A method of decoding a video, the method comprising: receiving a bitstream of an encoded image; parsing split information indicating whether a coding unit is split into smaller coding units and information indicating whether asymmetric partitions are used for inter prediction, from the bitstream; determining one or more coding units included in a maximum coding unit by using the split information indicating whether a coding unit is split into smaller coding units; when the information indicates that the asymmetric partitions are not used for inter prediction, determining symmetric partitions which indicate one of a partition obtained by non-splitting a coding unit among the one or more coding units and partitions obtained by splitting at least one of a height and a width of the coding unit according to a symmetric ratio; when the information indicates that the asymmetric partitions are used for inter prediction, determining the asymmetric partitions obtained by splitting one of a height and a width of the coding unit according to an asymmetric ratio or the symmetric partitions; and performing motion compensation using the symmetric partitions or the asymmetric partitions for the coding unit, wherein: the maximum coding unit is hierarchically split into the one or more coding units of depths according to the split information parsed from the received bitstream, a coding unit of a current depth is one of rectangular data units split from a coding unit of an upper depth among the at least one coding unit of depths, when the split information indicates a split of the coding unit of a the current depth, the coding unit of the current depth is split into coding units of a lower depth, independently from neighboring coding units, and when the split information indicates a non-split of the coding unit of the current depth, at least one prediction unit is obtained from the coding unit of the current depth, and at least one transformation unit for performing transformation is obtained from the coding unit of the current depth, wherein the at least one prediction unit is one of the symmetric partitions and the asymmetric partitions, receiving a bitstream of an encoded image; parsing split information indicating whether a coding unit is split into smaller coding units and information indicating whether asymmetric partitions are used for inter prediction, from the bitstream; determining one or more coding units included in a maximum coding unit by using the split information indicating whether a coding unit is split into smaller coding units; when the information indicates that the asymmetric partitions are not used for inter prediction, determining symmetric partitions which indicate one of a partition obtained by non-splitting a coding unit among the one or more coding units and partitions obtained by splitting at least one of a height and a width of the coding unit according to a symmetric ratio; when the information indicates that the asymmetric partitions are used for inter prediction, determining the asymmetric partitions obtained by splitting one of a height and a width of the coding unit according to an asymmetric ratio or the symmetric partitions; and performing motion compensation using the symmetric partitions or the asymmetric partitions for the coding unit, wherein: the maximum coding unit is hierarchically split into the one or more coding units of depths according to the split information parsed from the received bitstream, a coding unit of a current depth is one of rectangular data units split from a coding unit of an upper depth among the at least one coding unit of depths, when the split information indicates a split of the coding unit of a the current depth, the coding unit of the current depth is split into coding units of a lower depth, independently from neighboring coding units, and when the split information indicates a non-split of the coding unit of the current depth, at least one prediction unit is obtained from the coding unit of the current depth, and at least one transformation unit for performing transformation is obtained from the coding unit of the current depth, wherein the at least one prediction unit is one of the symmetric partitions and the asymmetric partitions,