I’m pretty sure that I entered the word “with” several times during the 24 hours during which that puzzle was live. Each time, the website said that the word was incorrect.
I was using the Google Chrome web browser. With that browser, if you refresh the screen, you do not have to clear the cache. The cache is cleared automatically. So, I entered a lot of words, one after another, and I hit the refresh button every time. So, if I entered a wrong answer, hit refresh, and then entered “with”, the website should have recognized the answer as correct.
On a subsequent puzzle, I did an experiment. I used the Chrome browser. I intentionally entered one wrong answer, hit refresh, entered another wrong answer, hit refresh again, and then entered the right answer. And the website accepted the right answer. I did NOT have to clear the cache.
So, it appears that the website had some kind of glitch, at least for puzzle 37.
The algorithm found only one possible solution. So unless there is a mistake in my code, there is only one solution for the grid.
Maybe you hit a rate limit (http code 429), this was mentioned happening to some people in older threads. Not sure what the front-end message was in those cases.
(Edited out the code for Metapuzzle3 - sorry, wrong thread.)
This was the only puzzle which I failed to solve in time, though I did ultimately solve it by hand without backtracking. The solution hinged on one square which had two possible values. Pick the correct one and you fill the grid pretty easily. The solution definitely generated only one valid word.
I completely agree though that backtracking is anathema to the human brain. There were two other puzzles which I hated for this (Arrow Maze and Build Your Own Sudoku).
Just checked, 9th try gets me a 429 with “Incorrect answer”. Found a thread where this was mentioned. You may still try to observe this yourself, use F12.
According to the thread that you mentioned, apparently, some people were trying to enter the word “twitchier” into Puzzle 25, and they were being told that the answer was incorrect when the answer was, indeed, correct.
I had the same experience. with Puzzle 25.
I eventually was able to enter the word “twitchier” successfully.
So, during Puzzle 25 and Puzzle 37, because too many people were using the Hack the Galaxy website at one time, the website was erroneously telling people that they were giving incorrect answers? Why couldn’t the website be programmed to simply issue a message like “Too many users are using the website. Please try again later.”?
I lost a lot of hours that I will never get back, unsuccessfully trying to solve Puzzle 37.
I believe some limit was necessary, otherwise running a dictionary against the submit form would find a solution to almost every puzzle. Some of those people actually observed the 429 (rate-limited) instead of 404 (wrong answer), even though the front-end only showed one message.
I am sure it could, but with just about anything, someone would have to program it that way, which would mean writing ~2 more lines of code for the front-end javascript. Since humans still write code, it is easy to forget about such nuances.
That’s the thing. There is a difference between trying to solve the puzzle, and merely guessing the answer. I believe the strict setting of the limiter was to not have people do the latter.
I don’t have a problem with a limit being set. I do have a problem with a false and fraudulent message, “Incorrect answer”, being sent out when the answer was, indeed, correct.
Yeah, the front-end messages could have been clearer in that respect. Having said that, I also agree that it’s important to have safeguards against people trying to guess their way to the solution. That said, there are over 5000 4-letter words to choose from… Hence why I failed this puzzle, even when I was working with a much-pared-down list.
Yes, there was a square to the immediate left of the leftmost solved column which had only two possible values. Pick the correct one and the grid becomes easily solvable.