At the time of this writing there were 494 Flare-On 9 finishers, the most we’ve ever had by a large margin. We intend to pull out all the stops next year and have spectacular tenth Flare-On challenge that sets a new standard for difficulty and creativity. The finishers this year will receive this eye-catching medal. It is probably the last Flare-On prize to not feature a Google logo.

We would like to thank the challenge authors individually for their great puzzles and solutions.

1. Flaredle – Nick Harbour (@nickharbour)
2. PixelPoker – Blaine Stancill (@malwaremechanic)
3. Magic 8 Ball – Tina Johnson (@0xtininja)
4. darn_mice – Michael Bailey (@mykill)
5. T8 – Moritz Raabe (@m_r_tz)
6. à la mode – Paul Tarter (@hefrpidge)
7. anode – Sam Kim
8. backdoor – Muhammad Umair (@m_umairx)
9. encryptor – Jacob Thompson (@imposecost)
10. Nur geträumt – Dave Riley
11. Paul Tarter (@hefrpidge)

This year’s Flare-On Challenge welcomed 5,345 registered users, with 4,288 of them solving at least one challenge. The first challenge this year was perhaps the easiest it has ever been, but we encourage those approximately 1000 people who didn’t make it to the scoreboard to keep at it and try again next year! Check the Flare-On website later for final statistics and honor roll taking this into account.

All the binaries from this year’s challenge are now posted on the Flare-On website. Here are the solutions written by each challenge author:

1. SOLUTION #1
2. SOLUTION #2
3. SOLUTION #3
4. SOLUTION #4
5. SOLUTION #5
6. SOLUTION #6
7. SOLUTION #7
8. SOLUTION #8
9. SOLUTION #9
10. SOLUTION #10
11. SOLUTION #11