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What's this?

Previously our site hosted Fortnightly (2015-2017) Topic (2018) Challenges (2020-2021), then we had a Monthly Topic Challenge (2022-2023). Seems high time for a re-re-re-reboot! After some discussions in chat, let's try this time announcing topics a month in advance. This lets people plan their puzzles further in advance.

  • We will collect topic ideas here.
  • Two weeks from now (15 Apr 2026), we'll announce the May topic challenge (whichever topic has the most votes).
  • At the start of May, we'll announce the June topic challenge, and we'll start the May topic challenge. At this point, we get to enjoy topic-themed puzzles!
  • From that point on, at the start of each month, we'll announce the next month's topic, and encourage people to post puzzles for the current month's topic.
  • We will skip having a topic challenge during the month of December, because that's Advent Calendar season.

Lukas Rotter has agreed to re-run his topic challenge bot, so all we have to do is come up with topics. And puzzles, of course :)


Proposing topics

If you have an idea for a tag or a theme of any kind to use as a topic challenge, post it as an answer below. (Do note, you can propose anything, not only a tag). Each answer should start with the title of the topic in a markdown heading (## Title ##). Only one suggestion per answer, please. Check out previous topic challenges for ideas.

At the start of each month, the highest-voted answer to this post will be selected as the next month's topic. Starting from today, users can propose their themes or topics. The selected answer will then be deleted to reduce clutter in the list. Topics will also be advertised in the sidebar via a Community Event.

After the selection, a new question will automatically be created in this format. An answer will then be posted to that question with links to all the posts in the featured topic in the fortnight.

We'll again keep a list of all the topics.

Happy Puzzling!

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  • $\begingroup$ Question: In the event of a tie for the top-scoring suggestion, how will the winning topic be selected? Earliest posted? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2 at 10:39
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv Yeah, the bot will pick the older answer in case of a tie. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2 at 13:59

12 Answers 12

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Restricted Title: Beatles songs

Similar to previous Restricted Title challenges (example XKCD one), here the challenge is to start with a title and then create a puzzle around it. Those titles being Beatles songs (those with at least 15 characters in the title). Of which there are admittedly less than 1000 as in the XKCD challenges, but there are enough with enough evocative bits to be enough inspiration, I reckon.

(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care
12-Bar Original
A Day in the Life
A Hard Day's Night
A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody
A Shot of Rhythm and Blues
A Taste of Honey
Across the Universe
Ain't She Sweet
All I've Got to Do
All Things Must Pass
All Together Now
All You Need Is Love
And Your Bird Can Sing
Anna (Go to Him)
Any Time at All
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Baby, You're a Rich Man
Baby's in Black
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Beautiful Dreamer
Because I Know You Love Me So
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Build Me Up Buttercup
Can You Dig It?
Can You Take Me Back?
Can't Buy Me Love
Carnival of Light
Carry That Weight
Child of Nature
Christmas Time (Is Here Again)
Come and Get It
Concentrate on the Sound
Cry for a Shadow
Crying, Waiting, Hoping
Devil in Her Heart
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Do You Want to Know a Secret
Don't Bother Me
Don't Ever Change
Don't Let Me Down
Don't Pass Me By
Eight Days a Week
Every Little Thing
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Everybody's Got Soul
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
Fancy My Chances with You
Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea
Gimme Some Truth
God Save the Queen
Going Up the Country
Golden Slumbers
Good Day Sunshine
Good Morning Good Morning
Good Rocking Tonight
Got to Get You into My Life
Half a Pound of Greasepaint
Hallelujah, I Love Her So
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Hello Little Girl
Here Comes the Sun
Here, There and Everywhere
Hi-Heel Sneakers
How Do You Do It?
I Am the Walrus
I Bought a Piano the Other Day
I Call Your Name
I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
I Forgot to Remember to Forget
I Got to Find My Baby
I Just Don't Understand
I Lost My Little Girl
I Saw Her Standing There
I Shall Be Released
I Should Have Known Better
I Told You Before
I Wanna Be Your Man
I Want to Hold Your Hand
I Want to Tell You
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
I'll Be on My Way
I'll Cry Instead
I'll Follow the Sun
I'll Wait Till Tomorrow
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)
I'm Happy Just to Dance with You
I'm Looking Through You
I'm Only Sleeping
I'm Ready (Rocker) / Save the Last Dance for Me / Don't Let Me Down
I'm Talking About You
I've Been Thinking That You Love Me
I've Got a Feeling
I've Just Seen a Face
If I Needed Someone
If You've Got Trouble
In Spite of All the Danger
It Won't Be Long
It's All Too Much
It's Only Make Believe
Jazz Piano Song
Johnny B. Goode
Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!
Keep Your Hands off My Baby
Komm, gib mir deine Hand
Lawdy Miss Clawdy
Leave My Kitten Alone
Lend Me Your Comb
Like Dreamers Do
Lonesome Tears in My Eyes
Long Tall Sally
Long, Long, Long
Love of the Loved
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Maggie Mae / Fancy My Chances with You
Magical Mystery Tour
Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues
Mama, You Been on My Mind
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Mean Mr. Mustard
Memphis, Tennessee
Midnight Special
Money (That's What I Want)
Mother Nature's Son
My Baby Left Me
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Not a Second Time
Nothin' Shakin'
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Octopus's Garden
Only a Northern Song
P.S. I Love You
Paperback Writer
Piano Piece (Bonding)
Please Mr. Postman
Please Please Me
Queen of the Hop
Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)
Reach Out I'll Be There
Rip It Up/Shake, Rattle and Roll/Blue Suede Shoes
Rock and Roll Music
Roll Over Beethoven
Run for Your Life
School Day (Ring Ring Goes the Bell)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
Shakin' in the Sixties
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
She Said She Said
She's Leaving Home
Shirley's Wild Accordion
So How Come (No One Loves Me)
Soldier of Love
St. Louis Blues
Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias
Strawberry Fields Forever
Sure to Fall (in Love with You)
Sweet Little Sixteen
Take Good Care of My Baby
Take These Chains from My Heart
Take This Hammer
Taking a Trip to California
Tell Me What You See
That Means a Lot
That'll Be the Day
That's All Right (Mama)
The Back Seat of My Car
The Ballad of John and Yoko
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
The Fool on the Hill
The Harry Line Theme from The Third Man
The Hippy Hippy Shake
The Honeymoon Song
The House of the Rising Sun
The Inner Light
The Long and Winding Road
The Night Before
The Palace of the King of the Birds
The Sheik of Araby
There's a Place
Things We Said Today
Think for Yourself
Thinking of Linking
Three Cool Cats
Till There Was You
To Know Her Is to Love Her
Tomorrow Never Knows
Too Bad About Sorrow
Too Bad About Sorrows
Too Much Monkey Business
Twenty Flight Rock
Twist and Shout
Wake Up Little Susie
Watching Rainbows
We Can Work It Out
What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?
What You're Doing
What's the New Mary Jane
When I Get Home
When I'm Sixty-Four
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Why Don't We Do It in the Road?
With a Little Help from My Friends
Within You Without You
Won't You Please Say Goodbye
Yellow Submarine
You Are My Sunshine
You Can't Do That
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
You Know What to Do
You Like Me Too Much
You Never Give Me Your Money
You Really Got a Hold on Me
You Wear Your Women Out
You Won't See Me
You're Going to Lose That Girl
You're My World
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Your Mother Should Know
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Obscure Observances

We often host puzzles around major holidays such as Halloween, and we have an entire event for Christmas/winter themed puzzles. But those aren't the only special days on the calendar. For example, June has such delightful days as National Hug Your Cat Day (4 June), World Sea Turtle Day (16 June), and Goat Cheese Day (25 June). In order to avoid completely made-up holidays, the special day should be described or mentioned on at least one site that isn't a holiday collection/list site.

The challenge is to take an obscure holiday ("obscure" defined as "likely unknown to the majority of the site population") and make a puzzle for it. No restrictions on the kind of puzzle, but do link us to an explanation of the holiday, so that we can all discover fun obscure observances together!

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grid word-deduction

Most puzzles just use numbers, sometimes colors. Bah! Make a grid where the locations of words must be deduced. This could mean anything from a fill-in (crossword where you're given a list of out-of-order words sans clues), adapting an existing grid-deduction genre (e.g. a Shape Sudoku using letters where the shapes each have a word on them), or anything else you can dream up. The puzzle needn't be entirely word placement. Nor should you feel restricted to any particular sort of grid. However, the word location deduction must be a major element.

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Twisted Chestnut

This was inspired by playing tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses) with my son. He got to the point where he figured out that every game will end in a tie if both players play optimally, so it wasn't much fun. But then we started adding rules to make it more interesting, like "If you play in a corner, the other player gets two moves", or "You're allowed to move an opponent's piece on your turn instead of adding a new piece."

The idea is to take an old "chestnut" puzzle and give it a new twist to make it a challenge even for those who are familiar with the original puzzle.

It could be as simple as tweaking a classic riddle to give it a new solution, or it could involve mashing together a couple of chestnuts into an entirely new puzzle. Maybe you will steganographically hide a puzzle within what appears to be a straightforward chestnut, or add some additional parameters to a classic that makes it more challenging to solve?

Here is a list on Wikipedia, to get you inspired. (Note that not everything on this list is classic or a puzzle, but many of them are.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Logic_puzzles

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Reposting this from the previous post. I note that it has similarities with the recent 'Network Parody' idea of Jafe's, but the two are distinct; still, they might both serve us well if spaced out a few months apart rather than running too close to each other...

Stack Exchange crossover special

For this challenge, find a question listed in the Hot Network Questions ("HNQs") on the Stack Exchange network homepage, and use this as the inspiration or basis for a puzzle here on Puzzling. The only SE site ineligible for use in this challenge is Puzzling itself (otherwise it's not a crossover!).

To my knowledge, there are no overt whole-puzzle examples of this already on Puzzling, although oAlt has regularly used such posts within individual cryptic clues in the Cryptic Clue Chat Chain (CCCC) mini-game in The Sphinx's Lair (the site's main chat room). For example:

From Retrocomputing:
"Origin of string" making its second appearance (second!) (6) (link to chat)

Solution is SPRING ('Origin') by changing the second letter (t) of StRING to the second letter of aPpearance.

From Personal Finance & Money:
Make a mistake in Other Revenue (3) (link to chat)

Solution is ERR (Make a mistake), hidden in othER Revenue.

Idea inspired just now by finding "Older sister is taken and replaced with a mud golem" on Science Fiction & Fantasy, and wondering what a great story-based puzzle that might make...

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Wordsearch image reveal

Create a wordsearch which once solved reveals a hidden image in the grid. This could be achieved by shading the used letters, or alternatively those that were unused.

Extra credit for using themed words which point towards the final image!

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Physical Puzzles

Make a puzzle that can be solved, and perhaps is best solved, by bringing it into the physical world. Perhaps there are papers that are held up together or folded into shapes. Perhaps it helps to slide objects over and around other objects. Perhaps something else! Sky's the limit. Though please do make explicit in the puzzle text how one would solve the puzzle physically.

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I can't believe it's not a riddle!

Make a puzzle that looks like a classic (rhyming or not), but is not actually such a riddle. Instead, the riddle-seeming text hides some other puzzle entirely: a , a , a , or whatever catches your fancy. The more surprising and less riddly it is, the better.

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Reposting this from the previous post. Statistics updated.

Armchair geocaching

"Geo-what-now?"

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a GPS-enabled phone or similar portable device to hide and seek containers - called "caches" or "geocaches" - at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world.

In many instances a geocache's specific coordinates are not posted in its listing, and instead they must be calculated from numerical information obtained in a scavenger hunt (a 'multi-cache') or derived by solving a puzzle (a 'mystery cache').

From the tag description

At the time of writing this, the tag is very much underused - only 14 occurrences (and largely requests for help, often on premium content that is not permitted to be shared here!). However, the concept of geocaching is something that sits incredibly nicely within the same wheelhouse as an appetite for puzzling, requiring the use of one's intuition, a keen eye, and the determination to see a quest through to its end. (And yes, full disclosure: I am an active geocacher myself...)

The 'multi-cache' and 'mystery cache' models mentioned in the tag description present an additional challenge to geocachers, requiring them to embark on a scavenger hunt for various numbers or solve a puzzle in order to extract the GPS coordinates where the physical cache container is hidden.

The purpose of this challenge would be to create a puzzle which ultimately leads to a specific real-life physical location - precisely defined by the geographic coordinate system (GCS) or an alternative established geocode system (like what3words), rather than merely hiding its name or related subjective information in a puzzle - without the need for the solver to visit it physically in real life!

Other complementary tags for this challenge might include , , and .

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Multi Puzzle — two (or more) puzzles in one

NOTE: Stiv has pointed out in the comments that this topic has already been used. But that instance only garnered two puzzles; I think it was at the time when topic challenges were fizzling out. Thus I am proposing a redo.


Create a single puzzle that has more than one valid solution, each arrived at in a completely different way.

e.g. Not a riddle that could have two potential solutions, but perhaps a riddle with a single solution, and another message hidden steganographically within the riddle.

Bonus points if the various answers to the puzzle combine somehow to either form a meta-answer or a final meta-puzzle.

This suggestion was inspired by the four Group 4 puzzles from the 2010 CISRA puzzle competition.

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  • $\begingroup$ This would technically be a redo, right? Although the first time around it surprisingly only garnered two submissions... Is this an attempt to encourage it to be done more fully, maybe? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 8 at 17:10
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, I think I must have been on hiatus then. I didn't realize it had been done. But yeah, let's do it again! $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 8 at 18:47
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Musical Instruments

Write a puzzle centrally themed around at least one musical instrument. This includes but is not limited to puzzles which, in order for them to be solved, need knowledge of (or relating to) said instrument/s.

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Alphabetical disorder

Create a puzzle which presents an entire alphabet (doesn't necessarily have to be the English alphabet - could be Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic... whatever!), ordered according to a hidden rule.

At the very least, the puzzle should require the user to discern the rule behind the ordering. The puzzle could be presented as a single sequence to be explained, or the alphabetical sequence could form just one component of a bigger puzzle... The choice is yours!

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