The secret message says:
CAKE
The shift was 16.
Letter by letter
| Secret letter | A | Q | S | U |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real letter | K | A | C | E |
Decode it with Python
This program does the decoding for you. Change the secret and the shift to crack other messages!
secret = "SQAU"
shift = 16
message = ""
for letter in secret:
if letter.isalpha():
number = (ord(letter) - ord("A") - shift) % 26
message = message + chr(number + ord("A"))
else:
message = message + letter
print(message)When you run it, it prints:
CAKE
Did you know? Shift codes are very old. A Roman writer called Suetonius said that Julius Caesar wrote secret letters by shifting the alphabet by three. That’s why it’s often called the Caesar cipher.