Methods and apparatus for constructing polar codes are provided. A transmitter determines at least one set of parameters corresponding to data to be transmitted, and a set of sorting indices corresponding to bits of the data to be transmitted based on the set of parameters, the set of sorting indices indicating a position set of the bits to be transmitted. The transmitter polar encodes the data based at least on the set of parameters and the set of sorting indices to generate a coded block of the data, and transmits the coded block of the data.