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Difficulty: MediumCoding and Decoding

An automated transit gate authenticates employee badges by generating a daily encrypted code based on the employee's assigned sector. When an employee's sector is WINTER, the authentication code generated is ZKOWGS.

Applying the identical logical sequence, what authentication code will be generated if an employee's sector is SPRING?

Answer: VRSLPH / vrslph

Answer

VRSLPH
The system encrypts words by applying a repeating forward alphabetical shift of +3, +2, and +1 to consecutive letters. Applying this sequence to SPRING (S+3, P+2, R+1, I+3, N+2, G+1) results in VRSLPH.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the numerical alphabetical positions of the letters in the reference word 'WINTER' and its code 'ZKOWGS'.
W=23, I=9, N=14, T=20, E=5, R=18. Z=26, K=11, O=15, W=23, G=7, S=19.
Converting letters to their numerical positions allows us to mathematically determine the shift pattern.
2
Calculate the difference between the numerical positions of corresponding letters.
26-23 = +3; 11-9 = +2; 15-14 = +1; 23-20 = +3; 7-5 = +2; 19-18 = +1.
This reveals the underlying logical pattern: a repeating sequence of +3, +2, +1 shifts.
3
Identify the numerical positions of the letters in the target word 'SPRING'.
S=19, P=16, R=18, I=9, N=14, G=7.
These are the base values to which the shift pattern must be applied.
4
Apply the +3, +2, +1 repeating shift sequence to the numerical positions of 'SPRING' and convert back to letters.
19+3=22(V); 16+2=18(R); 18+1=19(S); 9+3=12(L); 14+2=16(P); 7+1=8(H). The result is VRSLPH.
Applying the exact same logical transformation rule yields the final encrypted code.

Key Concept

Identifying and applying sequential mathematical shifts to alphabetical characters.
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Topics

Coding and Decoding

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