Introduction: Coding – Decoding is a method of encrypting a message before transmitting it to someone, which no third person can understand without knowing the key. Coding – Decoding is an integral part of the Logical Reasoning section in many Government Exams. By reading the tips given below, you will be able to crack Coding-Decoding with great accuracy and ease.

Coding is a process in which a word, a number, or a series of combination of words and numbers is expressed in a particular code or pattern based on various rules. You have to answer the questions based on these set of rules.

Decoding is the process of (interpreting) deciphering the coded pattern and reverting it to its original form from the given codes. Hence, you are required to understand the logic behind the coding pattern and then apply this logic to find answers.

 

In this method, one or more English words are given with their respective codes. The coding is based on shifting the positions of the individual letters based on their place in the English Alphabet. You have to identify a common pattern and apply the same pattern to the word in the question to find its code or apply the reverse pattern to the given code to find the original word.

 

Example 1:

In a certain code ‘MONARCHY’ is written as ‘NPOBSDIZ’. How will ‘STANDARD’ be written in that code?

Solution:

In this question, each letter of ‘MONARCHY’ is simply replaced by its next letter as per English Alphabet.

M + 1 = N;

O + 1 = P;

N + 1 = O;

A + 1 = B;

R + 1 = S;

C + 1 = D;

H + 1 = I;

Y + 1 = Z.

Based on similar pattern, code for ‘STANDARD’ is ‘TUBOEBSE’.

Let’s take a slightly more complicated example.

 

Example 2:

In a certain code ‘ARCHERY’ is written as ‘DSBGZSF’. How will the word ‘TERMITE’ be written in that code?

Solution and Steps Involved:

1. Write down the letters in one line and its code in the line below.

2. Analyze the coding pattern by matching the code with the word.

We can see that the word has been divided into three parts, where letters of the first and third parts are increased by 1 position and then reversed among themselves while the lone letter in the middle part is decreased by 1.

 

3. Once the pattern has been identified, find the code for the word asked in the question:

Hence, code for TERMITE is ‘SFULFUJ’

Variations: 

a. Just the jumbling of letters with no substitution by any other letter: The jumbling can be done directly or by dividing the given word in multiple parts and jumbling each part separately.

 

Try It Yourself 1 (TIY1):

In a certain code ‘COUNTERS’ is written as ‘SRETNUOC’. Then find out how ‘CLEARING’ is written in that code language?

(a) CGLNEIAR   (b) GNIRCLEA   (c) GRINGACLE   (d) CLEANRIG   (e) GNIRAELC

NOTE: Leave your answers for Try It Yourself Examples in the comments. State the TIY No. and the answer option or the answer itself. 

 

Try It Yourself 2 (TIY2):

In a certain code ‘STRATEGIC’ is written as ‘TSARTGECI’. Then find out how ‘STIPULATE’ is written in that code language?

(a) USTIPALET   (b) PLATEUSTI   (c) TSPIUALET   (d) PULATESIT   (e) TIPSUATEL

b. Just the shifting of letters, which can be done in any pattern:

(i) Shifting of all the letters by a constant value.

 

Try It Yourself 3 (TIY3):

If VXUPLVH is written as SURMISE, what is OHPRQ the code for?

(a) LEMON          (b) OPENS           (c) MELON          (d) NAMED         (e) RKSUT

(ii) Shifting of all letters by an increasing or decreasing value.

 

TIY 4:

In a certain code language, the word ‘NEATLY’ is written as ‘WORDCQ’ and the word PRAISE is written as ‘CVGDPS’. How will the word ‘SUMMIT’ be written in that code language?

(a) PSVRLK          (b) VSPKLR          (c) RLKPSV          (d) KLRVSP          (e) None of these

c. Jumbling of letters as well as shifting of the letters:

(i) Both the processes may be followed in the whole word. (as seen in Solved Example 2.)

(ii) It can also be that jumbling is done in one part and shifting is done in another part.

 

TIY 5:

In a certain code, ‘GRANDEST’ is written as ‘NARGFHWY’. Then what is the code for ‘MOTHERLY’?

(a)ORXMGUPD (b)HTOMGUPD   (c)HTOMYLRE   (d)YLREHTOM   (e)None of these

(II) Coding Letters of a Word:

In these questions, the letters of one or more words are coded in terms of symbols/digits/other letters. You have to identify the code of the individual letter by comparing and based on this, find out the code for given word.

 

Types:

A. There is a one to one relation between letters and the code, which you can identify by just comparing letters with the code of same place value.

 

Example 3:

In a certain code ‘CAMPHOR’ is written as ‘6$3#152’ and ‘SAKE’ is written as ‘@$98’. How is ‘MORSE’ written in that code language?

Solution and Steps Involved:

1. Write down letters and codes corresponding to their position.

2. Check common letters in given words and their codes.

3. If the common letter has same code each time, highlight the letters that are part of the word that has been asked in the question.

C → 6 S → @

A → $ A → $

M → 3 K → 9

P → # E → 8

H → 1

O → 5

R → 2

4. Rewrite the word in the question and corresponding codes below each letter. (Remember here order of letters will matter.)

M O R S E

3 5 2 @ 8

Hence, the code for ‘MORSE’ is ‘352@8’.

 

a. Letters are coded as other letters without any letter shifting or jumbling. These may appear tough as you might be looking for letter shifting patterns. But there is only direct correspondence between the letters of the word and the letters of the code and no other relationship exists.

 

Example 4:

If CARING is coded as MPDRGF, and SHARES is coded as XLPDUX, how could CASKET be possibly coded in the same code?

(a) MPXBUN    (b) MXPGUN      (c) MPDDUX   (d) LMPGFR    (e) FGRDXP   

Solutions and Steps Involved:

1. First establish correspondence.

2. Find the common codes.

3. If the common letter has same code each time, highlight the letters that are part of the word that has been asked in the question.

4. Rewrite the word in the question and corresponding codes below each letter. (Remember here order of letters will matter.)

5. If there are letters in the question word whose codes you can’t find, then leave them blank.

C A S K E T

M P X U

6. For the possible answer, check the options. The blank spaces must not be filled with any of the remaining codes from the given question. It must be filled with new codes. There will be only one such answer. In the given question, the blank spaces cannot be filled with D,R,G,F or L.

From the given options, we can see that the answer is

CASKET → MPXBUN

NOTE: When asked to find a possible code, remember that there is no need to find the exact code. In fact, there may be many possible correct codes. You just need to find the code among the options that could be a fit. This can be accomplished by finding the codes of the letters that are definitely there. And the rest of the code can be found out by removing the letters that shouldn’t be in the code. Then find the correct code from the options.

b. When the positions do not strictly correspond one to one.

 

TIY 6:

The entities in the code are not necessarily in the same order as the letters in the word for which they stand. If the first two words given on the left are coded as the words given on the right, which of the following could be a possible code for the third word?

GRAD                             polt

RENT                             zqtf

RIDE

(a) ptbq   (b) ztof   (c) mtaf   (d) ftcz   (e) None of these

B. This is the extension of the first type. In this logic, a string of letters and a string of same number of codes (both numeric and symbols) is given right below it. A set of conditions are provided to follow while answering the questions. You have to code the word given in the question as per the given conditions.

 

Example 5:

In the below question a group of letters or word is given followed by some conditions. You have to find the code for the word based on the following letter coding system.

Letters         M L E G S K R U B W C H I A P

Digit/Symbol 4 8 $ 1 # 5 7 © 2 6 % ? 3 9 @

Conditions:

(i) If the first letter is a vowel and the last letter is a consonant, both are to be coded as the code for the consonant.

(ii) If both the first and the last letters are consonants, both are to be coded as ®.

(iii) If the first letter is a consonant and the last letter is a vowel the codes for first and last letters are to be interchanged.

Find the code for ‘BELGIUM’

Solution and Steps Involved:

1. Write down the given word and identify the nature of its first and last letter.

2. Identify the condition that goes with it.

 

Here, the first and the last letters are both consonants, so we need to apply condition (ii).

3. Write down the code as per given seriesThe code of the word as per given conditions:

B E L G I U M

2 $ 8 1 3 © 4

4. Apply the condition identified above to get the final answer.On applying condition (ii), we have to change the codes for the first and the last letter as ®.Hence, code for ‘BELGIUM’ ⇒ ® $ 8 1 3 © ®

Variations:

a. The conditions might be given for letters other than the first and the last letter.

TIY 7,8,9:

Conditions:

(i) if more than two vowels are there in the group of letters, all vowels are to be coded as ‘€’

(ii) if third letter is a consonant, code the letter as ‘b’.

(iii) if fifth letter is a vowel, code the letter as ‘d’

Now find the code for

TIY 7: AGUMKE

TIY 8: BEWSMU

TIY 9: KGAPUB

b. The conditions might be given on position values of letters in the English Alphabet instead of them being Vowels and Consonants.

TIY 10,11,12: 

Conditions:

(i) if the sum of positions of first and second letters of the word is 8 then both are to be coded as ‘Ò’

(ii) if product of positions of letters at even positions of the word are 24 then they are to be coded as ‘d’

(iii) if difference of positions of third and fifth letters of the word is 8 then they are to be coded as ‘€’

Now find the code for

TIY 10: WHKPAC

TIY 11: BRGSAU

TIY 12: HBRMCI