Welcome to the Splunk Puzzle Playground
If you are anything like me, you love to solve problems, and what better way to do it than with Splunk! Expand your Splunkiverse by learning and using lesser known/used commands, techniques, and data analysis insights to solve innovative puzzles and challenges.
The Slack channel
The Slack #puzzles channel has been specifically set up as an arena for having fun both with setting and solving puzzles. It is a fun channel for anyone to post puzzles etc. and for others to respond with solutions, queries and spoilers, which demonstrate some of the fun things that can be done with Splunk. Think about it as being mini (or maxi) versions of B.O.R.E. (Boss Of Regular Expressions) and/or SPLing Bee and/or B.O.T.S. (Boss Of The SOC) all year round, not just for the few hours we get at .conf!
All levels
The puzzles are open to all levels, and, depending on your level of expertise, they could take anything from just a few minutes (which you might do in your breaks - to relax?) to something more challenging (which may take multiple breaks over several days to completely nail!). You do not need to be an expert with Splunk, and if you get stuck, or want some pointers, just ask; there is no shame in the willingness to learn!
Monthly puzzles
I aim to have a new puzzle every month and would welcome contributions from others in this regard. You do not necessarily need to have a solution yourself (although it might be helpful if you did), as it could be a problem you are struggling with and want some help. If you need help framing your puzzle, please reach out to me and I will do what I can to help.
Please bear in mind that data sets (where needed for the puzzle) would have to be non-NDA, non-proprietary, non-confidential, basically public-domain and freely available e.g. Splunk Tutorial, Montgomery County, github, etc., or generated, e.g. eventgen, makeresults, gentimes, etc. or posted in regex101.com, for example.
Answers and solutions
The puzzles can be answered and commented on in the Slack channel, for example, if you would like some hints, or have some hints for others. I will also usually try to have a Community Blog post published after about a week, giving hints and sometimes partial solutions to help guide people to solving the puzzles.
Have questions or thoughts? Comment on this article or in Slack #puzzles channel. Whichever you prefer.
