), and empty newsstand is ND (obtained by removing the interior letters). LOON outside ND gives LONDON.

[@shrimpbear2544]

I think Simon might really enjoy Lingo (minus the non euclidean maze puzzles maybe)

[@sebastienlecoq3956]

I came here for some background video... then I remember What those video are.. now I don't know what to do... I don't want to leave what I was doing, but I want to focus on this video too...

[@Vandueren5]

So, what exactly are definitions in this context ?

[@RichSmith77]

There's no word or phrase in the clue that specifically references the final answer. E.g. the clue "limitless paper" doesn't say "limitless paper for a gorilla", so there's no defining part of the clue that points to "ape" as being the answer. It's all cryptic word play. (Luckily, Simon is pretty good at Cracking the Cryptic).

[@zmaj12321]

I solved it in 52 minutes. Fun!

[@chrispowell1455]

Fantastic

[@ATLTraveler]

I’m so confused by this, what does without definitions mean?

[@michaelardai9703]

Ape is likely King Kong

[@toshlaforest9472]

Thank you! I didn't understand how Simon's mind only went to Donkey Kong and omitting the (imo) much more famous King of Apes.

[@paulabroussard1824]

I think you didn't understand that "DAM" reversed is "Mad" which equals "FURIOUS" :)

[@Roblilley999]

Singapore Merlion

[@bobblebardsley]

38:33 "...shake it all aboutside."

[@viretine1521]

I was shocked how quickly i got the Amsetdam one given how bad I am at cryptic clues 😂

[@legobil_]

I’m sorry if I am imbecile now. How does definitions help during puzzles as these? I am not a big consumer of cryptuc crosswords.

[@zmaj12321]

Usually the clues have a couple more words which give a definition for the answer. You can use the definition, in combination with the wordplay, to arrive at the answer faster.

[@Doct0runicorn]

I could only think of Roping turned out it was wrong like all other thoughts

[@lancelot848]

Little naughty of Jane Street to include indirect anagrams.

[@Lord_Volkner]

I understood none of that. Not one single bit. I think I'll head over to Simon's for dinner and ask him how all that worked.

[@AlaskanWolf16]

Odd insult and simple beginning solidified that my brain is absolutely not made for this. lol

[@stangerrits6712]

At 6:40, do you really know an answer is correct when the letters turn bold? It might just be to indicate that you have the right number of letters entered?

[@zmaj12321]

Simon turned out to be right, which you can easily verify by typing in gibberish

[@SirExal]

Well, darn, the puzzle's attempt to doxx Simon has failed! Better luck next time. I'm genuinely surprised he's never heard of the Merlion.

[@angec9908]

And here’s me yelling “DENT”

[@Umbra451]

Simon “Imbibe whiskey is nice” Anthony

[@muntjunk-plk3171]

The cities emblems on the front of the card are in a specific order.

[@bohs2000]

kind

[@specialsk1]

Simon’s inability to divert his mind from trying to create perfect Times Cryptic clues really dragged out the associated words part.

[@Melissanoma]

27:00 your boat, merrily down the stream (Has that made it to the uk, or is it only american?)

[@ryaneakins7269]

It's made it to Australia. I thought the same thing!

[@fumthings]

and the boat is a "junk" typical of hong kong

[@Jaxom35x]

Wow, I caught this at the right time. 34 seconds.

[@furl_w]

Mildly unfortunate that ding as a noun is an Americanism :D

[@lylecampbell8288]

I'm hopeless at cryptic crosswords.

[@coolpapabell22]

I don't really care to admit how long I spent putting words in random orders because I didn't read the postcard....

[@coolpapabell22]

Also I must confess some schadenfreude at watching a British cryptic solver struggle with Americanisms for a change of pace. :D

[@leyubar1]

LMAO. I thought of insults about 5 times

[@irisgallati]

Creepy person this ...😅 Buying such insignificant souvenirs that they're not even knowing where they were bought from....😂😂😜🤪 Jokes aside, kudos for your logics and patience! 😊

[@vipervm9867]

Can someone give me a referral for applying to Jane Street in USA, if possible?

[@jarvisa12345]

52:46 You would save yourself a lot of time when entering documents if you learn how to use cut and paste to move words around instead of retyping the whole phrase.

[@pvandewyngaerde]

And moving cursor while pressing ctrl skips words. And with shift it selects them. Combined with ctrl-x for cut. And meta+v you never have to retype anything!

[@penelopep.maggie5976]

Please stop saying headless hamster 😭😭