How many rounds does the symmetric block cipher Twofish use?

Twofish, a symmetric block cipher developed by Bruce Schneier and his team, employs 16 rounds of processing to ensure high levels of security and complexity in encryption. Each round consists of various operations, including key addition, substitution, and permutation, enhancing the cipher's resistance to cryptographic attacks. The increased number of rounds, particularly 16, contributes to a more robust defense against assaults, making it significantly more difficult for unauthorized parties to decrypt messages without the correct key.

While other ciphers might use a different number of rounds—such as 8 or 12, which are more common in other algorithms—Twofish specifically leverages 16 rounds as part of its design to balance performance with security. This characteristic is essential for maintaining data confidentiality in many applications where Twofish is utilized.