CISRA Puzzle Competition 2008 - Solutions

This is the archive of the 2008 Puzzle Competition. Please visit the current competition site for information about the latest Puzzle Competition.

B.3 Flowchart

This puzzle is solved by writing in each node the number of unique paths to get to that node, and convert the numbers to letters.

So, the circle with no incoming arrows near the top right is "1". There is only one way to get from that circle to the circle that has one incoming arrow, so put a "1" in that circle too.

There is a circle that has two incoming arrows from the circles with "1" in them, so put a "2" in that circle.

There is another circle that has only incoming arrows from a "1" and a "2", so put a "3" in that one.

Continuing in that way, you will be able to put numbers from 1 and 26 in each circle. As you go, you may discover that you don't need to count every possible way to enter a node. Instead, to determine a node's number, you can add together the numbers in the nodes directly leading to it.

[solution image]

Converting each number to a letter (using A=1, Z=26) reveals a reasonably famous pangram:

sphinx of black quartz judge my vow

The answer is the word in the red circles: QUARTZ.