In a certain code language, ‘VERY’ is written as ‘6314’ and ‘VARY’ is written as ‘1438’. How will ‘A’ be written in that language?

Correct — B. The codes are not positional, so compare the two words as sets.

VERY uses the letters V, E, R, Y and the digits 6, 3, 1, 4.
VARY uses the letters V, A, R, Y and the digits 1, 4, 3, 8.

Rule: the letters common to both words must take the digits common to both codes.

V, R and Y are shared, and 1, 3 and 4 are shared — three letters, three digits.

That leaves 6 for E and 8 for A, so A is written as 8 — option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  6 — 6 is the digit left over in VERY once V, R and Y are accounted for, so it codes E — the one letter VARY does not contain.
• (c)
  4 — 4 appears in both codes, so it belongs to one of the shared letters V, R or Y. A occurs in only one word and cannot take a shared digit.
• (d)
  1 — Same objection: 1 occurs in both codes, so it is one of V, R and Y. Only a digit unique to VARY's code can stand for A.

When two coded words share letters, compare them as sets, never position by position. SSC scrambles these codes on purpose, so 'VERY is 6314' does not mean V is 6.

The method is fixed. List the letters common to both words, list the digits common to both codes, and check that the two counts agree.

The letters unique to each word must then take the digits unique to each code. Here that leaves exactly one of each on both sides.

Key facts

• VERY and VARY differ in exactly one letter, E against A.
• The codes 6314 and 1438 share the digits 1, 3 and 4.
• 6 is unique to VERY's code and 8 is unique to VARY's code, so E is 6 and A is 8.

Common traps

• Assuming the digits are listed in the order of the letters, which reads V as 6 and then as 1.
• Answering 6 because it is the leftover digit in the first word rather than the second.
• Stopping once the shared letters are matched, without confirming that one digit is left over on each side.

No directly related past PYQ was found.