Coding – Decoding is the crucial part of reasoning because every exam today which include reasoning must have this coding – decoding section, it does not matter whether it is government examination or private examination the reasoning section of every exam must have coding – decoding section.

This topic is very important and interesting at the same time. About 7-8 questions must come from coding – decoding section. Basically what is done here a particular word is coded in a complex format and the aspiring candidates are asked to decode the word. This sections judges the intelligence level of the aspiring candidate which would be selected in future, this section is to define the ability of the aspirant.

Importance of Coding-Decoding in reasoning section:

This section of reasoning includes significant level of questions of coding and decoding’ that carries a good carries weightage of marks in various government banking exams such as IBPS & SSC, so it becomes very important for aspiring candidate to improve their coding – decoding skills. Today each section of every competitive exam must not ignored for later because these small concepts ultimately affect the ability of the candidate to solve questions in the exam.

Types of Coding – Decoding can be classified below:

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

Let’s move further to solve some conceptual based questions –

LETTER CODING -

This is very common type of coding it includes questions in which alphabets in a word are jumbled or replaced by any other alphabets following specific kind of rules.

For example - In a certain code, “CITIZEN” is written as “NYTIKSI”. How will “BANKING” be written in that code?

Answer – Identify the pattern of the word through doing comparison of the first letter of CITIZEN with the first letter of NYTIKSI.

Here we can identify that C is converted to N. T is two positions after C.

Now I is converted to Y. So, we can identify that I is two positions before Y.

So, CITIZEN will be coded as +2 and -2 alphabets in an alternate way.

SUBSTITUTION -

These are the type questions in which words/names are exchanged or substituted with other different types of words/names. Here we have to attentively and properly trace the substitution to identify the correct answer.

For example: If ‘Crow’ is called  ‘Peacock’, ‘Peacock’ is called ‘Swift’, ‘Swift’ is called ‘Flamingo’, ‘Flamingo’ is called ‘Eagle’, what should be the name of our national bird of India?

Answer:  Everyone knows ‘peacock’ is national bird of India. But in this case of the above question, ‘Peacock’ will be coded as ‘Swift’. So ‘Swift’ will be the correct answer here.

MIXED NUMBER CODING -

Mixed number coding is the type of coding in which different types of questions are asked such as 3 or 4 complete message are already given in a particular coded language & the code for a different type of particular word is asked. To identify these types of codes, any 2 message containing the similar word are chosen. Here numbers are already given interrelated to phrases. Aspiring candidates will comfortably identify the answer. Choosing 2 phrases at a time, candidates must identify the number code for each & every word and then able to reach at the correct answer.

Now let’s try to find out answer of a RBI grade B previous year’s question.

Question:

In a particular code,

‘762’ means “leafs are greenish”

‘369’ means “they are playing”

‘285’ means “greenish looks beautiful”

What is the number code for “leafs”?

Answer: In the statements of no.1 & 3, the similar word is “greenish” & the similar number is ‘2’. So, ‘2’ is for “greenish”.

Here, in the statements 1 & 2, “are” is similar and ‘6’is similar. So, ‘6’ will be denoted for “are”.

In the statement 1, only ‘leafs’ and ‘7’ are left remaining, and therefore ‘leaves’ correlate to ‘7’.

MIXED LETTER CODING -

Mixed letter coding is the type of coding in which the questions are allocated in a coded language containing 3 or 4 phrases and code for a specific word is expected to be asked by the aspiring candidates.

To find out answers of these types of questions, any of the 2 phrases containing a similar word are chosen. The similar type of code word will be interrelated to that particular word. Moving further in a same aspect, every feasible combo of 2 phrases are picked up & a similar code will be chosen.

Now let’s try to find out answer of IDBI PO previous year’s question.

Question:

In a particular code,

  1. ‘new banking system’ stands for ‘na tp ss’
  2. ‘officer in uniform’ stands for ‘or lk mu’
  3. ‘new institute officer’ stands for ‘or it na’
  4. ‘systems in institute’ stands for ‘ss lk it’

What will be the particular code for ‘in’?

Answer – Here, in statements {2} & {4}, the similar code word is ‘in’ and the similar code will be “lk”.

What will be the word for the code “it”?

Answer – Here, in statements of {3} & {4}, the similar code word is ‘it’ and the similar word for that is “institute”.