def encodeRouteCipher(message: str, rows: int) -> str:
    """Encode a message using the Route Cipher."""
    cur_char = "z"
    while len(message) % rows != 0:
        message += cur_char
        cur_char = chr(ord(cur_char) - 1)
    str_cols = [message[i : i + rows] for i in range(0, len(message), rows)]
    str_rows = ["".join(col) for col in zip(*str_cols)]
    encoded_message = f"{rows}"
    for idx, row in enumerate(str_rows):
        if idx % 2 == 0:
            encoded_message += row
        else:
            encoded_message += row[::-1]
    return encoded_message


def decodeRouteCipher(encodedMessage: str) -> str:
    """Decode a message encoded using the Route Cipher."""
    rows = int(encodedMessage[0])
    rows_len = len(encodedMessage[1:]) // rows
    encoded_message = encodedMessage[1:]
    str_rows = [
        encoded_message[i : i + rows_len]
        for i in range(0, len(encoded_message), rows_len)
    ]
    str_rows = [row[::-1] if idx % 2 == 1 else row for idx, row in enumerate(str_rows)]
    str_cols = ["".join(row) for row in zip(*str_rows)]
    decoded_string = "".join(str_cols)
    while decoded_string[-1].islower():
        decoded_string = decoded_string[:-1]
    return decoded_string


print("Testing encodeRouteCipher()...", end="")
assert encodeRouteCipher("ASECRETMESSAGE", 4) == "4AREGESESETSzyAMC"
assert encodeRouteCipher("ASECRETMESSAGE", 3) == "3ACTSGESMRSEEEAz"
assert encodeRouteCipher("ASECRETMESSAGE", 5) == "5AESATSEMGEECRSz"
assert encodeRouteCipher("ANOTHERSECRET", 4) == "4AHETzCENORRyxEST"


print("Testing decodeRouteCipher()...", end="")
assert decodeRouteCipher("4AREGESESETSzyAMC") == "ASECRETMESSAGE"
assert decodeRouteCipher("3ACTSGESMRSEEEAz") == "ASECRETMESSAGE"
assert decodeRouteCipher("5AESATSEMGEECRSz") == "ASECRETMESSAGE"
assert decodeRouteCipher("4AHETzCENORRyxEST") == "ANOTHERSECRET"
message = "SECRETSTUFFGOESHERE"
encodedMessage = encodeRouteCipher(message, 6)
plaintext = decodeRouteCipher(encodedMessage)
assert plaintext == message
print("Passed!")