master-mind challenge

[Diff]

Pfft, and I was 100% off lol

 

[Diff]

MLZJACKH

 

[nina]

MLZJACKH

ABCDWXYZ - 3C 0B
WXYZEFGH - 0C 1B
WXYZABCD - 2C 1B
EXYZABCG - 2C 1B
AXCDIJKL - 3C 1B
LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B
KXLNCMOA - 3C 0B
JKLZACIF - 3C 2B
MLIJACZK - 3C 2B
LJKDACGI - 2C 2B
MLZJACKH - 3C 2B

 

[kaylessa]

WXYZWXYZ

 

[nina]

ABCDWXYZ - 3C 0B
WXYZEFGH - 0C 1B
WXYZABCD - 2C 1B
EXYZABCG - 2C 1B
AXCDIJKL - 3C 1B
LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B
KXLNCMOA - 3C 0B
JKLZACIF - 3C 2B
MLIJACZK - 3C 2B
LJKDACGI - 2C 2B
MLZJACKH - 3C 2B

WXYZWXYZ - 0C 1B

 

[kaylessa]

@nina would you please double check the cows and bulls? if I combine the results so far, I come to the conclusion that A must be in position 5 due to lines 10 and 11, but line 3 and 4 contradict that. Either I did something wrong or the cow and bull count on at least one line is wrong, probably cows and bulls mismatched.

Well... let's see if I just humiliated myself...

 

[nina]

Thanks kaylessa, no worries about humiliation..lol it's very possible to make mistakes in posting cows and bulls but have checked them twice, and they are correct for all guesses.

Only one of the possibilities maybe A being in 5th position acc. to 10 and 11th guesses but there are other alternative possibilities that cannot be ruled out and those possibilities do not contradict with 3 and 4, thus more likely

Hint - compare your last guess with lines 1-3

 

[Doctor Pervert]

Ok so I had a bit of a run through the guesses so far, @nina could you recheck guess 6 please as it doesn't seem to fit the pattern in the others? LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B

So my guess for now is MJPZICAA

And just so everyone is clear "The 8 letter code (with repetitions)" means there is at least one repeated letter?

 

[nina]

Ok so I had a bit of a run through the guesses so far, @nina could you recheck guess 6 please as it doesn't seem to fit the pattern in the others? LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B

So my guess for now is MJPZICAA

And just so everyone is clear "The 8 letter code (with repetitions)" means there is at least one repeated letter?

Checked 6 and no errors. The code could be anything from AAAAAAAA to ZZZZZZZZ including codes like AAAAZZZZ or ABCDEZZZ or ABCDEFGH just to give a variety of possible codes.

 

[nina]

ABCDWXYZ - 3C 0B
WXYZEFGH - 0C 1B
WXYZABCD - 2C 1B
EXYZABCG - 2C 1B
AXCDIJKL - 3C 1B
LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B
KXLNCMOA - 3C 0B
JKLZACIF - 3C 2B
MLIJACZK - 3C 2B
LJKDACGI - 2C 2B
MLZJACKH - 3C 2B
WXYZWXYZ - 0C 1B

MJPZICAA - 2C 2B

I also realised that there are 26^8 i.e. 200 billion+ possibilities so will tell this to reduce the confusion everyone has - the bulls for guess 5, 6, 9 are for different positions while the bull for guess 2,3,4 are for same position.

 

[kaylessa]

@nina would you please double check the cows and bulls? if I combine the results so far, I come to the conclusion that A must be in position 5 due to lines 10 and 11, but line 3 and 4 contradict that. Either I did something wrong or the cow and bull count on at least one line is wrong, probably cows and bulls mismatched.

Well... let's see if I just humiliated myself...

Ok so I had a bit of a run through the guesses so far, @nina could you recheck guess 6 please as it doesn't seem to fit the pattern in the others? LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B

So my guess for now is MJPZICAA

And just so everyone is clear "The 8 letter code (with repetitions)" means there is at least one repeated letter?

Checked 6 and no errors. The code could be anything from AAAAAAAA to ZZZZZZZZ including codes like AAAAZZZZ or ABCDEZZZ or ABCDEFGH just to give a variety of possible codes.

I just realized my mistake. It's probably because of repeating letters! Let's check this.

New guess:
LLLLAAAA

 

[nina]

ABCDWXYZ - 3C 0B
WXYZEFGH - 0C 1B
WXYZABCD - 2C 1B
EXYZABCG - 2C 1B
AXCDIJKL - 3C 1B
LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B
KXLNCMOA - 3C 0B
JKLZACIF - 3C 2B
MLIJACZK - 3C 2B
LJKDACGI - 2C 2B
MLZJACKH - 3C 2B
WXYZWXYZ - 0C 1B
MJPZICAA - 2C 2B
LLLLAAAA - 2C 2B

 

[kaylessa]

Well... if I didn't make another mistake, I know a lot about the code now. I got 5 letters that must be contained and since line 14 has 4 correct letters, I seem to know 7 of 8 letters now.

Is this supposed to be a teamwork? Am I allowed to discuss my findings publicly?

 

[nina]

Is this supposed to be a teamwork? Am I allowed to discuss my findings publicly?

There is no rule against teamwork so upto you if you want to solve individually or promote teamwork

Teamwork may help in coordinated guesses but that has its pros and cons

Though teamwork sure makes it more engaging for everyone.

 

[kaylessa]

Well I love teamwork, so here is my current knowledge:
A, C, J, L, L, L, Z are 7 of 8 letters of the code, positions unclear except for Z, which must be in position 4. The last letter must be one of those: C, J, Q, R, S, T, U, V

This reduces the number of possible combinations down to 322560 (8 options for the last letter multiplied with 8! options for an 8 digits code).

This reduces the number of possible combinations down to 40320 (8 options for the last letter multiplied with 7! options for an 8 didgits code with one digit already known, since Z is in position 4 - the count is reduced even further by the fact that A can't be in position 1,5,8 and L, C can't be in position 3... etc)

 

[Doctor Pervert]

nice work @kaylessa! Your letters A, C, J, L, L, L, Z look good.
So this is what I have so far,
Looks like LLAZ_C_L is what I can see as a pretty solid pattern.
I need to slot "J" in there somewhere so I'm going to throw a guess of LLAZJCJL

 

[nina]

ABCDWXYZ - 3C 0B
WXYZEFGH - 0C 1B
WXYZABCD - 2C 1B
EXYZABCG - 2C 1B
AXCDIJKL - 3C 1B
LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B
KXLNCMOA - 3C 0B
JKLZACIF - 3C 2B
MLIJACZK - 3C 2B
LJKDACGI - 2C 2B
MLZJACKH - 3C 2B
WXYZWXYZ - 0C 1B
MJPZICAA - 2C 2B
LLLLAAAA - 2C 2B

LLAZJCJL - 0C 7B

Great findings and table @kaylessa

Awesome job @droptokon!! you figured out the positions quite impressively

 

[Doctor Pervert]

As its too soon to post another guess I want to share my conclusions, only fair given @kaylessa's contribution.

The final letter must be from the list @kaylessa provided except, we have eliminated an additional "J" and I have also eliminated an extra "C" which leaves Q, R, S, T, U, V. Six letters we can reduce in, at worst 3 guesses.

 

[nina]

ABCDWXYZ - 3C 0B
WXYZEFGH - 0C 1B
WXYZABCD - 2C 1B
EXYZABCG - 2C 1B
AXCDIJKL - 3C 1B
LXMNFIAC - 2C 1B
KXLNCMOA - 3C 0B
JKLZACIF - 3C 2B
MLIJACZK - 3C 2B
LJKDACGI - 2C 2B
MLZJACKH - 3C 2B
WXYZWXYZ - 0C 1B
MJPZICAA - 2C 2B
LLLLAAAA - 2C 2B
LLAZJCJL - 0C 7B

LLAZJCRL - 0C 7B

 

[kaylessa]

RRRRRQST

1 bull -> S is correct
1 cow -> either Q or T is correct
none -> either U or V is correct