Given the unprecedented size and scale of Squid Game: The Challenge  — 456 players vying to win Netflix’s largest cash prize in reality TV history — it’s only natural that you’d have some questions. 

As you’ve probably guessed, what you see on screen is only the beginning. Every stitch on a tracksuit, tile in the bathroom, and stamp on a dalgona candy was perfected over months by a team of experts and testers with a single mission in mind: to fully immerse people into the world of Squid Game: The Challenge. “This is a huge team, hundreds of people with everyone just bringing their A game,” executive producer John Hay tells Tudum. “There was care given to details there that you see for just a fraction of a second in a glancing shot.” 

So how’d they pull it all off? Below, get the answers to all your burning questions, big and small, from the creative team behind the reality competition series. And as episodes roll out until the grand finale, continue to check back here for more answers. 

How did they “shoot” people in Squid Game: The Challenge?

Squid Game: The Challenge wastes no time getting into the action — within the first few minutes of the first episode, a high-stakes game of Red Light, Green Light begins. When the state-of-the-art motion tracking system detects movement, a sudden burst of ink appears on the player’s white T-shirt. The effect may look like something similar to being shot with a paintball gun, but in reality, an ink packet (also called a squib) was fastened under each player’s shirt before they started the game (more on that whole shirt thing in a minute). When the motion sensors, cameras, and game arbiters determine a player is eliminated, the squib bursts, indicating to the player that, without a doubt, their time in the game is over. The squib is also used in Episode 2, during a game called Dalgona. In Dalgona, when any player breaks the interior shape of their dalgona candy (instead of removing it cleanly), the squib goes off, and the players lie on the ground until the game is complete.

Pete Dadds/Netflix

Did each player have multiple tracksuits? 

Speaking of squibs and shirts: At the beginning of the competition, all 456 players were each given a T-shirt and a tracksuit. In the early tests of the squibs, production faced an unexpected challenge: The ink wasn’t effectively bursting through the players’ T-shirts. 

“The costume team were washing the T-shirts with a laundry detergent that had too much starch, and it was acting as a blocker,” executive producer Tim Harcourt says. This prompted a last-minute switch to a low-starch alternative. 

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Of course, some players would only need their tracksuits and shirts for one or two games before being eliminated. Those who made it past the early games were eventually given a second tracksuit. Each tracksuit had detachable numbers so players could easily remove and reattach them to a clean set of the same size. T-shirts were laundered as needed as the game went on, and Harcourt says that the task of making sure everyone was outfitted in bright green tracksuits was a production in and of itself. 

“The costume room was almost as big as one of the other soundstages,” Hay says. “It was a giant operation to sort, prepare, launder, and distribute all of these clothes — everything was on a different scale [compared] to anything that we’ve ever done before.”

Pete Dadds/Netflix

How were the dalgona made?

Turning the Dalgona game from fiction to reality was much more complicated than anyone expected — so much so that it took 19 different versions of the dalgona recipe to get it right for shoot day. Learn more about the behind-the-scenes of how it all came together here.

Were the players allowed to bring any personal items? 

Players were not permitted to bring any personal items with them, but you may have noticed some players carrying a fanny pack around (or seen them hanging off the sides of their beds). The fanny packs were provided by the costume department, and most of the players used them to hold their toiletries. 

How were the numbers assigned to each player? 

While everything else in Squid Game: The Challenge is heavily orchestrated for maximum intensity, the assigning of numbers emblazoned on each player’s tracksuit was completely random. According to Harcourt and Hay, the team behind the series “weren’t trying to make a point with the numbers,” as the players were instead “lined up and assigned” a number before filming began. Take, for example, LeAnn and Trey, the mother and son duo who are just one number apart. 

However, the team was mindful of the significance certain assignments could have for the cast. “We did have to check, for example, that we hadn’t accidentally given 001 to the oldest man in the dorm,” Hay tells Tudum. Ultimately, randomly assigning numbers was the only way to stay true to the nature of the competition.

Where are the cameras?

Short answer? Nearly everywhere — especially in the dorms, where the players spent the majority of their downtime and did most of their scheming. Hay says there were at least 60 to 70 small black robocameras in the dorms (you can even spot them in some shots). Of course, people maintained their basic privacy, but otherwise, robocams were tucked in corners, at the top of the bunk beds, to name a few spots — but there were also cameras hidden at eye level. 

“Those are ENG cameras, and they’re much more flexible,” Hay says, describing electronic news gathering cameras typically used by on-the-go broadcast news teams. “You can move them around and zoom in on people if they’re having secret conversations or interesting chats, whereas the robocameras are there just to catch everything else that’s going on. They’re always rolling in their area, but they’re less flexible in the shots that they can give you.”

Some of the ENG cameras were hidden behind mirrored sections in the wall, while others operated behind a one-way mirror and various “hides” around the room. In total, there were about 110 cameras in the dorm rolling during any given scene. 

When did Squid Game: The Challenge players sleep?

Hay and Harcourt say that generally, filming ran throughout the day from about 7:00 or 8:00 am until lights out at about 11:00 pm. Additionally, the number of cameras running during sleeping hours dropped down to about 10 — and that was mostly to keep an eye on players’ health and safety. 

Did the players stay immersed in the game the entire time?

This isn’t the kind of show where someone yells “CUT!” at the end of the day. The players lived and breathed the game the entire time. For production, not only did that mean that there were terabytes of footage for the editing department to go through, but it also meant that a lot of decisions had to be made on the fly. Production didn’t know how many people would be left after the first few big games, so they relied on the Dorm Tests to help whittle down the number of players as the competition went on. The team had created a handful of Tests to choose from, and in the moment they would select one that seemed like it would be a good fit based on what was happening in the dorm. The production design team was at the ready to make sure they could facilitate events and react to changes at any given time. 

“[The showrunner will tell us,] ‘We want them peeling potatoes,’ ” production designer Mathieu Weekes gives as an example. “ ‘Can you get a pot of potatoes to peel?’ And then the next day, if it’s a game day, we have a team that’s standing by on the game set just to facilitate the crew and shooting that. And then we’ll have the lion’s share of the crew turning the dorm around. A deep clean gets carried out during that time to reset. All the beds are remade. So we kind of flip-flop into two modes every other day, really.”

“You want to make it the most immersive experience possible so they feel like they’re in Squid Game,” he continues. “You are just creating an environment for them to behave and act, and be pushed and prodded and pulled.” 

What Happened on the Set Between Games?

What did the players eat every day? 

The filmmaking team wanted to keep the food similar to what you see in the original scripted series — in other words, very basic rations, delivered in a very basic dish. That said, the meals were provided by a catering team, and Harcourt says that although they weren’t “the most delicious of meals,” they were “nutritionally balanced.”

Speaking of food… when Lorenzo (Player 161) took extra food in Episode 1, did someone else not eat that day? 

Unlike the scripted series, Lorenzo’s extra portion(s) didn’t cost anyone their meal. “No one went without because Lorenzo had a [second] helping,” Harcourt says. 

Were there any other Squid Game: The Challenge rules we didn’t see on screen?

In terms of the competition itself, everything you see on screen was how the game was played. However, there were some general rules the players had to abide by in order to remain on set. 

“Violent, threatening behavior would not be tolerated,” Harcourt says. “There was a whole list of common sense rules that you’d expect to see when you’re putting over 200 strangers into a single room.”

Is the money in the Squid Game: The Challenge piggy bank real?

No — but that doesn’t mean the massive pile of $6,000 bundles didn’t have to be guarded. 

“All of that money you see coming down from that funnel had to be looked after 24/7 by a security guard,” Harcourt says. He explains that there’s always a possibility that sums of phony currency can be used for counterfeiting purposes. “Even when you have that amount of what is effectively fake money, it has to be guarded by a security firm, by [UK] law.”

Who are the guards?

Executive producer Toni Ireland said the guards were cast to replicate the ominous environment of the original show — which meant their costumes, masks, and overall demeanor had to be exactly like the guards in the fictional series.

“We took them to guard school, essentially, and had a choreographer come in and work with them in terms of how they stood, and how they walked,” executive producer Stephen Yemoh told Netflix. “They did really create the atmosphere within our show.”

Watch below as Bryton (Player 432), Daniel (Player 204), Jada (Player 097), Dash (Player 141), and more reveal how they feel about the ominous (and maybe, for one player, even hot?) guards.

What Players Really Think of the Pink Guards

Did players really fall through the Glass Bridge?

The short answer? No. Safety was of No.1 concern when designing the gameplay for Glass Bridge. In fact, the “glass” panels weren’t even made of glass for that very reason. However, those reactions players had to sudden eliminations was still very real. Learn more about how Glass Bridge was created and how the game functioned in this detailed explainer.

Is that a real ATM card at the end of the finale? 

No, the sequence featuring the winner checking their account balance is used for dramatic effect, because as Hay puts it, “Everyone's seen the pin number.” As for when the champion receives the funds, the producers say that the cash prize will be deposited in their account once the finale airs. And while there is a tax on the winnings depending on a person's nationality and specific tax situation, Hay says, “Even with taxation, it's a life-changing sum of money.”

Watch Squid Game: The Challenge on Netflix, and follow along with our official Squid Game: The Challenge cast guide.