Tech Company Challenges Job Applicants by Hiding Its Phone Number Inside a Complex Puzzle

Big Commerce, an Australian tech company, is looking for software engineers who can solve complex problems. So, it replaced the phone number in its ads with a complex code and asked potential applicants to solve it. Various media outlets have been reporting that no one called the company because the problem is too hard—but that appears not to be true. A number of people have posted solutions on Big Commerce's Facebook wall, and the company itself tweeted its thanks this weekend to "everyone who 'cracked the code' and called in to the special batphone." (In fact, it linked to a photo showing 1,641 messages in its Skype inbox.) If you're not smart enough to figure it out, don't worry—scroll down to read one Facebook fan's solution to the problem.

Thanks to everyone who "cracked the code" and called in to the special batphone. We may have "crashed" Skype. 🙂 http://t.co/s58TNspjZR

— Bigcommerce (@Bigcommerce) October 3, 2013

"1BP49B(36) is a positional numeral system using 36 as the radix. The choice of 36 is convenient in that the digits can be represented using the numerals 0–9 and the letters A–Z, where A=10, B=11, C=12. Hence, B = 11 and P = 25. Therefore the phone number is 11 + 9*36 + 4*36^2 + 25*36^3 + 11*36^4 + 1*36^5 = 80113871. So, the bat phone number is +61 (02) 8011 3871."