Easy Ways To Answer Annoying Challenge Questions

PadLock Challenge questions are those things you answer that are supposed to enhance the security of your account for whatever the account is, be it email, online banking, etc. An example challenge question would be, "In what city were you born?"

Inevitably you’re going to be given a challenge question that you don’t have an answer to, such as, "What is your sister’s middle name?" That doesn’t exactly work if you don’t have a sister.

What I typically recommend is to give answers that have absolutely nothing to do with the question, i.e. false answers you can easily remember.

The three best types of false answers are:

Colors
Vegetables
Bible passages (whether you’re religious or not, they work great)

Using a color

Question: In what city were you born?
Answer: purple

Using a vegetable

Question: Where was your first job?
Answer: rutabaga

Using Bible passages

I’m not trying to get religious on anyone, but the fact that Bible passages use both letters and numbers make them a really good choice for a challenge answer. However you have to remember not to use spaces or a colon as most systems won’t accept those as "legal" characters.

If you’re stuck on which passages to use, go here, punch in a search term and pick your favorite passage. You can even use a word from the challenge question to get the answer you want to make it even easier.

A few examples:

Question: Who was your favorite teacher in high school?
Answer: ezra76 (I searched for ‘teacher’ to get this)

Question: What was the city of your first job?
Answer: genesis114 (I searched for ‘city’ to get this)

Question: What are the last 4 digits of your driver’s license?
Answer: kings714 (I searched for ‘drivers’ to get this)

No matter which method you decide to use for your challenge answers, now you know what to do if you ever get stuck on a question you have no answer to.

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Alking46
I think “false answers” are harder to remember than real ones. Granted they are more secure but if you need answers for a half dozen sites, chances are slim that they will have the same questions.
Alking46
I think “false answers” are harder to remember than real ones. Granted they are more secure but if you need answers for a half dozen sites, chances are slim that they will have the same questions.