jtcgreyfox Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 hey I'm studying computer engineering at uni at the moment, Just wondering if anyone knows some good sites or resources where I could find a pile of puzzles which are designed to be solved programmatically? I think this would be a great way for me to practice my skills. Throughout my study there are a lot of times where I am not required to do any actual programming (all theory) so I kinda forget a lot of what i've learned. I would love some kinda of interesting and infinite way to better my skills. Its sort of hard coming up with ideas of programs to make. I would prefer being given tasks to solve. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BattZ Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 I don't know of any sites, but you could try making a Sodoku(Soduku?) solver to start you out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Netshroud Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Euler? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcgreyfox Posted August 11, 2010 Author Share Posted August 11, 2010 Beuller? Beuller? But i made a sudoku solver for uni few years ago, and a GUI one in java last year. I pretty much hate sudoku now -_- I know books or websites for this kind of thing exist. Because there are programming competitions which are based around puzzles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnycake Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 (edited) Agreed, project euler would be a great place to start - at least that's the first thing that came to mind, it's more math-related, but that's a big part in programming I guess. Edit: And a few extra puzzle ideas to solve would be: 1.) Sodoku solver 2.) Shortest-path finder 3.) Quadratic equation solver (really really simplistic - so idk if that's what you're looking for) 4.) Computer character recognition software (solve captchas) - a bit more challenging Edited August 11, 2010 by Jonnycake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcgreyfox Posted August 11, 2010 Author Share Posted August 11, 2010 oooo i looked up the Euler project! pretty cool. I suck at maths too. So i suppose its healthy for me to do these. Character recognition sounds cool. Not sure if im at that skill level yet. I had an idea about a year ago to make an augmented reality phone app that could overlay a sudoku grid in a newspaper with the solved values entered into it on the phone. But i never got around to starting it. And now its already on the android market :( oh well. But i wouldnt even know where to start for character recognition. The closest ive come is making a program that converts a .bmp to ascii art. Nothing really fancy. Anyyywwaayyy Thanks! http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=...lems&page=1 pretty much exactly what i was looking for! /cheer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sitwon Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 If you're competitive, try TopCoder. I've never read it, but I noticed this book in the book store: http://www.amazon.com/Puzzles-Hackers-Ivan...4038&sr=8-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcgreyfox Posted August 12, 2010 Author Share Posted August 12, 2010 hmm yea i think i would like to see some samples before buying it. That reminds me. I would LOVE some real life hacking puzzles. Like.. hmm maybe some opensource linux liveCD similar to backtrack, with a pile of data on it for all kinds of different hacks. .pcap files with specific things you have to find, or secrets hidden in images with steganography, or a virtual machine which acts like a firewall with a specific flaw you need to exploit. *sigh* that would be so cool. for learning AND just for fun. totally offline, risk free :P sorta like uplink but real, and in a sandbox environment on your liveCD. would be nice. Maybe we could compile a series of puzzles in forums? I would totally contribute 1-2 puzzles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnycake Posted August 13, 2010 Share Posted August 13, 2010 If you want something like exploit dev and reverse engineering, check out damn vulnerable linux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcgreyfox Posted August 14, 2010 Author Share Posted August 14, 2010 holy crap! thats pretty much exactly what i was talking about. I assumed it didnt exist lol. (silly me.. assuming something isn't on the internet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghoulmaster Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 holy crap! thats pretty much exactly what i was talking about. I assumed it didnt exist lol. (silly me.. assuming something isn't on the internet) dude u just made me laugh, is it ok if i add that (the "silly me.. assuming something isn't on the internet") to like everything??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcgreyfox Posted August 24, 2010 Author Share Posted August 24, 2010 dude u just made me laugh, is it ok if i add that (the "silly me.. assuming something isn't on the internet") to like everything??? Lol yeah. So I tried it out. Dvl. Its ok, the cool part is a folder of exploitable programs, with exploit solutions. But the problems are all user submitted, so difficult varies greatly between each task. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 If your still looking for idea's you could try another japanese puzzle Kakuro. Otherwise something like a Neural Network project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Durham Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 I suggest the problem sets from the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. If you can solve two problems in 8 hours, then you're doing better than most university students. Just google "ICPC problems", there are a ton of resources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcgreyfox Posted August 28, 2010 Author Share Posted August 28, 2010 I suggest the problem sets from the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. If you can solve two problems in 8 hours, then you're doing better than most university students. Just google "ICPC problems", there are a ton of resources. heh. yeah well thats the thing. I've tried a few of those at my uni. turned up to some of the competition sessions and had a look out of curiosity.. and its just too hard -_- its ok! im pretty damn happy with the euler project stuff at the moment :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walom Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 For coding you could try something like pythonchallenge.com. Its a pretty cool coding puzzle site that goes through a bunch of lvls, each progressing in difficulty. I don't think you absolutely have to use python for this. Overthewire.org is also a cool puzzle site. Focused on coding and reverse engineering it has a bunch of different 'missions' each with lots of lvls. If you like DamnVulnerableLinux you should check out Metasploitable. Its sort of the same thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcgreyfox Posted September 24, 2010 Author Share Posted September 24, 2010 For coding you could try something like pythonchallenge.com. Its a pretty cool coding puzzle site that goes through a bunch of lvls, each progressing in difficulty. I don't think you absolutely have to use python for this. Overthewire.org is also a cool puzzle site. Focused on coding and reverse engineering it has a bunch of different 'missions' each with lots of lvls. If you like DamnVulnerableLinux you should check out Metasploitable. Its sort of the same thing oooo overthewire.org looks awesome! havnt tried it yet, but its exactly what i was thinking of. Actual live system to do things with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walom Posted September 25, 2010 Share Posted September 25, 2010 (edited) found another cool site, where if you can finish the first 5 puzzles you get a shell account! Still lots of puzzles after the first 5, also. http://hax.tor.hu/welcome/ EDIT: w00t!! hahah! I got a shell!! took me about a week. Edited September 29, 2010 by walom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmsmith1991 Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 Try http://www.crackmes.de, people write and submit programs that contain some kind of security system and it is your job to try and crack/bypass it. Most are like registration systems that you find in commercial software, and you need to write a keygen for it etc. It fun and a legal alternative to cracking commercial software :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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