DroppedBit
DROPPEDBIT BLOG
Out of Order: Solution
Weekly Puzzle #03 of the Autumn 2026 season presented Out of Order, a relay capture wrapped in an operator-desk log. With Weekly Puzzle #04 now active, ranked submissions for Issue 03 have concluded.
Spoiler warning: This post contains the complete solution for Weekly Puzzle #03. If you have not reviewed the transmission yet, you can inspect the archived puzzle record.
1. Read the Handshake First
The capture contains two sessions, but the receiver's handshake tells us which stream to reconstruct:
| Session | State | Declared length |
|---|---|---|
7E |
Accept | 21 |
8F |
Reject | 11 |
Only session 7E was accepted. Session 8F contains a tempting decoy (CLOSE RELAY), but its rejected status means it is not the message the receiver accepted. The declared 21-character length is also a useful check on the reconstructed stream.
2. Verify the Fragment Checksums
Each row gives a session, a zero-based character offset, an 8-bit byte sum, and hexadecimal bytes. Decode each hex pair as one byte. The sum8 value is the sum of those bytes modulo 256; the capture's probe confirms the decimal convention (41 42 is 65 + 66 = 131).
For example, the accepted fragment at offset 0 contains:
46 4F 4C 4C 4F 57 20 54
These bytes spell FOLLOW T, and their values total 71, matching the recorded checksum.
The two fragments at offset 7 disagree:
| Checksum | Bytes | Byte sum | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 167 | 54 48 45 20 51 55 |
167 | Keep: THE QU |
| 90 | 54 48 45 20 58 |
89 | Discard: checksum mismatch |
The second row is the trap: its bytes spell THE X, but their actual sum is 89, not 90. The receiver discards it.
3. Reassemble by Offset
After filtering by accepted session and checksum, arrange the remaining fragments at their zero-based offsets:
| Offset | Decoded text | Covered positions |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | FOLLOW T |
0–7 |
| 7 | THE QU |
7–12 |
| 12 | QUIET WIRE |
12–20 |
| 17 | WIRE |
17–20 |
The overlaps agree: position 7 contains T, positions 12 onward begin with QUIET, and the final WIRE repeats the tail of that fragment. The assembled stream is 21 characters long, matching the accepted handshake length:
FOLLOW THE QUIET WIRE
Submitting FOLLOW THE QUIET WIRE completed the issue. Letter case and repeated whitespace are ignored by the answer checker.
4. The Operator-Desk Details
The log's hardwired return line, declined wireless exit, and the NEBUCHADNEZZAR operator desk evoke The Matrix. They set the scene, but do not ask solvers to make a call or perform another decoding step. The actual recovery depends on the accepted session, valid checksums, and consistent offsets.
More Weekly Puzzles
Want another technical puzzle? Explore the weekly puzzles →