Solutions for "My First Puzzle Train" puzzles!

Several people requested that I post solution to my second puzzle from this puzzle train.

Puzzle#1: You had to solve the sudoku to get the value of each letter. You than had to arrange the letters in their alphabetical order and convert them to numbers in order to get the 9-digit code.

Puzzle#2: Some people didn't know how to start, but it was rather easy to figure it out for those that have read zelgh's guide for puzzles and have experience with encoded puzzles. I think this is common knowledge for most puzzle solvers on SG at this point.

First question:
It was Base32 code, and the main reason I decided to encode with it is Base32 rather than with Binary, Oct or Hex is because the latter would all be too easy to figure out. However I think it still wasn't that hard to figure out it's Base32.

People that used Base32 on code in each question (except the last) would get another one. For example in first question "IVDUCSKDIREEMQQ" after being decoded in Base32 would give you "EGAICDHFB". And I think this is where most people got stuck.

Trying to copy-paste that as the answer wouldn't do the trick. I think it should have been pretty obvious that this code needs to be converted further. Considering there's no other obvious encoding algorithm that uses this format people didn't know what to do at this point.

If you listened to my hint about remembering your past experiences and my tip to take it slow and think at each phase, you should have realized that the letters you get are the same letters used in the first puzzle (sudoku one). I even used every single letter from the first puzzle to make it more obvious.

All you had to do is convert the letters to numbers, just as you did in my first puzzle. The values were the same.

So "EGAICDHFB" = "394162578".

And then considering my question was encoded in Base32 I think it only made sense that I except answer to be in Base32 as well.

So you had to encode "394162578" with Base32 and you would get "GM4TIMJWGI2TOOA" which was the first answer.

Second question
It was also in Base32. So decoding "GM2DSNRYGI3TCNI" would give you "349682715".

I think it wasn't hard to figure out that if I wanted you to convert letters to numbers in the first question, that now I want you to convert numbers to letters.

So "349682715" would be "EAGCBDFIH" and when you encode that in Base32 you get "IVAUOQ2CIRDESSA" which was the answer for the second question.

Third question
Using Base32 to decode this one would give you an error message. I did that just to mess with you a little. But it wasn't hard to figure out that if it wasn't Base32 than it must be Base64.

Decoding "SDlJM0Y4RDZB" in Base64 would give you "H9I3F8D6A". Woah what's that!? Letters AND numbers? In the same code?

All you had to do is repeat what you were doing before. Translate letters to numbers and numbers to letters. Quite easy to figure out.

So "H9I3F8D6A" = "5G1E7B2C4" and when encoded in Base64 you get "NUcxRTdCMkM0" which was the answer for the third question.

The reason why I made Q1 use all letters is because I thought you'll see they were letters used in the first puzzle and immediately figure out what you're supposed to do. I didn't want to post Q2 or Q3 as Q1 so I don't end up confusing you.

Then I made Q2 use only numbers, again to make it easier for you to figure out what you have to do. And in the end Q3 was combination of letters and numbers. I thought if you've figured out that you have to convert letters to numbers and numbers to letters that you'd know you need to do the same in the last question.

And that's it. Quite an easy and simple puzzle based on logic and common knowledge of encoding/decoding which most people should know by now.

So tell me, now that you know the solutions, what are your feelings on this? Do you feel disappointed because you didn't figure that out? Those that have said my second puzzle is hard and that it's not logical do you still think the same about it?

For the record; before posting this thread 122 people attempted to solve the second puzzle but only 10 ended up solving it.