Marks and timing for Challenge 8B and how we decide the overall Challenge B winners

We will be scoring Challenge 8B in the same way as all the other challenges, though the time periods will be shorter. We have not finalised the length of the periods yet, but they are likely to be around three hours in length. We will also be delaying feedback so that it does not arrive during the first time period, to reward those who manage to get an early correct solution without that additional assitance feedback provides. Your scores for each part B round will be added as usual to give an overall score for the Championship. Ideally there will be a clear winner in terms of the scores, but that is unlikely so we will need to choose the three prize winners (for the IBM, GCHQ and Trinity prizes) from among those teams with the top overall score. The way we will do so is on the basis of the order in which the winners submitted their best answer to Challenge 8B. For those of you fighting for a top prize your performance (accuracy and speed) will be critical in the last round. We are telling you this now so you can plan your attack! Good luck, you have all done extremely well so far.