UPSC Prelims 2022·CSAT·Logical Reasoning·Coding Decoding

If the order of the letters in the English alphabet is reversed and each letter represents the letter whose position it occupies, then which one of the following represents 'LUCKNOW'?

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Last updated 23 May 2026, 3:31 pm IST
  1. AOGXPMLD
  2. BOGXQMLE
  3. COFXPMLE
  4. DOFXPMLDCorrect

Explanation

The problem describes a substitution cipher where the English alphabet is reversed. This means 'A' becomes 'Z', 'B' becomes 'Y', 'C' becomes 'X', and so on. To find the corresponding letter for any given letter, we can use the rule: if a letter is the 'n'-th letter from the beginning of the standard alphabet, its replacement will be the 'n'-th letter from the beginning of the reversed alphabet (which is equivalent to the (27-n)-th letter of the standard alphabet). Let's apply this to 'LUCKNOW': 1. L: 'L' is the 12th letter. Its replacement will be the (27-12) = 15th letter, which is 'O'. 2. U: 'U' is the 21st letter. Its replacement will be the (27-21) = 6th letter, which is 'F'. 3. C: 'C' is the 3rd letter. Its replacement will be the (27-3) = 24th letter, which is 'X'. 4. K: 'K' is the 11th letter. Its replacement will be the (27-11) = 16th letter, which is 'P'. 5. N: 'N' is the 14th letter. Its replacement will be the (27-14) = 13th letter, which is 'M'. 6. O: 'O' is the 15th letter. Its replacement will be the (27-15) = 12th letter, which is 'L'. 7. W: 'W' is the 23rd letter. Its replacement will be the (27-23) = 4th letter, which is 'D'. Combining these, 'LUCKNOW' becomes 'OFXPMLD'. Analyzing the options: A) OGXPMLD - Incorrect because 'U' maps to 'G' here, not 'F'. B) OGXQMLE - Incorrect because 'U' maps to 'G', 'K' maps to 'Q', and 'O' maps to 'E'. C) OFXPMLE - Incorrect because 'O' maps to 'E' here, not 'L'. D) OFXPMLD - This matches our derived sequence. The final answer is D.
Logical Reasoning: If the order of the letters in the English alphabet is reversed and each letter represents the letter whose position it

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