game pieces with question marks on them spread out on a table top
Jade Small
Jade Small
November 30, 2021 ·  4 min read

5 Cryptogram Riddles With Hidden Messages To Test Your Intelligence

Solving a certain type of puzzle that involves deciphering and encryption is called a cryptogram. Today, you will be attempting to solve 5 different cryptogram riddles! These puzzles are incredibly fun, but they weren’t always used for entertainment.

Originally designed for keeping military secrets from spies, cryptograms held great importance. Even Julius Ceasar used this method of encryption. So much so, that a type of cipher was named after him.

According to Suetonius, who wrote a set of biographies of Julius Caesar in 121 A.D.: “If he had anything confidential to say, he wrote it in cipher, that is, by so changing the order of the letters of the alphabet, that not a word could be made out. If anyone wishes to decipher these, and get at their meaning, he must substitute the fourth letter of the alphabet, namely D, for A, and so with the others.”

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The easiest way to understand the Caesar cipher is to think of cycling the position of the letters. In a Caesar cipher with a shift of 3, A becomes D, B becomes E, C becomes F, etc. When reaching the end of the alphabet it cycles around, so X becomes A, Y becomes B and Z becomes C.

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Can You Solve These Hidden Message Riddles?

If you are ready to try your hand at solving cryptograms, keep reading. You will need a pencil and a piece of paper to write down your answers. At the end of the article, we will reveal the correct solutions to the riddles. Good luck!

1. Solve this chemistry riddle:

My father is a chemist. My mother is a mathematician. They call me “iron59.” So, what is my real name?

Science, Periodic Table, Elements, Chemistry
Pixabay

2. Can you solve this cryptogram puzzle?

Adam is on holiday in Mexico. However, his son is back in the United States and is celebrating his college graduation. Adam wants to send his son a telegram, but is told he can only send a message using these words: fiasco, nephew, carrot, rabbit, sonata, spring, tailor, bureau, corona, legacy, soften, travel, object, happen, bikini.

So, Adam sends the telegram as follows: Carrot Fiasco Nephew Spring Rabbit Sonata Tailor Bureau Legacy Corona Travel Bikini Object Happen Soften.

What does the telegram message say for Adam’s son?

5 Riddles With Hidden Messages That Will Test Your Intelligence
Credit: Brightside

3. Detective Pruitt needs your help solving this mystery cipher. Can you figure it out?

Detective Pruitt received a tip about a mystery message. If he could solve the message, the file he was searching for would be revealed. However, the message didn’t make any sense to him. Reading the paper, it said: OIDU TSEH TNITEPR ACEHT RED NU. So, where should Detective Pruitt look for the missing file?

 Monochrome Photo of Man Doing an Inspection
cottonbro – Pexels

4. Can you solve this murder mystery?

A man was murdered in his study, late in the evening. Just before he died from the stab wound, he managed to pull the dagger from his body. Seeing his calendar on the desk, he stabbed the dagger down onto it and wrote 6, 4, 9, 10, 11 with his blood.

The suspected killers are Sophia, Jason, Julie, Paul, and Moris. So, who is guilty?

Crop Photo Of Woman in Black Leather Coat Standing By A Staircase
cottonbro – Pexels

5. Can you figure out the name of the mother cat?

Becky Sue has 3 kittens. Fluffy, Muffy, and Puffy. What is the mother’s name?

Close-Up Photo of a Hand Holding Three White Kittens
Peng Louis – Pexels

Solutions

Hopefully, you were able to come up with a few correct answers to these riddles. Because these challenges were so tricky, it’s okay if you didn’t get them all right. However, practice makes perfect! So, if you want to keep working out that brain of yours, we can help! At the end of this article, we will leave some more brainteasers for you to try. But, for now, let’s see how you did with these cryptograms!

Thoughtful ethnic businessman using laptop while working in office
Sora Shimazaki – Pexels
1. What is the real name of ‘iron59?’
A) Their real name is Felix. Iron = Fe on the periodic table, and 59 = L I X in Roman numerals.
2. What does the telegram say to Adam’s son?
A) The message says Congratulations. If you take the first letter of the first word and the last letter of the second word, you find the solution. ( Carrot fiascO Nephew sprinG Rabbit sonatA Tailor bureaU Legacy coronA Travel bikinI Object happeN Soften )
3. Where is Detective Pruitt’s missing file located?
A) “Under the carpet in the studio.” Read the message backward, and ignore the spaces.
4. Who is the murderer?
A) Jason. If you take the first letter of each month the victim wrote down, you end up with 6-June, 4-April, 9-September, 10-October, 11-November.
5. The name of the mother cat?
A) there was no question mark in that riddle. Therefore, ‘What’ is the mother cat’s name.

Well Done!

Well, how did you do? If you got more than 3 of them correct, you are definitely a clever person! Using logic and reasoning to solve puzzles is a great exercise for your brain. Want to keep going? Try these out below!