Digital Solutions: should I choose it?

What will I learn?

How will I be assessed?

Progression and companion subjects

No complete companion or exclusion review is attached to this profile. Check the official course-entry conditions, language eligibility and your school’s sequence before enrolling. Links between resource hubs show related learning; they do not establish a compulsory prerequisite.

Will I find it hard?

Difficulty depends on your experience, interests, teaching and assessment. These are our reflection prompts, not an official difficulty rating.

• Do you enjoy designing, testing and improving a solution over several attempts?
• Look at the tools and techniques in the course outline. Ask your school which equipment and projects it uses.

Does it scale up or down?

Digital Solutions, 2025. Table 6 of QTAC’s 2025 report publishes separate raw and scaled subject medians for General subjects with at least 50 students. Historical cohort data cannot predict your result or a future scaling direction.

Scaling is not a measure of difficulty or a guaranteed bonus. Prioritise content you can engage with and required subjects for courses you are considering.

Try a little of the subject

Symmetric and asymmetric encryption: DES, Triple DES, AES, Blowfish, Twofish and RSA

1. Symmetric versus asymmetric: the one distinction every answer needs Symmetric encryption uses one shared secret key: the same key that turns plaintext into ciphertext also turns the ciphertext back. Asymmetric encryption uses a mathematically linked key pair: a public key that anyone may hold and a private key that only the owner keeps. Data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the matching private key, and a value signed with the private key can be checked by anyone holding the public key. The trade-off is what the Unit 4 exam tests. Symmetric algorithms are fast and cheap to run on large volumes of data, but both parties must already share the key, and getting that key safely across a network is the key distribution problem . Asymmetric algorithms remove that problem because the public key can be sent openly, but they are far slower and are normally used only on small values such as a session key or a digital signature. Symmetric family named in the syllabus: DES, Triple DES, AES, Blowfish, Twofish . Asymmetric algorithm named in the syllabus: RSA . You must recognise their features; you are not asked to perform their internal mathematics. Model sentence for a 2-mark ‘distinguish’ item: “Symmetric encryption uses a single shared key for both encryption and decryption, so it is fast but requires a secure way to share the key; asymmetric encryption uses a public key to encrypt and a separate private key to decrypt, which removes the need to share a secret but is computationally slower.” Each half earns a mark only if it states both the key arrangement and a consequence. 2. DES and Triple DES: why the original standard was retired The Data Encryption Standard (DES) was adopted as a US federal standard in 1977. It is a block

Original practice question: A council app lets residents report damaged footpaths. The level 1 DFD contains: external entity Resident ; external entity Works Crew ; process 1 Validate report ; process 2 Assign job ; data store D1 Reports ; data store D2 Crew roster . Flows: Resident → 1 (report details + photo); 1 → D1 (validated report); 1 → Resident (reference number); D1 → 2 (open reports); D2 → 2 (available crews); 2 → Works Crew (job sheet); 2 → D1 (job status). Explain the relationships between the external entity Resident and each process and data store in this DFD.

This is ATARMAxxing’s original sample learning material. It is not an official assessment task or a prediction of your school’s workload.

Explore the resources

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Core subject information and planning are free. Full study resources are optional.