How many rows will the letters of the plain text occupy in the table, that is used for encryption in columnar transposition cipher when a given keyword is "SECRET" and plain text is "DATASTRUCTURE"?

Solution (By Examveda Team)

Columnar Transposition Cipher: In a columnar transposition cipher, the plaintext is written into a grid based on the length of the keyword. The number of rows in the grid is determined by how many times the plaintext must be written to fit into the grid.

Given:
Keyword: "SECRET"
Plaintext: "DATASTRUCTURE"

Step 1: Determine the length of the keyword:
The keyword "SECRET" has 6 letters.

Step 2: Divide the length of the plaintext by the length of the keyword to find out how many rows are needed:
The plaintext "DATASTRUCTURE" has 13 letters.

Step 3: Calculate the number of rows required:
Divide 13 (length of plaintext) by 6 (length of keyword):
13 / 6 = 2 with a remainder of 1.
This means we need 2 full rows and one additional row to accommodate the remainder.

Conclusion:
Therefore, the letters of the plaintext will occupy a total of 3 rows in the table used for encryption.
Option C: 3