I enjoyed this because it shows that you don't always need a complicated approach to solve a challenge. Spending a minute looking for patterns can save a lot of time later.

One thing I'd probably try before writing any code is checking the frequency of the characters and seeing if the block size stays consistent throughout the file. Little observations like that often point you in the right direction before you even know what the encoding is.

Looking forward to seeing more challenges like this. They’re a fun way to practice thinking instead of just memorizing techniques.