Computational Thinking Puzzles

A Bit of CS4FN: Primary Puzzles 1

This is our first booklet of primary puzzles. Download the booklet to print yourself, find where to order print copies (while stocks last) and find the solutions here.

You can also print certificates to award to your class or home-educated child.

A Bit of CS4FN: Primary Puzzles 2

This is our second booklet of primary puzzles. Download the booklet to print yourself, find where to order print copies (while stocks last) and find the solutions here.

You can also print certificates to award to your class or home-educated child.

A Bit of CS4FN: Primary Puzzles 3

This is our third booklet of primary puzzles. Download the booklet to print yourself, find where to order print copies (while stocks last) and find the solutions here. [COMING SOON]

You can also print certificates to award to your class or home-educated child.

Egyptian Survey Puzzles

From the research and survey information use your logical reasoning skills to find where the tombs are burried under the sands before you start the digs. Improve your logical thinking skills. Find the puzzles and solutions here.

Queens Puzzles

Work out where all the Queens go so there is one in each area and only one in each row and column. (Read on)

Pixel Puzzles

Use the key to tell you what the numbers mean and so colour in and recreate the image made up of a grid of pixels. Learn about raster graphics and algorithmic thinking Find the puzzles and solutions here.

Coordinate conundrums

Given the colours and coordinates of lots of shapes reconstruct the pictures. Learn about vector graphics – a way of storing images in a mathematically precise way as programs and practice plotting coordinates. Find the puzzles and solutions here.

Doodle Algorithms

Follow simple doodling algorithms to draw pictures based on nature and see how CGI nature, which is different every time, can be created from algorithms. Find the puzzles and solutions here.

Word Searches

Find all the given words in the word grids. Learn about search algorithms. Find the puzzles and solutions here.

Kakuro

Fill in the numbers from 1 to 9 in the horizontal and vertical gaps so they add to the given number without repeating a digit. Find puzzles and solutions here.

Tantrix

he idea of a Tantrix rotation puzzle is that you place some tiles randomly on the table in a connected pattern. You are then not allowed to move the position of any piece. All you can do is rotate them on the spot. The problem is to rotate the pieces so that all the coloured lines match where tiles meet – red to red lines, blue to blue lines and so on. Find puzzles and solutions here.

Bits with Soul via a puzzle

In January 2025 computer scientist Simon Peyton Jones gave an inspiring lecture at Darwin College Cambridge on “Bits with Soul” about the joy, beauty, and creativity of computer science … from simple ideas of data representation comes all of virtual reality. It starts with a puzzle…. (read on)

A handshaking puzzle

Logical reasoning and proof, whether done using math notation or informally in your head, is an important tool of computer scientists. The idea of proving, however, is often daunting for beginners and it takes a lot of practice to master this skill. Here we look at a simple puzzle to get you started, and look at how AIs do… (read on)

A puzzle, spies and a beheading

How can cousins exchange secret messages without them being read, and what does it have to do with Mary Queen of Scots?… (read on)

Eating at Quonk: a tough puzzle?

Pairs eat out, but who dines at Quonk? The puzzle is based on one devised by psychologists as part of research into whether we humans naturally think logically or not… (Read on)