Secret Code

Learning goal

Practise combining clues, eliminating possibilities, remembering earlier guesses, and revising a plan when new evidence appears.

This is a playful logical-deduction activity. It does not provide an IQ score, psychometric result, diagnosis, age level, or intelligence ranking of children.

How to play

1. Choose four of the colours marked 1–5 at the bottom. You may use the same colour more than once.
2. Select the check mark. A solid black clue means a correct colour in the correct place; a hollow white clue means a correct colour in another place.
3. Clue order does not point to a particular colour position. Compare earlier rows, build a new guess, and try to crack the code within eight attempts.
4. Tap controls on a touchscreen. With a keyboard, use Tab to move and Enter or Space to activate colour, delete, and check controls.

Note for parents and teachers

Do not reveal the answer in the first round. Ask, “Which colour is now certain?”, “Which possibility did you rule out?”, and “What does this guess change from the previous row?” Not solving it in eight guesses is not a measure of failure or intelligence.