--- title: How to Crack a Secret Message With Code | daily.dev description: A walkthrough of using a genetic algorithm to guess an 18-character secret message. Instead of brute-forcing all possible combinations, a population of random... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-crack-a-secret-message-with-code-cixxnvlsk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How to Crack a Secret Message With Code | daily.dev og:description: A walkthrough of using a genetic algorithm to guess an 18-character secret message. Instead of brute-forcing all possible combinations, a population of random... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-crack-a-secret-message-with-code-cixxnvlsk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cixxNvlSK.png og:image:alt: How to Crack a Secret Message With Code og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How to Crack a Secret Message With Code **[YouTube](https://daily.dev/sources/youtube)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A walkthrough of using a genetic algorithm to guess an 18-character secret message. Instead of brute-forcing all possible combinations, a population of random strings is created, scored by how many characters match the target, and the best-performing strings are selected to 'breed' — combining character chunks from two parents. A small chance of random mutation is added each generation. After a few thousand generations, the correct message emerges, mimicking how natural selection works in biology. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Evolving a string with a genetic algorithm](https://daily.dev/posts/evolving-a-string-with-a-genetic-algorithm-t6z4sdnox) · ElixirStatus · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [What If We Didn’t Program the Answer? What If We Let the Machine Evolve It?](https://daily.dev/posts/what-if-we-didn-t-program-the-answer-what-if-we-let-the-machine-evolve-it--w3djjqe05) · Code Like A Girl · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [AlphaGenome Decodes DNA's Hidden Secrets](https://daily.dev/posts/alphagenome-decodes-dna-s-hidden-secrets-5ltqipgdj) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I gave Claude Code a kid's activity book to solve — here's where it fell apart](https://daily.dev/posts/i-gave-claude-code-a-kid-s-activity-book-to-solve-here-s-where-it-fell-apart-w5ywmcqlo) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#algorithms](https://daily.dev/tags/algorithms) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-crack-a-secret-message-with-code-cixxnvlsk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How to Crack a Secret Message With Code","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-crack-a-secret-message-with-code-cixxnvlsk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-crack-a-secret-message-with-code-cixxnvlsk"},"datePublished":"2026-08-05T12:57:47.314Z","dateModified":"2026-08-05T12:58:02.570Z","description":"A walkthrough of using a genetic algorithm to guess an 18-character secret message. 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