No problem! Glad you got it all figured out :)

Uhh, the 63 you are seeing is when you print out the byte in this line: System.out.println((byte) cArray[1]);. That has nothing to do with the problem. When you see the 63, the actual word being tested is ?abc:abc which should result in a false answer. If I am misunderstanding you, let me know.

Also, to give you a hint, your if statement here:

if(word.length() % 2 != 0) 
  return false;

will not always work out. For example, if I sent 123 that should be true, but you will return false.

What language is your issue in? I do not see any test cases that require 63 to be false.