I can't speak for Cicada, but I have friends who got their start in the intelligence community from similar sets of puzzles. They'd solve a bunch of random cryp

I can't speak for Cicada, but I have friends who got their start in the intelligence community from similar sets of puzzles. They'd solve a bunch of random crypto / reversing problems they found online, and end up receiving invitations to interview for IC jobs. It wouldn't surprise me if Cicada were something similar, but I have nothing to base that assumption on but anecdote.