Codebusters Test Graduation Requirements 3

Question 1

Which cipher graduation requirement involves encoding plaintext using a keyword where each keyword letter shifts a column of the alphabet?

Accepted Answer

Vigenere cipher

Answer

Atbash cipher

Answer

Rail Fence cipher

Answer

Polybius square

Question 2

For the Codebusters national trial event, teams must decode an Aristocrat WITHOUT word divisions. What is this variant called?

Accepted Answer

Patristocrat

Answer

Xenocrypt

Answer

Cryptarithm

Answer

Nihilist

Question 3

When decoding a Caesar cipher, a graduation requirement basic skill, what is the maximum number of shift values a student must test?

Accepted Answer

25

Answer

13

Answer

26

Answer

52

Question 4

Which graduation requirement topic requires students to understand the Kasiski examination technique?

Accepted Answer

Finding the keyword length in a Vigenere cipher

Answer

Caesar cipher key recovery

Answer

Decoding a columnar transposition

Answer

Solving a Polybius square

Question 5

In the Codebusters running key cipher, what is used as the key instead of a short repeating keyword?

Accepted Answer

A passage from a known text

Answer

A random number table

Answer

The plaintext itself reversed

Answer

A Polybius square grid

Question 6

What letter frequency is most important to identify first when solving an English Aristocrat, a core graduation competency?

Accepted Answer

E

Answer

T

Answer

A

Answer

O

Question 7

Which Codebusters graduation requirement cipher uses a 5×5 grid to encode letters as pairs of coordinates?

Accepted Answer

Polybius square

Answer

Rail Fence

Answer

Vigenere

Answer

Atbash