Accessing the Google Foobar Challenges on Chrome

Last night I was Googling Python lambda functions and a strange thing happened. The Google search results window broke open near the top and a single line of white text appeared on a black background asking if I wanted to take a test, next to a link to google.com/foobar.

Google Foobar challenge prompt

After clicking on the link, I was able to login and got a shell prompt.

For some reason, some letters could be typed, but others had no effect. Initially, I was using Chrome as my browser. On Safari, I found that I could type anything there.

Ironically, Chrome’s malware defenses affect the functionality of this page. If you want to use Chrome to do the Foobar challenges, you must uncheck the “Enable phishing and malware protection” under Advanced Settings in Chrome. Some other ad blocking or malware-related extensions may also need to be turned off if this doesn’t fix the problem.

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