Which encryption example is symmetric?

Which encryption example is symmetric?

• A. AES
• B. RSA
• C. SHA-256
• D. ECC

Answer: (A)

Symmetric encryption uses the same secret key to both hide and reveal the message. AES is a widely used example of this approach: the same key is used to encrypt plaintext and to decrypt the ciphertext. Because the key must stay secret between the parties, securely sharing or provisioning that key is essential, but once shared, encryption and decryption are fast and straightforward, making AES ideal for protecting large amounts of data. In contrast, RSA and ECC are asymmetric systems that rely on a pair of keys—a public key for encryption or verification and a private key for decryption or signing. This separation is convenient for secure key exchange and digital signatures but different from the single-key operation in symmetric schemes. SHA-256 isn’t an encryption algorithm at all; it’s a hash function used to produce a fixed-size digest for integrity checks, not to transform and recover the original data. So_AES is the symmetric example because it uses one shared key for both encryption and decryption.

Symmetric encryption uses the same secret key to both hide and reveal the message. AES is a widely used example of this approach: the same key is used to encrypt plaintext and to decrypt the ciphertext. Because the key must stay secret between the parties, securely sharing or provisioning that key is essential, but once shared, encryption and decryption are fast and straightforward, making AES ideal for protecting large amounts of data.

In contrast, RSA and ECC are asymmetric systems that rely on a pair of keys—a public key for encryption or verification and a private key for decryption or signing. This separation is convenient for secure key exchange and digital signatures but different from the single-key operation in symmetric schemes. SHA-256 isn’t an encryption algorithm at all; it’s a hash function used to produce a fixed-size digest for integrity checks, not to transform and recover the original data.

So_AES is the symmetric example because it uses one shared key for both encryption and decryption.