Show HN: Schnitzeljagd.dev tests your web dev skills

[julianwachholz]

https://schnitzeljagd.dev

Inspired by the Cicada 3301 phenomenon and others, I created an internet scavenger hunt to test your web development knowledge and wit. It has 20 steps, getting more challenging the further you get. Time estimate: 1 hour(?)

Fun fact: I created a spreadsheet with ideas for this back in July 2014. I think as far as side projects go this one didn't take me too long.

[bobblywobbles]

Neat idea. I had this page saved because I wanted to try it later.

If it wasn't for this thread I probably wouldn't have gotten past step 3. However, I have no clue how to move past step 4. I get the HINT we need to make a request, but I can't figure it out based on the instruction on the page. The page I tried is a 404. I'm not sure what <code> blocks are trying to convey, it's not clear to me. It would be fun to try to get to step 20, but if the clues get more vague at each step, there's no way I'll make it to the end.

[julianwachholz → bobblywobbles]

Try adding some query parameters. I've been tweaking the hints based on peoples' feedbacks and I hope later steps aren't so vague.

[KomoD]

I'm not sure I'd say it tests your webdev skills? A lot of stuff is just way too vague

[open-paren]

I think your clues are too vague. I (and all the people I've sent this to) are stuck on Step #6. Go down? Down to the third level of what?

[julianwachholz → open-paren]

I agree some steps need clearer directions. Writing good clues is clearly not my strength and Chat GPT isn't any help either.

The game takes place on the second level. You can add a third level.

[ezekg → julianwachholz]

It was fun at first, but I've been stuck on step 7 for about 15 mins. Calling it. The hints are a bit too vague for me. Tried different ports (thought I had it there), different HTTP methods, and a few Accept content-types.

Spent >30 mins to get that far, so definitely more than an hour of playtime to complete.

[julianwachholz → ezekg]

Your first guess is on the right track. Can you see some other pieces of information that look out of place?

[ezekg → julianwachholz]

Thanks. Picked it up again today. The hint helped find the right port. Stuck on level 13 now. Tried dig, but nothing substantial came up even with +trace. But maybe I don't enough about dig.

[julianwachholz → ezekg]

Nice! You'll need to dig deeper than just the apex domain, otherwise people could find it from the very beginning and skip half the steps.

[notresidenter → open-paren]

I thought it was about the network layer in the OSI model (level 3), so I expected that traceroute schnitzeljagd.dev would be the first step to pass the step but no, nothing.

[notresidenter → notresidenter]

Actually, I've figured it out. You just need to think about other kinds of levels.

[phist_mcgee]

Great game man, I really enjoyed it!

[julianwachholz → phist_mcgee]

Thank you! How far did you get?

[dishsoap]

I think perhaps step #7 is down/offline now

[julianwachholz → dishsoap]

I assure you it's not :)