In this presentation, I will discuss various aspects of language-neutral and culture-neutral puzzles, especially in the context of the upcoming World Puzzle Championship, in which I will be competing for the USA. I will briefly describe the history and qualification process for the WPC, and give many examples of the types of puzzles involved. I will also spend some time describing how a large proportion of these puzzles (and the methods used to solve them) are closely related to standard computer science problems/algorithms, most notably constraint propagation, but also things like set cover and graph coloring as well as simple searching.
Colloquia Series page.