Question

What will be the ciphered text if route cipher is used for encrypting the plain text “SANFOUNDRY” with number of columns given to be 5 and route from the bottom right anti clockwise?

(a) SUANNDFROY

(b) SORAFUDYNN

(c) YOFNASUNDRY

(d) SANFOUNDRY

I had been asked this question by my school principal while I was bunking the class.

This intriguing question comes from Cryptography in chapter Cryptography of Data Structures & Algorithms II

Answer 1

Right option is (c) YOFNASUNDRY

Explanation: For encrypting a plain text using route cipher we use a table having 5 columns as shown below. Then we read from the bottom right anti clockwise to cipher the plain text.

S

A

N

F

O

U

N

D

R

Y

So the ciphered text becomes “YOFNASUNDRY”.