What is Coding and Decoding?

 Coding is a process used to encrypt a word, a number in a particular code or

pattern based on some set of rules. Hence Coding is the process of sending
data from one person to another person in such a way that only the sender
and receiver can understand the meaning without letting anyone else know
the meaning of it. 
 Decoding is a process to decrypt the pattern into its original form from the
given codes.
 Coding-Decoding is a system of signals to transmit the information in the form
of signals or code without it being known to a  third party. 

 Coding decoding concepts can work in our real life. 

For example, if you notice that your kid can learn their letter sounds in
kindergarten it means what sound to make when the letter is written on
the board. The kid progresses to identify the constant vowel words,
which helps to read loudly such as cat, dog, sun.
Kids will move to learn decoding words with consonant clusters, such as
st, tr, cr, sk kids will learn to identify the words easily and kids is to
phonics the words and phoneme to the words easily. 
 
     

 
Types of Coding and Decoding
1. Letter Coding
2. Number/Symbol Coding
3. Substitution Coding
 Letter Coding
Letter coding-decoding in which the letter of words is replaced by certain other
letters according to specific patterns/rules to form a code.
Example for Letter coding-decoding.
Detect the coding pattern /rule and answer the question below.
If BROWN is written as ‘ZPMUL’, then VIOLET is coded as     
 TGMJCR
 SGMJCQ
 TGMJCQ
 TGWCQ

Answer: In this question, the alphabet is replaced with another alphabet with
some directions. The first letter B is coded as Z means that it moves backward
with 1 letter similarly R is coded as P, O is coded as M,W is coded as U, and
N is coded as L. So VIOLET is coded as TGMJCR.

             

VIOLET is coded as TGMJCR

Number/Symbol coding
Number coding-decoding in which either the numerical code values are
assigned to a word or alphabetical code letters are assigned to the numbers.
Example for Number/Symbol coding-decoding.
If CHAIR is written as ‘12345’, RENT is written as ‘5678’,    and then     REAR is
written as.
 5635
 5356
 5365
 5653
Answer:
 In this question each alphabet is coded as a number. So that CHAIR is coded
as 12345 and RENT is coded as 5678 and the REAR is coded as 5635.
REAR is coded as 5635
Substitution coding
Substitution coding-decoding in which some particular words are assigned
with certain substituted names.
Example for Substitution coding-decoding.
If a dog is called “cat”, cat is called “lion”, lion is called “rat”, then which of these
lives in a forest?
 Rat
 Lion
 Dog
 Cat
Answer: In this question, lion lives in the forest but lion is called a rat so rat
lives in a forest is the answer.
Rat lives in a forest

Miscellaneous examples for coding-decoding

Question 1: If the desk is called "chair", chair is called "blackboard", blackboard
is called "duster", duster is called "chalk", and then where do you sit in the
classroom?
 Blackboard
 Chair
 Desk
 Duster
Answer: In this question, we clearly know that in the classroom we sit on a
chair.And as the chair is called a blackboard, the answer is blackboard.
Well, according to this problem you sit on a
blackboard!

Question 2: If cake is called “egg”, if egg is called “coffee”, coffee is called “tea”,
then which is white in colour?
 Cake
 Egg
 Coffee
 Tea
Answer: Egg is of white colour.But egg is called coffee so coffee is the
answer.
Coffee is white in colour from the above
statement
 Question 3: If January is called “March”, March is called “April” and April is
called “May”, then which of the following months will have only 30 days?
 January
 March
 April
 May
Answer: January, March and May have 31days and April has 30 days.But
April is called May so the answer is May.
May will have 30 days from the above
problem statement
Question 4: If NECK is written as '123%', LUCK is written as '+@3%' and LIKE is
written as '+÷%2', then NICE is written as
 1%÷3
 1÷32
 1÷@2
 ÷13+
Answer: NECK is written as '123%', LUCK is written as '+@3%' and LIKE is
written as '+÷%2', then NICE so N is coded as 1 and I is coded as ÷ and C is
coded as 3 and E is coded as 2 so answer is 1÷32.
NICE is written as 1÷32
Question 5: If MEDICO is written as 'PBGFFL', then DOCTOR is coded as
 GLFQRO
 GLFQLR
 GLFQLS
 GRFWLQ
Answer: The letter MEDICO is coded as PBGFFL and the letter M is moved
forward by two letters and is coded as P, E is moved backward by two letters
and is coded as B, D is moved forward by two letters and is coded as G, I is
moved backward by two letters and is coded as F, C is moved forward by two
letters and is  coded as F, O is moved backward by two letters and is coded
as L. So DOCTOR is coded as GLFQRO.
DOCTOR is coded GLFQRO
Question 6: 

Answer: The circle has infinite lines of symmetry but, circle means rectangle
so the answer is rectangle.
Answer: Rectangle

Conclusion
Coding-decoding covers all aspects of learning, focuses on improving
children’s logical reasoning skills, and children's ability to identify individual
sounds that makeup words. Coding-decoding helps the children to improve
their fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and to phonemic words.
Coding-decoding helps to learn about how communication happens, Types of
coding-decoding, learn to match the pattern with numbers, symbols, and
letters. Coding decoding is the reasoning booster to improve reading skills
and comprehension. 
 
Faster and better approach to solve coding-decoding questions at the linked article.
Solve the questions given below and ace the reasoning ability section for the upcoming Government
exams. 
Q 1. In a certain code language “CONSTRUCTION” is written as “EMPQVPWAVGQL”. What will be
the code for “DESTRUCTION” in the same language?

1. FCURTSERKMP
2. EFTVSVDVJPO
3. FCURTSFSLOQ
4. None of the above
5. Cannot be determined

Q 2. In a certain code language, “YEARLY” is written as “BVZIOB”. What will be the code for
“ANNUAL” in the same language?

1. ZFMOMM
2. ZNNFZA
3. ZMMFZO
 4. XCADGF
5. ZXAMMO

Q 3. In a certain code language “EASY” is written as “5117”. In the same code language, how will
“BEAM” be written as?

1. 4512
2. 4567
3. 2513
4. 2514
5. 2563

Q 4. “SPECIAL” is written as “65” in a certain code language what will “CONNECT” be coded as?

1. 70
2. 64
3. 32
4. 78
5. 74

Q 5. In a certain code language, “ISSUE” is written as “341145”, in the same code language what
will be the code for “DATES”?

1. 4567
2. 340045
3. 4120519
4. 7600
5. 604

Related logical reasoning links:

Machine Input & Output Alphanumeric Series

Reasoning Inequality Reasoning Analogy

Direction Test Clocks

Directions (Q6 – Q10): Study the data given below and answer the following questions:
‘Royal Monarch Regal’ is written as @ # *,
‘Regal legacy Gold’ is written as * % ?,
‘Hope Gold Life’ is written as % & $,
‘Regal Monarch Morals’ is written as # * ∀
Q 6. What will be the code for Regal?

1. %
2. *
3. $
4. #
5. ?
Q 7. What will be the code for “Gold Legacy”?

1. #&
2. %#
3. ?%
4. *∀
5. &$

Q 8. Which word is coded as #?

1. Moral
2. Life
3. Regal
4. Monarch
5. Legacy

Q 9. In the given coded language, which of the following words has been coded as &?

1. Gold
2. Life
3. Hope
4. Either ‘2’ or ‘3’
5. None of the above

Q 10. What is the code for royal?

1. %
2. @
3. ?
4. *
5. ∀

Directions (Q11 – Q15): The data given below represents a coded language for different colours,
analyse it and answer the questions following it:
“black orange yellow purple blue” is written as “set jet let get bet”
“grey green red purple” is written as “get pet wet vet”
“purple blue red silver” is written as “vet set get tet”
“grey orange pink” is written as ” bet ret pet”
Q 11.  Based on the information given above, what is the code for red?

1. Vet
2. Pet
3. Ret
4. Wet
5. Get

Q 12. What will be the code for “Orange is Red”?

 1. bet ret vet
2. bet vet zet
3. Wet get jet
4. Jet let vet
5. Pet set vet

Q 13. Which colour has been coded as “set”?

1. Yellow
2. Black
3. Green
4. Grey
5. Blue

Q 14. What is the code for the colour “Grey”?

1. Set
2. Jet
3. Let
4. Pet
5. Wet

Q 15. Which of the given combinations is correct?

1. Green-set
2. Orange-bet
3. Grey-set
4. Purple-bet
5. Purple-pet

Directions (Q16 – Q18): Based on the information given below, answer the following questions:
‘Balloons are blue’ is coded as ‘834’
‘Rainbow in sky’ is coded as ‘723’
‘Carpet is beautiful’ is coded as ‘629’
‘Box is heavy’ is coded as ‘325’
Q 16. What will be the code for ‘girls’?

1. 5
2. 6
3. 3
4. 76
5. 34

Q 17. What will be the code for ‘India is a beautiful country’

1. 4235
2. 52197
3. 12345
 4. 63547
5. 234

Q 18. Which of the following can be coded as “35724”

1. Vacation in Italy
2. She liked the gift a lot 
3. Taj Mahal located in Agra 
4. Raj is excited about the party
5. Syllabus is vast

Directions (Q19 – Q24): Study the data given below carefully and answer the questions based on
the same information:
‘sky planets satellites stars’ written as ‘od lk sk jk’
‘sun moon space planets’ written as ‘mj jk dn ho’
‘rocket stars sun airplane’ written as ‘gt fa mj lk’
‘space earth sky rocket’ written as ‘sk mn ho gt’
Q 19. What is ‘satellites’ coded as?

1. Jk
2. Od
3. Ho
4. Dn
5. None of the above

Q 20. What will be the code for “rocket airplane”

1. Fa gt
2. Jk gt
3. Mj dn
4. Sk od
5. Lk od

Q 21. Which word is coded as “jk”?

1. Sky
2. Moon
3. Sun
4. Space
5. Planet

Q 22. Which of the following combinations is incorrect?

1. Space-ho
2. Earth-mn
3. Rocket-gt
4. Satellites-mn
 5. Sky-sk

Q 23. What will be the code for “earth”?

1. Od
2. Mn
3. Mj
4. Ho
5. Dn

Q 24. Which of the following words has been coded as ‘ho’?

1. Rocket
2. Space
3. Sun
4. Moon
5. Sky

Directions (Q25 – Q27): Given below are codes for a few alphabets, based on the coding answer
the following questions: 

alphabet T N P C G A S E H K I

symbol $ % ^ & * ? @ + # £ ₳
Q 25. How will the word ‘Pens’ be written in coded language?

1. $%&*
2. ^+%@
3. @#$%
4. +@#%
5. &+#£

Q 26. If the code for T is exchanged with I, code for N is exchanged with K and so on, what will be
the code for word “SKIP”?

1. ₳£%#
2. ?@£$
3. +?#$
4. %^&#
5. *%$#

Q 27. What word will be formed when the given code is decoded: ^?&£₳%*

1. Skipping
2. Winning
3. Packing
4. Gapping
5. Seeking

Directions (Q28 – Q32): Study the information given below and answer the questions following it:
‘Move Fast Or Left Behind’ is coded as ‘7 1 9 0 3’
‘Move Left Behind The Journey’ is coded as ‘4 9 1 5 3’
‘Your Journey Ended Fast’ is coded as ‘5 2 7 6’
‘The Life Ended Or Behind’ is coded as ‘0 8 4 9 2’
Q 28. What is the code for “left”?

1. 5
2. 6
3. 2
4. 0
5. 1

Q 29. Which word has been coded as “3”?

1. Move
2. Behind
3. The
4. Journey
5. Left

Q 30. How will ‘your life journey’ be coded as?

1. 568
2. 123
3. 906
4. 025
5. 647

Q 31. What is the code for ‘fast’?

1. 5
2. 0
3. 6
4. 7
5. 3

Q 32. Which of the given combinations is correct?

1. Left-3
2. Journey-5
3. Ended-0
4. Move-6
5. Behind-8

Letter Coding
This is the code that is derived on the basis of alphabets. usually, the
position of alphabets is used. For example, let us see the following
question.

Example 1: In some language, “EXAM” is coded as “FYBN”. In the

same language, how will we code  “RESULT”?

A) SFTVMU             B) REPTUY              C) ERICCART               D)

KYLEBROW

Answer: The first step is to detect the code. For that, we need to focus
on the word EXAM. The first letter E in code is F, similarly the code
for X is Y, for A it is B and for M it is N. Thus we see that in
this language the alphabet is shifted to one step to the front. Thus the
code for R will be S and hence the correct option here is A) SFTVMU.

Number Coding

Example 2: In a certain code, “Delhi is capital” is coded as “7 5 9”.

The sentence “capital are beautiful” is coded as “3 6 9”, and “Delhi is
beautiful” is coded as “6 7 5”. Also “Patna also capital‟ is coded as “9 2
4”. What is the code for “beautiful” in this code?
A) 2             B) 4               C) 5            D) 6                E) 7
Answer: To solve codes like these remember the order of the numbers
may be anything. For example, in “Delhi is capital” and “Delhi is
beautiful”, we can see that the words “Delhi is” are common and thus
we can see that capital is 9 and beautiful is 6. Therefore the correct
option here is D) 6.

Q: What is the code for “Patna is beautiful “?

A) 7 5 6           B) 7 5 9             C) 5 7 8             D) 5 7 9            E) Data

Insufficient

Answer: Let us see if we can figure it out word for word. We already

know that the code for beautiful is 6. From the code  “Delhi is
beautiful” as “6 7 5” we see that “is” may be represented by 7 or 5. If
we take a look at the code “Delhi is capital” which is present as “7 5 9”,
we notice that we can’t get the code for “is” as the data is not sufficient.
So the correct option is E) Data Insufficient.

Symbol Coding

In the symbol coding, we use the symbols like “!@#$%^&*()_”, to

represent words or letters. These codes are then used to determine a
code for the words that are written down. Let us see an example.

Example 3: If “LESD” is written as “ @ $ & # “ , “NAC” is written as “

% ? * “, how “CANDLES” is
coded in the same way?

A) *&%#$&)                   B) *?%&@$#               C) *&^$@()           

 D) ?@$@^%@&

Answer: In the code, we can see that the code for L is @. Building on to
that we can see that the option B) *?%&@$# is the correct option.
Miscellaneous Examples

Example 4: In the following, a certain code is given. According to this

code, “before West to mailing” is written as “ad mi ja no”, “the West to
Himalaya” is written as “ku ja ig ad”. Also “mailing of the layout” is
written as “be ku zo mi” and “to should of changes” is written as “be Ii
ya ja”.
Then what is the code for “should”?
A) be            B) Ii           C) ya                  D) ja            E) Data
insufficient

Answer: To solve these types of questions, a table may come in handy.

Check for the two sentences that have the most number of
similar words. Let us put all the terms in the table and see if we can get
the correct answer or not. Let us see what “to” is coded as:

Before West to Mailing   – ad mi ja no

the West to Himalaya    –   ku ja ig ad

The two have ony one code in common. This means that
the relation can’t be determined. Thus the option is E) Data insufficient.

Example 5: In a certain code, we write the word “SUSHI” as

“RTRGH”. How ill you write the sentence ” Who are you” in it?

A) Vgn zqd xnt

B) Vec bqd xmy

C) Njg hhd kdd

D) Vgx xbg jak

Answer: The letter before S is T and this is the rule for the code here. A
letter that comes just before the one in the given word is the code. So
the sentence ” Who are you” will be coded as “Vgn zqd xnt”. The
correct option is thus A) Vgn zqd xnt.

Also, check this Coding-Decoding practice questions 

Practice Questions:
In a certain code, the following language is used:

“Challenging world economy now” is written as “Sk Rk Tk Nk”

“Economy bad current issue” is written as “Pk Gk Sk Fk”

“Current world looking good” is written as “Nk Mk Pk Vk”

“Looking good challenging with” is written as “Vk Mk Rk Dk”.

Answer the following questions:

Q 1: What will be the code for “Looking”?

A) Rk            B) Mk          C) Tk               D) Vk                      E) Either
Mk or Vk

Ans: E) Either Mk or Vk

Q 2: The codes “Rk Mk Nk” may represent which of the following?

A) Challenging good bad
B) World economy bad
C) World looking challenge
D) Good with now
E) None of these

Ans: C) World looking challenge

Qs. if hen is coded as 52 then pan will be

coded as
solution:
consider forward letter code.
forward letter code of h=8
forward letter code of e=5
forward letter code of n=14
forward letter code of a=1
forward letter code of p=16
as, hen=h(8)e(5)n(14)=8+5+14=27=(27-
1)*2=26*2=52
similarly,
pan=p(16)a(1)n(14)=16+1+14=31=(31-
1)*2=30*2=60
Qs. if red is coded as 27 and blue is coded
as 40 then what will be the code for green
solution:
consider forward letter code.
as, red=r(18)e(5)d(4)=18+5+14=27
and
blue=b(2)l(12)u(21)e(5)=2+12+21+5=40
similarly,
green
=g(7)r(18)e(5)e(5)n(14)=7+18+5+5+14=49
Qs. if reylo is coded as 97499 then what is
the code for pens?
Solution:
consider forward letter code.
As, reylo=r(18)e(5)y(25)l(12)o(15)
=97499
Similarly,
Pens= p(16)e(5)n(14)s(19)=
=4771
Qs. if heavy is coded as 74158 then what is
code for load?
Solution:
consider forward letter code.
As, heavy=h(8)e(5)a(1)v(22)y(25)=
=h(8)e(5)a(1)v(2+2)y(2+5)
=h(8)e(5)a(1)v(4)y(7)=85147
Now write it in reverse order, we will get
heavy=74158
similarly,
load=l(12)o(15)a(1)d(4) =l(1+2)o(1+5)a(1)d(4)
=l(3)o(6)a(1)d(4)=3614
Now write it in reverse order, we will get
load=4163
Qs. if test is coded as 64, then exam is
coded as
solution:
consider forward letter code.
as, test=t(20)e(5)s(19)t(20)=20+5+19+20=64
similarly,
exam=e(5)x(24)a(1)m(13)=5+24+1+13=43
Qs. if wealth is coded as 69 then what will
prosperity be coded as
solution:
consider forward letter code.
as,
wealth=w(23)e(5)a(1)l(12)t(20)h(8)=23+5+1+
12+20+8=69
similarly,
prosperity=p(16)r(18)o(15)s(19)p(16)e(5)r(18)i
(9)t(20)y(25)
=16+18+15+19+16+5+18+9+20+25=161
Qs. if price is coded as 11 9 18 24 22 then
high is coded as
solution:
consider reverse letter code.
as, price=p(11)r(9)i(18)c(24)e(22)
=11 9 18 24 22
Similarly,
High=h(19)i(18)g(20)h(19)
=19 20 18 19