Looking for experienced cryptogram solvers to test 5 puzzles

[Henry1964]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a small prototype for an expert-level cryptogram puzzle book and I’m looking for 3–5 experienced cryptogram solvers willing to test a short sample.

The main thing I’m trying to understand is whether the difficulty level of these 5 puzzles is genuinely appropriate for experienced solvers — challenging enough to feel satisfying, but still fair and logically solvable.

I’d also appreciate feedback on:

• puzzle depth,
• solving time,
• whether any puzzle feels difficult for the wrong reason,
• hints,
• readability,
• and writing/correction space.

This is not a finished book and I’m not selling anything.

If you regularly solve cryptograms and would be willing to help, please reply here or send me a private message.

Thank you!
Henry

[Henry1964]

A quick follow-up — I've realized it might be easier to share a sample rather than just ask for volunteers.

I've attached six cryptograms taken directly from my current draft. To stay within the forum's attachment limit, they are in a small plain-text (.txt) file.

The collection is intended for experienced solvers, and I'm trying to find out whether the difficulty feels fair and satisfying.

Even trying just one or two puzzles would help. I'd appreciate any comments on:

• Too easy, about right, or too difficult for an experienced solver?
• Approximately how long did you spend, and which hints did you use?
• Did anything feel ambiguous, unfair, or frustrating?

Please mention the puzzle numbers you tried.

Optional hints follow the puzzles, after a spoiler warning. No solutions are included. For alignment, please open the file using a monospaced font.

This text-only sample is for feedback on the puzzles and hints; it does not reproduce the book's printed layout.

Thanks again!
Henry

[318WOZ]

I felt they were relatively easy. These are on the longer side as compared to many that we get on this site. Longer puzzles give more clues; for example, they're almost guaranteed to include the word "the", which was my start in most cases. (By contrast, on puzzle 018 I started with A and then E and O because of the double letter occurrences.)

I did not fill out the letter keys and mostly didn't use them at all because I felt like it would take longer, but for times when I would use them (I did once when coming up with the letters J and K for puzzle 017, just by crossing off what I had already used) I would want them to be right underneath each puzzle, rather than in groups of three like they came in the file.

I did not use any clues.

My solve times for each were:
016 - 12:!3
017 - 10:39
018 - 11:19
401 - 08:17
402 - 09:40
403 - 10:17
Average - 10:24

I haven't done cryptograms on paper in quite a while. For that format, they felt satisfying. The other change I would particularly want is keeping the punctuation in the lines of blank spaces. I don't think there's any reason to omit those, and it helps the solver naturally read the solution as it appears.

[Henry1964]

Hi ,

First of all, I’m sorry for my late reply, and thank you very much for the time and care you put into testing the puzzles.

Your feedback was extremely helpful.

It was especially useful to hear that you found them relatively easy, that the longer length gave extra clues, and that you didn’t need to use any hints. Your comments about the letter legends and punctuation were also very valuable.

I found your note about the legends particularly interesting: placing them directly under each individual puzzle may be more practical than grouping them in sets of three. Your suggestion about keeping punctuation visible in the answer lines also makes a lot of sense.

Your solving times were very helpful too:

016 – 12:13
017 – 10:39
018 – 11:19
401 – 08:17
402 – 09:40
403 – 10:17
Average – 10:24

Thank you again for the thoughtful feedback. It’s exactly the kind of input that helps improve the book.

Best regards,
Henry