The challenges

Challenges in Guardey: How they work

Guardey builds security awareness through short, interactive weekly challenges. This article explains how challenges work, how bonus questions differ, and how our modules and storylines create lasting behavior change.
 

Understanding challenges

Challenges are practical, scenario-based exercises that strengthen your security awareness step by step.

• Each challenge takes about 2–3 minutes to complete.
• Everyone starts with access to the first 5 challenges.
• New challenges unlock one at a time after completing the previous one.
• New challenge weeks become available every Tuesday at 14:00 (UTC).
• You receive an email notification when a new challenge is available.
• Challenges available: The current week number where a user is positioned (not the total number of challenges completed).
• Total challenges: All challenges a user has played, including bonus challenges. Each week has 2 challenges: 1 regular challenge + 1 bonus challenge. If someone is at challenge week 61, they could have played 122 challenges in total (61 x 2).

More information about the weekly challenges can be found here: Weekly challenges.
 

ℹ️ The frequency of email notifications depends on your organization’s admin settings. This may vary from weekly to once every few weeks. Please note: even if you don’t receive a notification every week, a new challenge will still be unlocked each week. The settings only affect the emails, not the availability of the challenges. Learn more here: Email notification settings.
 

The role of gamification and weekly challenges

Gamification makes learning more effective by:

• Boosting motivation with visible progress (levels, badges, leaderboards) and rewards that create a sense of achievement, studies show that gamified learning can increase engagement by up to 60%.
• Making learning engaging through challenges, puzzles, and storytelling that transform study from dry theory into an immersive experience, often leading to much higher course completion rates.
• Encouraging social interaction via leaderboards, team challenges, and friendly competition that foster both collaboration and motivation, around 80% of employees report feeling more productive with these elements in training.
• Improving retention through repetition, active practice, and instant feedback that reinforces key knowledge; gamification can boost knowledge retention by as much as 40%.
• Building lasting habits by introducing small, regular learning moments that are rewarding and easy to sustain, helping learners stay consistent over time.
   

Bonus questions explained

Bonus questions provide optional, advanced challenges for extra points.

• Bonus questions unlock after completing the weekly challenge.
• Both challenges and bonus questions refresh every Tuesday.
• They strengthen learning and improve your performance.

Details are available in Weekly bonus challenges.
 

Points and gamification system

Guardey's gamification motivates progress and healthy competition. You earn:

• XP (Experience Points)
• Loyalty XP
• Season XP (combined XP and Loyalty XP)
• Reputation of your fictional company (shown as a percentage)

These elements influence your overall score and leaderboard position.

Explore the scoring system in Understanding Guardey's scoring.
 

Modules in Guardey

Each module covers a key area of cybersecurity. The 16 modules form the foundation of Guardey's awareness program:

• Security awareness: Introduces basic principles of information security
• AI: Provides insights into artificial intelligence and the secure use of generative AI tools
• Passwords: Teaches best practices for creating and managing secure passwords
• Privacy: Covers how to handle personal and sensitive data responsibly
• Social engineering: Helps recognize and resist manipulation tactics
• Working remotely: Focuses on secure habits when working from home or on the go
• Secure internet: Promotes safe browsing and network usage
• Phishing: Builds the ability to spot and avoid phishing emails and websites
• Malware: Explains different forms of malicious software and how to prevent infections
• Social media: Teaches how to use social platforms securely and responsibly
• Device security: Offers tips for securing laptops, phones, and other devices
• Secure email: Focuses on secure communication and preventing data leaks
• GDPR: Provides insights into data protection rules and compliance
• Physical security: Encourages safe practices around physical equipment and access
• Integrity: Highlights the importance of keeping systems and data accurate and unaltered
• Workspace safety: Covers risks and safe practices in your physical and digital workplace
   

Storylines and customization

Guardey uses storylines to make training relevant and realistic. Each storyline is tailored to an industry context or specific job role.

Here’s an overview of the available storylines in Guardey:

• Storyline (default)
• Municipalities NL
• Standard
• Education
• GDPR
• Healthcare
• Higher Education
• Development Teams

Note: This feature is only available with the Advanced package. For more details about packages and their contents, see: Different plans at Guardey
 

Organizations can customize content in Guardey in several ways:

• Add or adapt modules to address internal risks or policies
• Edit challenge content to reflect company-specific processes
• Apply different storylines per group or department

For more details on working with custom content, see: Using custom content.

Each storyline defines both the content and pacing of challenges. As a result, users may follow different timelines depending on the storyline they are assigned. Storylines can only be changed at the group or organization level, not for individual users.

Read more in the article storylines in Guardey.