Faster & Better Approach For Coding and Decoding Questions for Government Exams

In this article, we shall learn a faster and better approach to attempt coding and decoding questions in Bank and SSC upcoming exams.

Coding and Decoding is one of the most complex chapters in the Reasoning section of the Bank and SSC exams. Even though the section is complex, you can score well if your concepts are clear.

The reasoning ability section is one of the most common sections which is included in all major Government exams conducted across the country.

Many students find Coding-Decoding difficult to solve, and as a result, they avoid attempting these scoring questions and end up losing some easy and quick marks.

Last year some major changes were observed in the pattern of questions related to the topic of Coding-Decoding in various competitive exams. Hence, in this article, we are sharing some effective tips to attempt coding and decoding questions in the upcoming SSC exam, Bank exam or any other government exam.

What is Coding Decoding?

This topic is included in the reasoning ability syllabus and as the name suggests, candidates have to decode a code given in the question and answer them accordingly. It is one of the most common topics from which questions are asked in competitive exams, especially bank exams.

There are various types of coding decoding questions which are asked. These include:

1. Alphabet Coding
2. Numerical Coding
3. Symbol Based Coding
4. Alphabet-Symbol-Numerical Coding
5. Values Coding
6. Substitution Coding
7. Decipher Coding

Questions for coding decoding may also be combined with other concepts. For example- blood relation questions may be asked, where the relationship between two people/values may be defined using symbols. Thus, having a clear understanding of this topic is a must.

Preparation Tips for Coding-Decoding Section

To help the aspirants prepare well for the bank and SSC upcoming exams, we bring a few important tips to approach the exam questions of Coding-Decoding with the new pattern, in a faster and effective manner. 

Candidates after learning these tips will be able to do the coding and decoding questions without any difficulty in the bank and SSC upcoming exams.

Given below are a few tips which will help candidates solve the coding decoding questions in the upcoming competitive exams:

• Read the question carefully and write down key codes
• Try to decode the coding given in the question. Candidates must note that similar type of decoding can be applied to various questions
• Try to simplify the code by using the elimination method and remove the unwanted values
• Solve more and more practise questions to understand the concept even better and to score more in questions based on this topic easily. For coding-decoding questions, candidates can visit the linked article and enhance their Government exam preparation.

Let’s start with some examples:

Example (1-3)

Analyse the given information and answer the following questions:

In a certain code language

• ‘given  time  simple  plan’ was written as ‘@E4  &N4  %N5  #E6’
• ‘tired  solution  plant  great’ was written as ‘#N8  @D5  %T5  &T5’
• ‘sick  point  good  turn’ was written as ‘#K4  %D4  @N4  &T5’
• ‘garden  sister  phone  team’ was written as ‘&E5  #R6  %N6  @M4’

To know at length about the different upcoming bank exams, click at the linked article.

1. What will be the code for ‘translate’?

• #E8
• @E9
• @E8
• #T9

• #T8

2. What will be the code for ‘plan’?

• %N5#E6
• @E4
• &N4
• %N5

• None of these

3. What does ‘%D4’ stands for?

• sick
• turn
• point
• good
• None of these
  

To explore 3 Sutras To Prepare For Reasoning Ability, check at the linked article.

Solution:

Points to Remember-

• These types of questions always have a concept which is needed to be found.
• In this question it is seen that all the steps have all 4 words starting with alphabet G, T, S and P, with that the codes start with symbols @, %, & and #.
• So now just the match between the first alphabet and the particular symbol is to be found.
• The next thing to observe is that the codes are ending with digits. This represents the total alphabets used in each word.
• Analysing the middle code in the word reflects the last alphabet of their respective word.

Now let’s solve:

Answer 1: B

Step I: First count the alphabets in the word ‘translate’ which is 9, put 9 at the end.
Step II: Put the last alphabet of ‘translate’ before the digit 9 so now the code is E9 till now.
Step III: As observed above in all phrases, the alphabet ‘t’ is represented by the code ‘@’. So now put ‘@’ at the beginning of the code so the answer is – @E9 that is option B.

To explore Steps To Follow To Tackle Negative Marks in Bank Exams, check at the linked article.

Answer 2: C

Code for the word ‘plan’ –

Step I: First count the alphabets in the word ‘Plan’ which is 4, put 4 at the end.
Step II: Put the last alphabet of ‘plan’ before the digit 4 so now the code is N4 till now
Step III: As observed above in all phrase the alphabet ‘p’ is represented by the code ‘&’. So now put ‘&’ at the beginning of the code so the answer is – &N4 that is option C.

Answer 3: D

The decoded word for ‘%D4’

Step I: The last number is 4, therefore, the word consists of 4 words ‘_ _ _ _’.
Step II: The Middle code defines the last alphabet of the word which is ‘D’ so put the last alphabet of the word as d, so now the word is ‘_ _ _ d’ till now.
Step III: As observed above in all phrase the code ‘%’ is used to represent the alphabet ‘G’. So now put ‘G’ at the beginning of the word so the word is – ‘G _ _ d’ which matches option d, so the word is Good, option D.

So now it’s clear how to approach such type of questions, let’s proceed further and give a try to these set of questions.

To explore Important Subjects To Study For Assured Success In Bank PO Exam, check at the linked article.

Candidates can also check the links mentioned below to prepare for the reasoning ability section:

Example (4-8):

Analyse the given information and answer the following questions:

In a certain code language:

• “login BYJU’s and scroll” was written as “&3d  @6l  *5n  %5s”
• “scroll for SBI exam” was written as  “@6l  @3i  $3r  #4m”
• “study exam-related notes” was written as “#4m  @5y  !7d  =5s”
• “read notes for best job” was written as “+3b  !4d $3r =5s  %3t”

4. What will be the code for BYJU’s?

• *5n
• &3d
• %5s
• @6l
• None of these

5. What does code ‘!7d’ stands for?

• read
• notes
• related
• exam
• study

6. Which of the following code is for “exam BYJU’S SBI job”?

• !4d $3r @6l &3d
• +3b #4m %5s =5s
• %5s +3b #4m @3i
• %3t @6l @5y !7d
• None of these

7. Which of the following code is for ‘banking’?

• %7g
• $7t
• &7h
• one of these
• can’t say

8. Which of the following code is for ‘Probationary’?

• #12p
• *13t
• ^12y
• %11n
• $12y

To explore Logical Reasoning in detail, check at the linked article.

Given below are a few other links which will help you prepare for the Government exams: