Coding-Decoding — Reasoning Reference
All coding pattern types for Banking/SSC exams (IBPS PO/SO, SBI PO, RRB) — with worked examples
Solving priority (check in this order):
1. Letter position shift (forward/backward, fixed or varying)
2. Reverse alphabet position (opposite letter substitution)
3. Word/letter pattern substitution (each letter → fixed code)
4. Number/symbol substitution per word
5. Matrix / coordinate coding
Letter A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Reverse (27−pos) 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A. LETTER-BASED CODING
1. Fixed Forward/Backward Shift 2. Varying/Incremental Shift
Every letter shifted by the same fixed number of positions in the alphabet. Shift amount changes per letter (e.g. +1, +2, +3 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd letter).
CAT → coded as FDW BAT → coded as CCW
C(+3)=F, A(+3)=D, T(+3)=W B(+1)=C, A(+2)=C, T(+3)=W
Rule: each letter +3 forward Rule: shift increases by 1 per letter
3. Reverse Alphabet Substitution 4. Letter-Pair Interchange
Each letter replaced with its mirror position from the opposite end (A↔Z, Adjacent letters within the word swap positions.
B↔Y...). WORD → coded as OWDR
DOG → coded as WLT WO→OW, RD→DR
D→W, O→L, G→T (position 27−n) Rule: swap letters in pairs
Rule: opposite-end letter substitution
B. WORD-BASED CODING (fixed dictionary substitution)
5. Direct Word-to-Word Substitution 6. Fictitious/Symbol Language Coding
Each word in a sentence is assigned an arbitrary fixed code word — decode Words replaced by invented words or symbols per a hidden key — solve
by cross-referencing multiple coded sentences. using 2-3 coded sentences with overlapping words.
'ram is good' → 'pa ta na' 'sky is blue' → 'mo ki lo'
'ram is bad' → 'pa sa na' 'sky is red' → 'mo ki po'
Common word 'ram is' → 'pa na' (common codes) Common 'sky is'='mo ki' → 'blue'=lo, 'red'=po
'good'=ta, 'bad'=sa (by elimination) Match position of unique word to unique code
C. NUMBER / SYMBOL CODING
7. Letter-to-Number Coding 8. Number Coding with Offset/Operation
Each letter coded by its alphabet position number (plain or with an offset). Letter position number is modified by add/subtract/multiply before being the
CAB → coded as 3-1-2 code.
C=3, A=1, B=2 (direct position) CAB → coded as 6-2-4
Rule: position number, no offset C=3×2=6, A=1×2=2, B=2×2=4
Rule: position number × 2
9. Symbol-for-Letter/Digit Substitution 10. Digit-Sum / Digit-Reversal Coding
Fixed symbol assigned to each letter or digit via a given key/legend; decode Numbers coded by reversing digits, or by replacing each digit via a
by direct lookup. substitution key.
Key: A=@, B=#, C=$ 482 → coded as 284 (reversed)
"ABC" → coded as @#$ or with key 4→7,8→2,2→9 → coded 729
Rule: direct 1-to-1 lookup from given key Check both digit-reversal and key-substitution
D. MATRIX / COORDINATE CODING
11. Matrix Coding (row-column coordinates) 12. Combined Matrix (two grids, row+column identification)
Letters placed in a 5×5 or 10×10 grid; each letter coded as its (row,column) Two separate matrices given (row set + column set); letter coded using one
coordinate pair — sometimes two sets of coordinates combined by a rule. number from each matrix.
Grid rows 0-4, cols 0-4 filled with letters Matrix I gives row number, Matrix II gives column number
Letter at row 2, col 3 → coded '23' or '32' Letter found at Matrix I row=3, Matrix II col=4 → code '34'
Rule: read grid position as row-col or col-row Rule: identify letter position separately in each grid,
combine
Personal study reference — Soumo — Coding-Decoding Reasoning (Banking/SSC Exams)