Which method describes shifting characters by a fixed amount?

• A. Encryption
• B. Cipher
• C. Offset
• D. Key

Answer: (C)

Shifting characters by a fixed amount is applying a constant offset to each character’s value. This is the defining action of a shift transformation, the simplest form of a substitution that moves every character the same distance in the character set. In practice, you might see this described as a shift or Caesar-style cipher, where each letter is replaced by the letter a fixed number away, with wraparound at the end of the alphabet. The key idea is the constant amount of shift used for every character.

This differs from broader terms: encryption refers to the overall process of turning plaintext into ciphertext, a cipher is the specific algorithm used for that transformation, and a key is the secret value that controls how the transformation is applied. Since the question asks for the name of the method that shifts by a fixed amount, offset is the precise term that captures that mechanism.