Question: Pat's computer password is made up of several kinds of alphanumeric and symbol characters for security. He uses a string of eight random lowercase letters, a string half that length of alternating upper case letters and numbers, and one symbol on each end of the password. How many characters in all is Pat's computer password? Think carefully first, then make a decision:
The second string of characters is half as long as the first string, so it is 8 / 2 = 4 characters long. The password has one symbol on each end, so it has 1 * 2 = 2 symbol characters. In all, Pat's computer password is 8 + 4 + 2 = 14 characters long. So the answer is 14.