When the maximum time required to find an 8-character password consisting of only 26 lowercase alphabetic characters in a brute force fashion is 1, the maximum required time is ? if the length of the password is extended to 10 characters. Also, even when the length of the password remains 8 characters, the maximum required time is ? if uppercase alphabetic characters are used as well.
I would love to know the method to solve this kind of question. Thanks very much!
Hint: with 8 characters password, 26 lowercase, you have 26 choices for each character, i.e. $26^8$ combinations (so you have the "speed"). With 10 characters, 26 choices per character, you have $26^{10}$ combinations; with also upper cases, you have 52 choices per character...