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Skip Cipher
Letters are rearranged by taking alternating positions.
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Letters are rearranged by taking alternating positions.
The skip cipher is a transposition cipher that rearranges letters by extracting them at regular intervals. In the basic form, odd-positioned letters (1st, 3rd, 5th...) are written first, followed by even-positioned letters (2nd, 4th, 6th...). This scrambles the word without changing any individual letters.
Take positions 1,3,5... then 2,4,6... Example: WATER (W1,A2,T3,E4,R5) -> WTR + AE = WTRAE
- WATER -> WTRAE
- HELLO -> HLOEL
- STARS -> SASRT
How to recognize it
- Same letters, different order
- Pattern: odd positions first, then even
- No letter substitution
Common mistakes
- Looking for substitution patterns
- Miscounting odd/even positions
- Forgetting which set comes first
Step-by-step walkthrough
Encode 'WATER' using the skip cipher
- Number the positions: W(1) A(2) T(3) E(4) R(5)
- Extract odd positions (1, 3, 5): W, T, R
- Extract even positions (2, 4): A, E
- Combine: odd letters first, then even letters
Answer: WTRAE
Practice guidance
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