Intern Puzzleday 2021

WELCOME TO PUZZLEDAY

We're honored to have you join us in what we're sure will be an event for the history books: Intern Puzzleday 2021! Our authors have written enough puzzles to keep your eyes glued to the pages for two days this July. And the best news: you don't need to worry about any late fees!

Just like last year's event, Puzzleday this year will take place over the two-day weekend weekend of July 10th-11th. On both of those days, you'll have 3.5 hours from 10am-1:30pm PDT to solve puzzles, and both days of solving contribute to the overall event. Some may also choose to keep solving after the end of day 1, but doing so is not required.

Please refer to our FAQ and Rules if you have any questions the librarian can't answer. We also have a PowerPoint deck that can clarify a few things.

We invite participation by interns of all abilities. If you require an accommodation, you can request one from puzzhunt@microsoft.com.

FULL SCHEDULE (all times PDT)

PREGAME PUZZLES (optional)

These are a great way to get into the spirit of the event and learn how to use our website. We hope they are fun and give you an idea of what to expect. The puzzles will be released in the days leading up to the event, and can be found by clicking "Puzzles" at the top of the page (if you don't see a link to the Puzzles up there, make sure you're registered to play!):

  • Monday, July 5th: One puzzle, which will require interaction with your teammates!
  • Tuesday, July 6th: Two puzzles
  • Wednesday, July 7th: Two puzzles
  • Thursday, July 8th: Two puzzles
  • Friday, July 9th: Two puzzles

These are primarily for practice, and we'll go over the solutions at the opening session.

EVENT WEEKEND

On July 10th, at 10am, we will have a short opening session where we will go over rules and theme. After that, your team will have until 1:30pm to solve as many puzzles as you can! We will take a snapshot of the leaderboard at 1:30, but you can keep solving these puzzles at any time afterwards (until the second day is over).

On July 11th, at 10am, you will jump right into solving all-new puzzles (or continue solving puzzles from the previous day), and solving will end at 1:30pm. Immediately afterwards, we will have a short closing session where we will announce the winners and wrap up the event.

HOW TO SIGN UP

Registration is now open! If you don’t have a team yet, you can create a team using the link here. Teams will consist of 4-6 players with all levels of puzzle experience. Each intern can invite one non-employee guest to join them if they wish. Since this year’s event is 100% virtual, your team doesn’t even need to be in the same place geographically. And don’t worry if you can’t make both days; the goal is just to have fun! Once you’ve made a team, you can invite other people to join you or leave your team open for anyone to join.

If you want to join a team and haven’t been specifically invited by anyone, you can research the list of teams looking for team members and request to join one of them. We recommend for any team that still needs teammates to keep your team open. If you need help finding teammates, you can always ask other interns you work with, know from your cohort or university, or met in cyberspace.

If you don't fill up your team, we’ll help combine any that aren’t full before the event. You can also use the information sessions to recruit new members. We encourage teams to stay together for both days of the event, but in case there are players who are not available on both days, you can swap people in and out so long as no more than 6 players are on your team on either day.

NEW TO PUZZLES?

You may have seen a jigsaw puzzle, a crossword puzzle, or a Sudoku at some point in your life, but those barely crack the cover on the whole anthology that is "puzzling"! Puzzleday puzzles also have a tendency to get... creative, so you might see something that looks especially strange! Check out a few sample puzzles or peruse our collection of puzzles from past events.