Coding - Decoding Concept & Tips for RRB JE

By Sachin Singh|Updated : May 6th, 2019

Dear Readers,

We are providing you Important Concept & Short Tricks on Coding - Decoding Questions in Reasoning which are usually asked in RRB Exams. Use these below-given shortcuts to solve questions within minimum time. These shortcuts & Concept will be very helpful for your RRB JE exams.

To make the chapter easy for you all, we are providing you all some Important Concept & Short Tricks on Coding - Decoding?  which will surely make the chapter easy for you all.

About the Coding and Decoding:-

Coding is a method of transmitting a message between the sender and the receiver without a third person knowing it. Before transmitting, the data is encoded and at receiver side encode data is decoded in order to obtain original data by determining common key in encoded data.

Coding and Decoding forms a dedicated part of the Reasoning Section in various competitive exams but the level of questions differs in them.

What is the approach to solve the questions of this section?

  • Observe alphabets or numbers given in the code keenly.
  • Find the sequence it follows whether it is ascending or descending.
  • Detect the rule in which the alphabets/numbers/words follow.
  • Fill the appropriate letter/number/word in the blank given.

Some Basics which we need to learn before solving the questions of this topic are:

  • Letter position (A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4 …… Y=25, Z=26)
  • Opposite position of letters (A=26, B=25 …… Z=1)
  • Opposite of each letter (A is opposite to Z and B is opposite to Y and C is opposite to X …… and so on)

Various types on which Coding and Decoding are classified are (as per RRB Exams):

  • Letter Coding
  • Substitution
  • Mixed Letter Coding
  • Mixed Number Coding

Let us analyse them in detail

LETTER CODING:

In this type the real alphabets in a word are replaced by certain other alphabets according to a specific rule to form its code. The candidate is required to detect the common rule and answer the questions accordingly.

For Example:

In a certain code, “CODING” is written as “DPEJOH”. How will DECODING be written in that code?

Explanation:

Compare 1st letter of CODING with 1st letter of DPEJOH.

C is converted to D.

You know C’s next letter in alphabets is D.

O’s next letter is P.

D’s next letter is E.

I’s next letter is J.

N’s next letter is O.

G’s next letter is H.

This was how CODING was converted to DPEJOH. Now in the same way you have to convert DECODING.

So D is converted to E.

E-F, C-D, O-P, D-E, I-J, N-O, G-H

So DECODING should be converted to EFDPEJOH.

SUBSTITUTION:

In this section, object names are substituted with different object names. We should carefully trace the substitution and answer given question.

For Example:

If white is called blue, blue is called red, red is called yellow, yellow is called green, green is called black, black is called violet and violet is called orange, what would be the colour of human blood?

1. Red

2. Green

3. Yellow

4. Violet

5. Orange

Ans: C

Explanation:

The colour of the human blood is ‘red’, and as it is given that ‘red’ is called ‘yellow’. So, the colour of human blood is ‘yellow’.

MIXED LETTER CODING:

In Mixed letter coding type of questions, three or four complete messages are given in the coded language and the code for a particular word is asked. To analyze such codes, any two messages bearing a common word are picked up. The common code word will mean that word. Proceeding similarly by picking up all possible combinations of two, the entire message can be analysed.

For Example:

In a certain code language,

1. ‘pod na joc’ means ‘very bright boy';

2. ‘tam nu pod’ means ‘the boy comes';

3. ‘nu per ton’ means ‘keep the doll';

4. ‘joc ton su’ means ‘very good doll’.

Which of the following means ‘bright’ in the same code language?

1. joc   2. pod   3. ton   4. na    5.None of these

Ans: D

Explanation:

In statements (a) and (b), the common code word is ‘pod’ and the common word is ‘boy’.

So, ‘pod’ stands for ‘boy’.

In statements (a) and (d), the common code word is ‘joc’ and the common word is ‘very’.

So, ‘joc’ stands for ‘very’.

So, in (a) ‘na’ stands for ‘bright’.

MIXED NUMBER CODING:

In this type of questions, a few groups of numbers each coding a certain short message, are given. Through a comparison of the given coded messages, taking two at a time, the candidate is required to find the number code for each word and then formulate the code for the message given.

For Example:

In a certain code,

‘786’ means ‘study very hard’,

‘958’ means ‘hard work pays’

‘645’ means ‘study and work’.

Which of the following is the code for ‘very’?

1. 7   2. 5   3. 8  4.6  5. Either 6 or 7

Ans: 1

Explanation:

In the first and second statements, the common word is ‘hard’ and the common code digit is ’8’. So, ‘8’ means ‘hard’.

In the first and third statements, the common word is ‘study’ and the common code digit is ‘6’. So, ’6’ means ‘study’.

Thus, in the first statement ‘7’ means ‘very’.

 

 

Example(1-3) Study the following information carefully and answer the questions given below:
In a certain code language
‘given  time  simple  plan’ is written as ‘@E4  &N4  %N5  #E6’
‘tired  solution  plant  great’ is written as ‘#N8  @D5  %T5  &T5’
‘sick  point  good  turn’ is written as ‘#K4  %D4  @N4  &T5’
‘garden  sister  phone  team’ is written as ‘&E5  #R6  %N6  @M4’


1. Which of the following code for ‘translate’?
A. @E8
B. @E9
C. #E8
D. #T8
E. #T9

2. Which of the following code for ‘plan’?
A. %N5
B. @E4
C. &N4
D. #E6
E. None of these

3. In the given code language, what does the code ‘%D4’?
A. point
B. turn
C. sick
D. good
E. None of these

How to Solve this Coding-Decoding:
Here are some points to keep in minds when we solve these kinds of questions-

  • As we all know there is always a concept behind this which we need to find out. Looking at the questions, we can see that in all the steps, all 4 words start with the same alphabet. They all start with- G, T, S and P and there code word also starts with the same symbol in each step- @, %, & and #. So we just have to find which of the first alphabet represent the particular symbol.
  • Now we can see that their code words end with digits. When we look at that digits, they are the total number of letters for each word.
  • Now we can see the middle codeword is the last letter of that particular word.

So, this was the pattern. Now we solve the questions. 

Answer 1: B 

Solution:

We have to ‘translate’ code. As we can see that this word is not given in any steps but so we can solve it.
Step I: first we will count the letters of that word that is 9, then we put digit 9 at the right end.
Step II: we will put the last letter of that word then it will like- E9
Step III: at the last step ‘t’ is coded for ‘@’(the first letter of each word is coded by a specific symbol like here ‘t’ is coded for ‘@’. We can find the first coded symbol by looking at the other given words. The answer will be - @E9


Answer 2: C

Solution:

We have to find the code of ‘plan’. Now the same steps follow. Plan is given in the first step. Total count of letters is 4 and the last letter is N and ‘p’ is coded as & So, the final answer will be- &N4


Answer 3: D

Solution: 

We have given ‘%D4’ and we have to find it’s word.  So we can say that the number of letters will be 4 and the last digit will be D and ‘%’ is represent to G. so in 3rd step, we can find this word, the final answer will be Good


Example (4-8): Consider the following statements and the questions that follow. We will analyse this problem in detail after that.


In a certain code language
login BYJU'S Exam Prep and scroll” is written as “&3d  @6l  *5n  %7p
scroll for sbi exam” is written as  “@6l  @3i  $3r  #4m
study exam related notes” is written as “#4m  @5y  !7d  =5s
read notes get job” is written as “+3b  !4d  =5s  %3t

4. Which of the following code is for BYJU'S Exam Prep?
A. @6l
B. &3d
C. %7p
D. *5n
E. None of these

5. According to the above information, code !7d is used for?
A. study
B. exam
C. related
D. notes
E. read

6. What will be the code for “exam BYJU'S Exam Prep sbi job”?
A.  +3b #4m %7p =5s
B. %3t @6l @5y !7d
C. %7p +3b #4m @3i
D. !4d $3r @6l &3d
E. None of these

7. According to the coding, what will be the code for banking?
A. @7g
B. &7h
C. $7t
D. one of these
E. can’t say

8. What will be the code for probationary?
A. $12y
B. %11n
C. ^12y
D. *13t
E. #12p

Let’s analyse the above information in detail.
Firstly, read the statements and their given codes properly. You can see that there are some words which are common in given statements like scroll, exam, notes and in the codes as well - @6l, #4m, =5s. In codes, there are also some special characters which are repeating in different sentences like @ is repeating in all three statements.
 

From statement 1 and statement 2
“login BYJU'S Exam Prep and scroll” is written as “&3d  @6l  *5n  %7p”
scroll for sbi exam” is written as  “@6l  @3i  $3r  #4m”

i.e. scroll is common in both statements, so we look for the common code in these two statements, which is @6I.


Similarly, From statement 2 and 3
“scroll for sbi exam” is written as  “@6l  @3i  $3r  #4m
“study exam related notes” is written as “#4m  @5y  !7d  =5s”

From statement 3 and 4
“study exam related notes” is written as “#4m  @5y  !7d  =5s
“read notes get job” is written as “+3b  !4d  =5s  %3t”

Now scroll = @6l, exam = #4m, notes = =5s

Now, let us understand how the words are coded.

1. Last letter of code is alphabet and it is same as the last letter of given word.
2. Given number in coding is the total letter of words. So, it is clear that in codes, the number represents the total letter of words and the code letter is the last letter of the word
3. But special characters are different for all words. Now our next step is to decode them.

We can see that in statement 2, @ has been used two times in coding and s is also the first letter of two words (i.e scroll and sbi). To become sure we can check another words like gradeup and get, both have the same % special characters. Similarly, related and read have same (!) special characters.

l

g

a

s

f

e

r

n

j

*

%

&

@

$

#

!

=

+

Hence code of word is given as code of the first letter, total no. of letters in the word and last letter of the word.

IMPORTANT: In this question, the short clue is total no. of letters in the word is given as it is in code.

As per this information,

Answer 4: (C)As we can see in word BYJU'S Exam Prep
first letter g = %
total letter = 7
last letter = p
So, code is %7p

Answer 5: (C) !is code for r, 7 total letters and d is the last letterSo we can say that related is the word.

Answer 6: (C) Exam = #4m, BYJU'S Exam Prep = %7p, sbi = @3i, job = +3b. Hence answer is C. 

Answer 7:(E) can’t say. Because we don’t have code for first letter “b” of banking.  All given special character in answer code are @=s, $=f and & = a.

Answer 8:(C) In this question our approach will be options elimination method. As the first letter of probationary is ‘p’ and we don’t have any code for p. But in options A, B ,D and E, code of first letter is same as mentioned in above table. So options A,B, D and E are eliminated and our answer will be C. This was a new pattern question that was introduced in last year’s exams.

Let us now have a look at what other sort of pattern changes you can face in Coding-Decoding.

Example (9-12): Consider the following statements and the questions that follow. We will analyse this problem in detail after that.

In a certain code language
login BYJU'S Exam Prep and check” is coded as “$4e %4g #2n @6d
reads article study there” is coded as “@6i #4u $4e %4a
comment about yours doubt” is coded as “$4u @4o %6m #4u
get clear exams enjoy” is coded as “@4e #4a $4j %2e

9. What is the code for exams?
A. @4e
B. #4a
C. $4j
D. %2e
E. None of these

10. What is the code for study?
A. $4e
B. #4u
C. %4a
D. @6i
E. None of these

11. What is the code for about?
A. %6m
B. $4u
C. @4o
D. #4u
E. None of these

12. If we code “study BYJU'S Exam Prep clear exams” as per the above coding method, what will be the code?
A. $6u %4d #4a @4e
B. %4u #4e @6d $4a
C. @4e $6d #6e %4a
D. #6d @4u @4e %4m
E. None of these

Let’s analyse this problem in detail -
Again, read the statements and given codes properly first. In this, we can see that all (#$%@) are used in every statement. Clearly, they cannot represent any particular letter because the letters are changing in different statements.
Next, if we check number given in coding of the first statement - 4,4,2 and 6 are used and letters in a word are 5,7,3 and 5. So, numbering given in code is 1 less than the number of letters given in word. But we cannot comment about English letter given in code.
#2n = and, @6d = BYJU'S Exam Prep, but there is a confusion between $4e and %4g, both login and check are 5 letters word.


From 2nd statement coding, we can see that only code @6i has the different number (i.e. 6), remaining all codes have number 4. Article is the only word which has 7 letters and we have derived that numbering in coding is 1 less than the number of letters in the word. So, article = @6i

Now we will try to derive English letter which is given in the coding statement.
#2n = and, @6d = Gradeup, @6i = article, hence letter in coding is the middle letter of the word.
Next, Both BYJU'S Exam Prep and article are at serial number 2 in the statement and both have @ coding. AND is at serial no.3 in the statement, so # = 3
Hence we have decoded this coding.

So, we can say that,
numbers in code = total no. of letter in word – 1
Special characters are serial no. of words, % = 1, @ = 2, # = 3 and $ = 4
English letter in code is middle letter of the word.


Important
: If you have seen it carefully, you can check that all numbers in codes are even and letters of words in the statement is odd. So we can say that there is some addition or subtraction in the number of letters of a word.

Answer 9 (B): exams is in statement 4 at third place, so for third place code is #, no. of letters in exams is 5, so numerical code is (5-1) = 4 and middle letter of the word is a. So the code for it, is #4a.

Answer 10 (B): Studyis in statement 3 at third place, so for third place code is #; no. of letters are 5, so numerical code is (5-1) = 4 and middle letter of the word is u. So code for it is #4u.

Answer 11 (C): about is at second place in statement 3, so for second place code is @, no. of ; letters are 5 so the numerical code is (5-1) = 4 and middle letter of the word is . So the code for it is @4o.

Answer 12 (B): This is a different question, in which you have to code according to above coding method.

study is at first place in the statement, so the code is %4u.
Gradeup is at second place in the statement, so the code is @6d.
clear is at third place in the statement, so the code is #4e.
exams is at fourth place, so the code is $4a.

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