Common interview questions for cryptographers

The following questions are designed to assess your fundamental knowledge of cryptography. In job interviews, you may also be asked to solve cryptography challenges. The hands-on assessment will depend upon the employer and the role you are applying for:

• What is the difference between cryptography, cryptology, and cryptanalysis?

Cryptography is the practice of secure communication techniques. Cryptology is the study of secure communication techniques. Cryptanalysis is the practice of breaking cryptography.

• What is the difference between encoding, hashing, and encryption?

Encoding is just the process of converting data from one format to another. ASCII, Base64, and Unicode are examples of encoding algorithms. In encoding, the same algorithm is used to encode and decode the data, which means an attacker would just need to have the data sample to be able to decode it.

Encryption is the process of using a cryptographic...