CODING AND DECODING

Another set of questions , which often appear in the competitive examinations are related to coding and decoding. In such questions, you are required to decipher a given code by applying some rule(which you have to determine from the example given in the question) and then either encode another code or decode a code given in the question.

Illustrations
If C E J Q is coded as X V Q J , then B D I P will be coded as .. Sol: The first 13 letters of the alphabet are coded by the 13 letters of the alphabet in reverse, I.e. = A B C D E F G H I J K L M(first 13 letters) =Z Y X W V U T S S R Q P O N(13 in reverse) It is obvious from the above coding scheme that: B=Y,D=W and K=P. Therefore BDIP will be coded as YWRK
1.

2. Which code should be replaced in the question mark? MILD:NKOH :: GATE : ? Sol: Here,letters are coded by skipping letters in alphabetical order, I.e.., M=N(no skipping) I = (j) K(letters in the bracket are ones skipped) L = (mn)O D = (efg) H The skipping pattern is 1, -2 and 3 Therefore , G A T E will be coded as H C W I

3. If SPTFA stand for BLADE, how will you code BALE? Sol: BLADE has been coded as SPTFA. You will see that all letters in the word BALE,which have to be coded are also there in the word BLADE. Hence all that need to be done is to choose the relevant code letters from the code word SPTFA. Thus B becomes S, A becomes T, L becomes P, and E becomes A. Therefore BALE will be coded as STPA.

4. If MAILED is coded as NBJMFE, how will you code the word ACTED? Sol : Here each letter stands for the next letter in the sequence. Therefore ACTED becomes BDUFE. 5. If TSEREVE and NOITACUDE stands for EVEREST and EDUCATION, how will you code REDFORT? Sol: Yoy observe that the code is the reverse of the given word. The answer is obviously TROFDER which is the reverse of REDFORT.

6. If LODES is coded as 46321, how will you code the word DOES? Sol : Here you will observe that all the letters of DOES are included in the letters of LODES , for which you have the code D = 3, O = 6, E = 2, S=1. Therefore, DOES = 3621.

The questions on coding and decoding may be in other formats also as illustrated below.

Three enemy messages were intercepted at a CRPF H.Q. The message was decoded and it was found that Mising letis Zerox, means secret attack Sunday and tycoon fox letis means secret plans included and yphen mising tiger cage means Sunday victory is ours. 7. What does the code Zerox means here? 8. What does letis stand for? 9. Which is the code for Sunday?

Sol: If you carefully read the coded words and their meaning, you will find letis=secret; zerox=attack and mising = Sunday letis and mising are repeated in each coded message which makes it obvious letis =secret and mising = Sunday. Similarly it is obvious that zerox stands for attack. There are no rules governing such questions. Only careful analysis of the coded and the word they stand for will help you tackle such questions.