Design 22: Web Fundamentals

Theme

I noticed that the previous puzzles, "Randomness in Computing", "Computer Vision", and "Ideas from Notable Computer Papers", covered fairly specialized topics that I and perhaps other engineers may not have deep familiarity with. I wanted to make a puzzle that I felt many developers who have worked on websites would recognize.

I also released an exhibit on the first website, so I thought "Web Fundamentals" would be a suitable theme for this week’s puzzle.

Grid

Most of the longer answers were about the same length, so I didn’t have a few answers determine the shape of the grid. Overall, there was a really good distribution of answers, with entries like Javascript, Bernerslee, Hypertext, Bandwidth, and Websocket all helping shape the grid.

The grid ended up looking relatively dense for this style of puzzle, which I really liked.

Clues

Since this puzzle contained a lot of familiar answers, I tried to make the clues more interesting by adding additional context. For example, I referenced Brendan Eich for Javascript, Ian Hickson for Websocket, Let’s Encrypt for HTTPS, and CERN for Bernerslee. For the other clues, I tried to add examples or explanations that I thought were engaging. I didn’t want the puzzle to feel less interesting just because it included concepts and ideas that were widely discussed.

Tradeoffs

There were other familiar concepts that I decided not to include, such as JSON, API, CDN, and DNS. I didn’t include JSON because it felt more like a data format than a foundational concept. I didn’t include API because it’s an interface, which is a much broader concept. I didn’t include CDN because it felt more like a distributed systems topic. Similarly, DNS was more of a networking topic.

I wanted the puzzle to focus on the fundamental concepts of the Web itself rather than the implementation details and infrastructure around it.

Notes

I’m happy with this puzzle because it’s a topic I feel is more widely known to most developers, and I think the clues and surrounding context are very interesting.