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Practise deciphering the Vigenère cipher

You've seen how to use the Vigenère cipher: here are some exercises for you to practise with.

A student writing on a board

© Alex Holland

Here are some examples of ciphertexts and the codewords which were used to create them. Use your Caesar wheel to decipher them back to plaintext English.

Codeword: VIGENERE
Ciphertext: XNAYSWLMWWJFSXSW

Codeword: ROUND
Ciphertext: LWDGAZTZZMKVMSEL

Codeword: TRICKY
Ciphertext: BGFFLMNZRVMDVJXNPM

As always, please use the comments to report how you’re getting on, but be careful not to give away the answers!

© University of York

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The Mathematics of Cryptography: From Ancient Rome to a Quantum Future

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