Season 8, Episode 1
Air date 6/25/2010
Written by Allan Neuwirth
Directed by Brandon Lloyd
Episode Guide
"The Hacker's Challenge" is the first episode of Season 8 and the Cyberchase Summer Challenge.


Main Characters

Recurring/Minor Characters


  • Motherboard Control Central
  • Solaria


To prove once and for all that he’s smarter than the CyberSquad, Hacker challenges the kids and their friends to solve a series of puzzles. But this isn’t just fun and games – the fate of cybersite Solaria hangs in the balance. Solve all the puzzles in under three hours, and Solaria is saved… but fail, and the favorite vacation spot will be reformatted into digital garbage!


A reunion with the cybersquad and their friends is interrupted by Hacker, who demonstrates his invention the Reconfiguratron, which can turn anything into cybercode and he threatens to use it on Solaria and turn it into cybercode. He offers them a challenge to solve a set of puzzles in three hours or he will turn Solaria into binary. The Cybersquad accepts and at Solaria, Buzz and Delete give them gizmos that will help them during the challenge and confiscate their skwakpads (teams aren't allowed to talk during the challenge). Then, the teams set out to solve their puzzles.

Yellow Team's (Jackie, Slider, and Fluff) puzzle involves them going through the forest of Solaria while avoiding the creatures there and to a wall of spiders and 6 holes that form a pyramid. The team has to put the 6 spiders in a hole, and the numbers of the spiders on the holes on the edge combined must be 9. Jackie reveals she isn't afraid of cute bugs, and that Slider and Fluff also have a fondness for little animals.

Purple Team's (Inez, Jules, and Creech) puzzle involves them entering the Grotto of Sunken Skulls and solving riddles told to them by the stone master.

Green Team's (Matt, T.W., and Digit) puzzle involves them crossing rapids and a whirlpool in a raft to reach a lake of Lumafish, then catching two whose numbers add up to 9 so they glow.

Once the teams rendezvous, Buzz and Delete demand, in order to stall them stopping Hacker, that they figure out how many boots and hats are needed for 20 gnomes. Once they successfully solve the puzzle, they switch off the machine. Hacker is furious, telling his duncebuckets to restart it. But when they do, they turn the machine towards Hacker's ship, turning it into binary and throwing Hacker into the sea.


This is the first episode to air in 2010 and the 2010s decade.

  • All the puzzles are associated with the number 9 in some way or another.


External Links

PBS KIDS - Cyberchase Videos - The Hacker's Challenge


External links
