D334 (Exam Code HNO1) Intro to
Cryptography WGU Assessment D334
Introduction to Cryptography Exam
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SECTION 1: FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS & ENCODING
Question 1
What is the primary purpose of cryptography?
• A) To store data securely
• B) To protect data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity
• C) To back up information
• D) To manage network traffic
Rationale: Cryptography is used to secure communication and protect
data by ensuring confidentiality (secrecy), integrity (no unauthorized
alteration), and authenticity (verifying the source) .
,Question 2
What is encryption in its simplest terms?
• A) Changing plaintext into ciphertext
• B) Changing ciphertext into plaintext
• C) Hashing a message
• D) Digitally signing a document
Rationale: Encryption is the process of converting readable data
(plaintext) into an unreadable format (ciphertext) to protect
confidentiality during transmission or storage .
Question 3
What is decryption?
• A) Changing plaintext into ciphertext
• B) The process of converting ciphertext back into plaintext
• C) The process of hashing a message
• D) Compressing a file
Rationale: Decryption is the reverse process of encryption, transforming
scrambled data back into its original readable form using the appropriate
key .
,Question 4
What does entropy measure in encryption?
• A) The speed of encryption
• B) Level of unpredictability; the degree of uncertainty of the
encryption process
• C) The size of the encryption key
• D) The strength of the hash function
Rationale: Entropy represents randomness and unpredictability in
cryptographic systems. Higher entropy means greater uncertainty and
stronger security against prediction or brute-force attacks .
Question 5
What is ASCII?
• A) 8-bit values representing up to 256 characters
• B) 16-bit values representing up to 65,536 characters
• C) 32-bit values representing up to 4 billion characters
• D) 7-bit values representing up to 128 characters
Rationale: ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) uses 8 bits (1 byte) to represent characters, supporting 256
possible values including letters, numbers, and control characters .
Question 6
, What is UTF-16?
• A) 8-bit values representing up to 256 characters
• B) 16-bit values representing up to 65,536 characters
• C) 32-bit values representing up to 4 billion characters
• D) 7-bit values representing up to 128 characters
Rationale: UTF-16 uses 16 bits (2 bytes) for character encoding,
supporting a much larger character set than ASCII, including many
international characters and emojis .
Question 7
Which is more efficient: hardware or software encryption?
• A) Software encryption is more efficient
• B) Hardware encryption is more efficient than software
encryption
• C) They are equally efficient
• D) Efficiency depends on the algorithm only
Rationale: Hardware encryption uses dedicated processing units
designed specifically for cryptographic operations, resulting in faster
performance, lower power consumption, and enhanced security
compared to software-based encryption .
Question 8