In a certain code language: '617' means "Sweet and hot", '735' means "Coffee…

Concept

In a word-code puzzle, a word shared by two statements corresponds to the symbol shared by their codes.

These intersections identify the required symbol set. Unless a positional rule is stated, the order of symbols inside a code need not follow the order of the words.

Application

1. Compare 617 and 735. The common word is ‘sweet’ and the common digit is 7, so ‘sweet’ has code 7.

2. Compare 735 and 263. The common word is ‘is’ and the common digit is 3, so ‘is’ has code 3.

3. Compare 617 and 263. The common word is ‘hot’ and the common digit is 6, so ‘hot’ has code 6.

4. In 735, the remaining digit 5 must therefore be the code for ‘coffee’.

5. The phrase ‘coffee is hot’ therefore requires the symbol set {5, 3, 6}. Among the offered choices, only 536 contains exactly these three symbols; this selection does not assume a separate word-to-position rule.

Cross-check

As sets of word codes, 617 contains sweet = 7, and = 1, hot = 6; 735 contains coffee = 5, is = 3, sweet = 7; and 263 contains tea = 2, is = 3, hot = 6. Every given statement is consistent.

Result

The supported offered code is 536.