A method for polar code encoding, the method comprising: transmitting a first polar-encoded bit-stream carrying at least a first segment of information bits over a first set of sub-channels; and transmitting a second polar-encoded bit-stream carrying at least a second segment of information bits, and a masked parity bit, over a second set of sub-channels, wherein a sequence of information bits is divided into at least the first segment of information bits and the second segment of information bits, and a channel is divided into at least the first set of sub-channels and the second set of sub-channels; and wherein a value of the masked parity bit is equal to a bitwise combination of a first parity bit computed from the first segment of information bits and a second parity bit computed from the second segment of information bits, and wherein a value of the first parity bit is a value of a function of information bit values in the first segment of information bits, and a value of the second parity bit is a value of a function of information bit values in the second segment of information bits, and wherein the bitwise combination of the first parity bit computed from the first segment of information bits and the second parity bit computed from the second segment of information bits comprises one of the followings: a bitwise NOT of the respective parity bits, a bitwise AND of the respective parity bits, a bitwise OR of the respective parity bits, or a bitwise XOR of the respective parity bits. transmitting a first polar-encoded bit-stream carrying at least a first segment of information bits over a first set of sub-channels; and transmitting a second polar-encoded bit-stream carrying at least a second segment of information bits, and a masked parity bit, over a second set of sub-channels, wherein a sequence of information bits is divided into at least the first segment of information bits and the second segment of information bits, and a channel is divided into at least the first set of sub-channels and the second set of sub-channels; and wherein a value of the masked parity bit is equal to a bitwise combination of a first parity bit computed from the first segment of information bits and a second parity bit computed from the second segment of information bits, and wherein a value of the first parity bit is a value of a function of information bit values in the first segment of information bits, and a value of the second parity bit is a value of a function of information bit values in the second segment of information bits, and wherein the bitwise combination of the first parity bit computed from the first segment of information bits and the second parity bit computed from the second segment of information bits comprises one of the followings: a bitwise NOT of the respective parity bits, a bitwise AND of the respective parity bits, a bitwise OR of the respective parity bits, or a bitwise XOR of the respective parity bits. wherein a value of the first parity bit is a value of a function of information bit values in the first segment of information bits, and a value of the second parity bit is a value of a function of information bit values in the second segment of information bits, and wherein the bitwise combination of the first parity bit computed from the first segment of information bits and the second parity bit computed from the second segment of information bits comprises one of the followings: a bitwise NOT of the respective parity bits, a bitwise AND of the respective parity bits, a bitwise OR of the respective parity bits, or a bitwise XOR of the respective parity bits. <EOS>