The solution to the puzzle is a sequence of between 4 and 20 letters (the standard 26 letters of the English alphabet, capitalization doesn't matter).

Each user gets one guess per calendar day.  Let's say you're submitting an answer on January 5th, and you wanted to submit "XABDU" as your solution, you would write a comment: "1/5/26: XABDU".  Please do not abuse this system; one guess per day!

I will check the market once per day (don't worry if I forget or skip a day, I'm human and will make up the hints the next day) at a random-ish time, starting on Christmas Eve.  You will get a number of hints based on the following scale:

I think this puzzle will be slightly more challenging than the first round.  On the other hand, you now have at least one puzzle to index off of (though this one will be different), and also have access to an MIT Puzzle Hunt alumnus who solved the first puzzle.  You are more likely to need to collaborate than on the first puzzle, in my opinion. You have the 25 days of Christmas (is this a thing? idk?) to complete the puzzle, by January 17th, 2026 at 11:59pm.

If you guess correctly, I'll immediately resolve the market to YES.  If you guess incorrectly, I'll try to like your comment to indicate it is wrong.

There will be no AI clarifications added to this market's description.