Which of the following cryptographic algorithm uses public key and private key to encrypt or decrypt data ?

Question

Options

• AAsymmetric
• BHashing
• CNumeric
• DSymmetric

• A
  88% (23)
• B
  4% (1)
• C
  8% (2)

Explanation

Asymmetric cryptography is correct because it uses a mathematically linked key pair - a public key to encrypt data and a private key to decrypt it (or vice versa for digital signatures), making it ideal for secure communication without sharing a secret.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• B. Hashing is a one-way transformation (e.g., SHA-256) that produces a fixed-length digest; it doesn't encrypt or use keys for decryption at all.
• C. Numeric is not a cryptographic category - it's simply a descriptor for number types and has no meaning in this context.
• D. Symmetric encryption uses a single shared key for both encryption and decryption (e.g., AES), which is the opposite of the two-key model described.

Memory tip: Think "Asymmetric = Always two keys" - the A stands for apart (the keys are different and kept apart). If both parties share one key, that's symmetric; if they're asymmetric/different keys, it's asymmetric.

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