1. What is data structure?

A data structure is a way of organizing data that considers not only the items stored, but also their relationship to each other. Advance knowledge about the relationship between data items allows designing of efficient algorithms for the manipulation of data. 2. List out the areas in which data structures are applied extensively? Compiler Design, Operating System, Database Management System, Statistical analysis package, Numerical Analysis, Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation 3. What are the major data structures used in the following areas : RDBMS, Network data model & Hierarchical data model. RDBMS Array (i.e. Array of structures) Network data model Graph Hierarchical data model Trees 4. If you are using C language to implement the heterogeneous linked list, what pointer type will you use? The heterogeneous linked list contains different data types in its nodes and we need a link, pointer to connect them. It is not possible to use ordinary pointers for this. So we go for void pointer. Void pointer is capable of storing pointer to any type as it is a generic pointer type. 5. Minimum number of queues needed to implement the priority queue? Two. One queue is used for actual storing of data and another for storing priorities. 6. What is the data structures used to perform recursion? Stack. Because of its LIFO (Last In First Out) property it remembers its caller so knows whom to return when the function has to return. Recursion makes use of system stack for storing the return addresses of the function calls. Every recursive function has its equivalent iterative (non-recursive) function. Even when such equivalent iterative procedures are written, explicit stack is to be used. 7. What are the notations used in Evaluation of Arithmetic Expressions using prefix and postfix forms? Polish and Reverse Polish notations. 8. Convert the expression ((A + B) * C (D E) ^ (F + G)) to equivalent Prefix and Postfix notations. Prefix Notation: ^ - * +ABC - DE + FG Postfix Notation: AB + C * DE - - FG + ^ 9. Sorting is not possible by using which of the following methods? (a) Insertion (b) Selection

(c) Exchange (d) Deletion (d) Deletion. Using insertion we can perform insertion sort, using selection we can perform selection sort, using exchange we can perform the bubble sort (and other similar sorting methods). But no sorting method can be done just using deletion. 10. A binary tree with 20 nodes has null branches? 21 Let us take a tree with 5 nodes (n=5) It will have only 6 (ie,5+1) null branches. In general, A binary tree with n nodes has exactly n+1 null nodes. 11. What are the methods available in storing sequential files ? Straight merging, Null Branches Natural merging, Polyphase sort, Distribution of Initial runs. 12. How many different trees are possible with 10 nodes ? 1014 For example, consider a tree with 3 nodes(n=3), it will have the maximum combination of 5 different (ie, 23 - 3 = 5) trees. In general: If there are n nodes, there exist 2n-n different trees. 13. List out few of the Application of tree data-structure? The manipulation of Arithmetic expression, Symbol Table construction, Syntax analysis. 14. List out few of the applications that make use of Multilinked Structures? Sparse matrix, Index generation. 15. In tree construction which is the suitable efficient data structure? (a) Array (b) Linked list (c) Stack (d) Queue (e) none (b) Linked list How memory is reserved using a declaration statement ? Memory is reserved using data type in the variable declaration. A programming language implementation has predefined sizes for its data types. For example, in C# the declaration int i; will reserve 32 bits for variable i. A pointer declaration reserves memory for the address or the pointer variable, but not for the data that it will point to. The memory for the data pointed by a pointer has to be allocated at runtime. The memory reserved by the compiler for simple variables and for storing pointer address is allocated on the stack,

while the memory allocated for pointer referenced data at runtime is allocated on the heap. How many parts are there in a declaration statement? There are two main parts, variable identifier and data type and the third type is optional which is type qualifier like signed/unsigned. Is Pointer a variable? Yes, a pointer is a variable and can be used as an element of a structure and as an attribute of a class in some programming languages such as C++, but not Java. However, the contents of a pointer is a memory address of another location of memory, which is usually the memory address of another variable, element of a structure, or attribute of a class. What is Data Structure? A data structure is a group of data elements grouped together under one name. These data elements, known as members, can have different types and different lengths. Some are used to store the data of same type and some are used to store different types of data. What is significance of * ? The symbol * tells the computer that you are declaring a pointer. Actually it depends on context. In a statement like int *ptr; the * tells that you are declaring a pointer. In a statement like int i = *ptr; it tells that you want to assign value pointed to by ptr to variable i. The symbol * is also called as Indirection Operator/ Dereferencing Operator. Why do we Use a Multidimensional Array? A multidimensional array can be useful to organize subgroups of data within an array. In addition to organizing data stored in elements of an array, a multidimensional array can store memory addresses of data in a pointer array and an array of pointers. Multidimensional arrays are used to store information in a matrix form. e.g. a railway timetable, schedule cannot be stored as a single dimensional array. One can use a 3-D array for storing height, width and length of each room on each floor of a building. How do you assign an address to an element of a pointer array ? We can assign a memory address to an element of a pointer array by using the address operator, which is the ampersand (&), in an assignment statement such as ptemployee[0] = &projects[2]; Run Time Memory Allocation is known as ? Allocating memory at runtime is called a dynamically allocating memory. In this, you dynamically allocate memory by using the new operator when declaring the array, for example : int grades[] = new int[10]; What method is used to place a value onto the top of a stack? push() method, Push is the direction that data is being added to the stack. push() member method places a value onto the top of a stack.

What method removes the value from the top of a stack? The pop() member method removes the value from the top of a stack, which is then returned by the pop() member method to the statement that calls the pop() member method. What does isEmpty() member method determines? isEmpty() checks if the stack has at least one element. This method is called by Pop() before retrieving and returning the top element. What is a queue ? A Queue is a sequential organization of data. A queue is a first in first out type of data structure. An element is inserted at the last position and an element is always taken out from the first position. What is the relationship between a queue and its underlying array? Data stored in a queue is actually stored in an array. Two indexes, front and end will be used to identify the start and end of the queue. When an element is removed front will be incremented by 1. In case it reaches past the last index available it will be reset to 0. Then it will be checked with end. If it is greater than end queue is empty. When an element is added end will be incremented by 1. In case it reaches past the last index available it will be reset to 0. After incrementing it will be checked with front. If they are equal queue is full. Which process places data at the back of the queue? Enqueue is the process that places data at the back of the queue. Why is the isEmpty() member method called? The isEmpty() member method is called within the dequeue process to determine if there is an item in the queue to be removed i.e. isEmpty() is called to decide whether the queue has at least one element. This method is called by the dequeue() method before returning the front element. How is the front of the queue calculated ? The front of the queue is calculated by front = (front+1) % size. What does each entry in the Link List called? Each entry in a linked list is called a node. Think of a node as an entry that has three sub entries. One sub entry contains the data, which may be one attribute or many attributes. Another points to the previous node, and the last points to the next node. When you enter a new item on a linked list, you allocate the new node and then set the pointers to previous and next nodes. What is Linked List ? Linked List is one of the fundamental data structures. It consists of a sequence of? nodes, each containing arbitrary data fields and one or two (links) pointing to the next and/or previous nodes. A linked list is a self-referential datatype because it contains a pointer or link to another data of the same type. Linked lists permit insertion and removal of nodes at any point in the list in constant time, but do not allow random access.

What member function places a new node at the end of the linked list? The appendNode() member function places a new node at the end of the linked list. The appendNode() requires an integer representing the current data of the node. How is any Data Structure application is classified among files? A linked list application can be organized into a header file, source file and main application file. The first file is the header file that contains the definition of the NODE structure and the LinkedList class definition. The second file is a source code file containing the implementation of member functions of the LinkedList class. The last file is the application file that contains code that creates and uses the LinkedList class. Which file contains the definition of member functions? Definitions of member functions for the Linked List class are contained in the LinkedList.cpp file. What are the major data structures used in the following areas : RDBMS, Network data model & Hierarchical data model. 1. RDBMS Array (i.e. Array of structures) 2. Network data model Graph 3. Hierarchical data model Trees. Difference between calloc and malloc ? malloc: allocate n bytes calloc: allocate m times n bytes initialized to 0 What is the easiest sorting method to use? The answer is the standard library function qsort(). It's the easiest sort by far for several reasons: It is already written. It is already debugged. It has been optimized as much as possible (usually). Void qsort(void *buf, size_t num, size_t size, int (*comp)(const void *ele1, const void *ele2)); What is the bucket size, when the overlapping and collision occur at same time? One. If there is only one entry possible in the bucket, when the collision occurs, there is no way to accommodate the colliding value. This results in the overlapping of values. In an AVL tree, at what condition the balancing is to be done? If the pivotal value (or the Height factor) is greater than 1 or less than 1. Minimum number of queues needed to implement the priority queue? Two. One queue is used for actual storing of data and another for storing priorities. How many different trees are possible with 10 nodes ? 1014 - For example, consider a tree with 3 nodes(n=3), it will have the maximum combination of 5 different (ie, 23 3 =? 5) trees.

What is a node class? A node class is a class that, relies on the base class for services and implementation, provides a wider interface to users than its base class, relies primarily on virtual functions in its public interface depends on all its direct and indirect base class can be understood only in the context of the base class can be used as base for further derivation can be used to create objects. A node class is a class that has added new services or functionality beyond the services inherited from its base class. When can you tell that a memory leak will occur? A memory leak occurs when a program loses the ability to free a block of dynamically allocated memory. What is placement new? When you want to call a constructor directly, you use the placement new. Sometimes you have some raw memory thats already been allocated, and you need to construct an object in the memory you have. Operator news special version placement new allows you to do it. class Widget { public : Widget(int widgetsize); Widget* Construct_widget_int_buffer(void *buffer,int widgetsize) { return new(buffer) Widget(widgetsize); } }; This function returns a pointer to a Widget object thats constructed within the buffer passed to the function. Such a function might be useful for applications using shared memory or memory-mapped I/O, because objects in such applications must be placed at specific addresses or in memory allocated by special routines. List out the areas in which data structures are applied extensively ? Compiler Design, Operating System, Database Management System, Statistical analysis package, Numerical Analysis, Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation If you are using C language to implement the heterogeneous linked list, what pointer type will you use? The heterogeneous linked list contains different data types in its nodes and we need a link, pointer to connect them. It is not possible to use ordinary pointers for this. So we go for void pointer. Void pointer is capable of storing pointer to any type as it is a generic pointer type. What is the data structures used to perform recursion? Stack. Because of its LIFO (Last In First Out) property it remembers its caller so knows whom to return when the function has to return. Recursion makes use of system stack for storing the return addresses of the function calls. Every recursive function has its equivalent iterative (non-recursive) function. Even when such equivalent iterative procedures are written, explicit stack is to be used. Whether Linked List is linear or Non-linear data structure? According to Access strategies Linked list is a linear one.

According to Storage Linked List is a Non-linear one Tell how to check whether a linked list is circular ? Create two pointers, each set to the start of the list. Update each as follows: while (pointer1) { pointer1 = pointer1->next; pointer2 = pointer2->next; if (pointer2) pointer2=pointer2->next; if (pointer1 == pointer2) ??????{ print (\circular\n\); } } What is the difference between ARRAY and STACK? STACK follows LIFO. Thus the item that is first entered would be the last removed. In array the items can be entered or removed in any order. Basically each member access is done using index. No strict order is to be followed here to remove a particular element. What is the difference between NULL AND VOID pointer? NULL can be value for pointer type variables. VOID is a type identifier which has not size. NULL and void are not same. Example: void* ptr = NULL; What is precision? Precision refers the accuracy of the decimal portion of a value. Precision is the number of digits allowed after the decimal point. What is impact of signed numbers on the memory? Sign of the number is the first bit of the storage allocated for that number. So you get one bit less for storing the number. For example if you are storing an 8-bit number, without sign, the range is 0-255. If you decide to store sign you get 7 bits for the number plus one bit for the sign. So the range is -128 to +127.\ 1.) What is Heap data structure? The binary heap data structures is an array that can be viewed as a complete binary tree. Each node of the binary tree corresponds to an element of the array. The array is completely filled on all levels except possibly lowest. 2.) What are the major data structures used in the following areas : RDBMS, Network data model & Hierarchical data model? 1. RDBMS Array (i.e. Array of structures) 2. Network data model Graph 3. Hierarchical data model Trees. 3.) Why is the isEmpty() member method called?

The isEmpty() member method is called within the dequeue process to determine if there is an item in the queue to be removed i.e. isEmpty() is called to decide whether the queue has at least one element. This method is called by the dequeue() method before returning the front element. 4.) What method is used to place a value onto the top of a stack? push() method, Push is the direction that data is being added to the stack. push() member method places a value onto the top of a stack. 5.) What is Linked List ? Linked List is one of the fundamental data structures. It consists of a sequence of? nodes, each containing arbitrary data fields and one or two (links) pointing to the next and/or previous nodes. A linked list is a self-referential datatype because it contains a pointer or link to another data of the same type. Linked lists permit insertion and removal of nodes at any point in the list in constant time, but do not allow random access. 6.) Difference between calloc and malloc? malloc: allocate n bytes calloc: allocate m times n bytes initialized to 0 7.) How many parts are there in a declaration statement? There are two main parts, variable identifier and data type and the third type is optional which is type qualifier like signed/unsigned. 8.) What is the difference bitween NULL AND VOID pointer? NULL can be value for pointer type variables. VOID is a type identifier which has not size. NULL and void are not same. Example: void* ptr = NULL; 1. What is a data structure? 2. What does abstract data type means? 3. Evaluate the following prefix expression " ++ 26 + - 1324" (Similar types can be asked) 4. Convert the following infix expression to post fix notation ((a+2)*(b+4)) -1 (Similar types can be asked) 5. How is it possible to insert different type of elements in stack? 6. Stack can be described as a pointer. Explain. 7. Write a Binary Search program 8. Write programs for Bubble Sort, Quick sort 9. Explain about the types of linked lists 10. How would you sort a linked list? 11. Write the programs for Linked List (Insertion and Deletion) operations 12. What data structure would you mostly likely see in a non recursive implementation of a recursive algorithm? 13. What do you mean by Base case, Recursive case, Binding Time, Run-Time Stack and Tail Recursion? 14. Explain quick sort and merge sort algorithms and derive the time-constraint relation for these. 15. Explain binary searching, Fibinocci search. 16. What is the maximum total number of nodes in a tree that has N levels? Note that the root is level (zero) 17. How many different binary trees and binary search trees can be made from three nodes that contain the key values 1, 2 & 3?

18. A list is ordered from smaller to largest when a sort is called. Which sort would take the longest time to execute? 19. A list is ordered from smaller to largest when a sort is called. Which sort would take the shortest time to execute? 20. When will you sort an array of pointers to list elements, rather than sorting the elements themselves? 21. The element being searched for is not found in an array of 100 elements. What is the average number of comparisons needed in a sequential search to determine that the element is not there, if the elements are completely unordered? 22. What is the average number of comparisons needed in a sequential search to determine the position of an element in an array of 100 elements, if the elements are ordered from largest to smallest? 23. Which sort show the best average behavior? 24. What is the average number of comparisons in a sequential search? 25. Which data structure is needed to convert infix notations to post fix notations? 26. What do you mean by: * Syntax Error * Logical Error * Runtime Error How can you correct these errors? 27. In which data structure, elements can be added or removed at either end, but not in the middle? 28. How will inorder, preorder and postorder traversals print the elements of a tree? 29. Parenthesis are never needed in prefix or postfix expressions. Why? 30. Which one is faster? A binary search of an orderd set of elements in an array or a sequential search of the elements. ata Structure - posted on August 06, 2008 at 13:10 PM by Amit Satpute Question - What is the recursion? Answer Recursion is an approach in which a function calls itself with an argument. Upon reaching a termination condition, the control returns to the calling function. Question - What are priority queues? Answer A priority queue is essentially a list of items in which each item has associated with it a priority Items are inserted into a priority queue in any, arbitrary order. However, items are withdrawn from a priority queue in order of their priorities starting with the highest priority item first. Priority queues are often used in the implementation of algorithms Question - What is a circular singly linked list? Answer In a circular singly linked list, the last node of the list is made to point to the first node. This eases the traveling through the list. Question - What is a B tree?

Answer A B-tree of order m (the maximum number of children for each node) is a tree which satisfies the following properties : 1. Every node has <= m children. 2. Every node (except root and leaves) has >= m/2 children. 3. The root has at least 2 children. 4. All leaves appear in the same level, and carry no information. 5. A non-leaf node with k children contains k 1 keys Question - What are splay trees? Answer A splay tree is a self-balancing binary search tree. In this, recently accessed elements are quick to access again It is useful for implementing caches and garbage collection algorithms. When we move left going down this path, its called a zig and when we move right, its a zag. Following are the splaying steps. There are six different splaying steps. 1. Zig Rotation (Right Rotation) 2. Zag Rotation (Left Rotation) 3. Zig-Zag (Zig followed by Zag) 4. Zag-Zig (Zag followed by Zig) 5. Zig-Zig 6. Zag-Zag Question - What are red-black trees? Answer A red-black tree is a type of self-balancing binary search tree. In red-black trees, the leaf nodes are not relevant and do not contain data. Red-black trees, like all binary search trees, allow efficient in-order traversal of elements. Each node has a color attribute, the value of which is either red or black. Characteristics: The root and leaves are black Both children of every red node are black. Every simple path from a node to a descendant leaf contains the same number of black nodes, either counting or not counting the null black nodes Question - What are threaded binary trees? Answer In a threaded binary tree, if a node 'A' has a right child 'B' then B's left pointer must be either a child, or a thread back to A. In the case of a left child, that left child must also have a left child or a thread back to A, and so we can follow B's left children until we find a thread, pointing back to A. This data structure is useful when stack memory is less and using this tree the treversal around the tree becomes faster. Question - What is the Huffman algorithm?

Answer In Huffman Algorithm, a set of nodes assigned with values if fed to the algorithm. Initially 2 nodes are considered and their sum forms their parent node. When a new element is considered, it can be added to the tree. Its value and the previously calculated sum of the tree are used to form the new node which in turn becomes their parent. Question - What is merge sort algorithm? Answer A merge sort algorithm that splits the items to be sorted into two groups, recursively sorts each group, and merges them into a final, sorted sequence. Run time is T(n log n). If n<2 then the array is already sorted. Stop now. Otherwise, n>1, and we perform the following three steps in sequence: Sort the left half of the the array. Sort the right half of the the array. Merge the now-sorted left and right halves. Question - What is a B+ tree? Answer It is a dynamic, multilevel index, with maximum and minimum bounds on the number of keys in each index segment. all records are stored at the lowest level of the tree; only keys are stored in interior blocks. Applications examples: XFS filesystem, JFS2 filesystem. A list is ordered from smaller to largest when sort is called. Which sort would take longest time to execute? A list is ordered from smaller to largest when sort is called. Which sort would take shortest time to execute? Convert following infix _expression to post fix notation ((a+2)*(b+4)) -1 (Similar types can be asked) Evaluate following prefix _expression ++ + - (Similar types can be asked) Explain about types of linked lists Explain binary searching, Fibinocci search. Explain quick sort and merge sort algorithms and derive time-constraint relation for these. How is it possible to insert different type of elements in stack? How many different binary trees and binary search trees can be made from three nodes that contain key values 2 & 3? How will inorder, preorder and postorder traversals print elements of tree? How would you sort linked list? In which data structure, elements can be added or removed at either end, but not in middle? Parenthesis are never needed in prefix or postfix expressions. Why? Stack can be described as pointer. Explain. The element being searched for is not found in array of elements. What is average number of comparisons needed in sequential search to determine that element is not there, if elements are completely unordered? What data structure would you mostly likely see in non recursive implementation of recursive algorithm? What do you mean by Base case, Recursive case, Binding Time, Run-Time Stack and Tail Recursion? What do you mean by: * Syntax Error * Logical Error * Runtime Error How can you correct these errors? What does abstract data type means? What is average number of comparisons in sequential search? What is average number of comparisons needed in sequential search to determine position of element in array of elements, if elements are ordered from largest to smallest? What is data structure? What is maximum total number of nodes in tree that has N levels? Note that root is level (zero) When will you sort array of pointers to list elements, rather than sorting elements themselves? Which data structure is needed to convert infix notations to post fix notations?

Which one is faster? binary search of orderd set of elements in array or sequential search of elements. Which sort show best average behavior? Write Binary Search program Write programs for Bubble Sort, Quick sort Write programs for Linked List (Insertion and Deletion) operations

1.What is data structure? A data structure is a way of organizing data that considers not only the items stored, but also their relationship to each other. Advance knowledge about the relationship between data items allows designing of efficient algorithms for the manipulation of data. 2.List out the areas in which data structures are applied extensively? Compiler Design, Operating System, Database Management System, Statistical analysis package, Numerical Analysis, Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation 3.If you are using C language to implement the heterogeneous linked list, what pointer type will you use? The heterogeneous linked list contains different data types in its nodes and we need a link, pointer to connect them. It is not possible to use ordinary pointers for this. So we go for void pointer. Void pointer is capable of storing pointer to any type as it is a generic pointer type. 4.What is the data structures used to perform recursion? Stack. Because of its LIFO (Last In First Out) property it remembers its caller, so knows whom to return when the function has to return. Recursion makes use of system stack for storing the return addresses of the function calls. Every recursive function has its equivalent iterative (non-recursive) function. Even when such equivalent iterative procedures are written, explicit stack is to be used. 5.What are the methods available in storing sequential files ? Straight merging, Natural merging, Polyphase sort, Distribution of Initial runs. 6.List out few of the Application of tree data-structure? The manipulation of Arithmetic expression, Symbol Table construction, Syntax analysis. 7.In RDBMS, what is the efficient data structure used in the internal storage representation? B+ tree. Because in B+ tree, all the data is stored only in leaf nodes, that makes searching easier. This corresponds to the records that shall be stored in leaf nodes. 8.What is a spanning Tree? A spanning tree is a tree associated with a network. All the nodes of the graph appear on the tree once. A minimum spanning tree is a spanning tree organized so that the total edge weight between nodes is minimized. 9.Does the minimum spanning tree of a graph give the shortest distance between any 2 specified nodes? Minimal spanning tree assures that the total weight of the tree is kept at its minimum. But it doesn't mean that the distance between any two nodes involved in the minimum-spanning tree is minimum. 10.Whether Linked List is linear or Non-linear data structure? According to Access strategies Linked list is a linear one. According to Storage Linked List is a Non-linear one. 11.What is the quickest sorting method to use? The answer depends on what you mean by quickest. For most sorting problems, it just doesn't matter how quick the sort is because it is done infrequently or other operations take significantly more time anyway. Even in cases in which sorting speed is of the essence, there is no one answer. It depends on not only the size and nature of the data, but also the likely order. No algorithm is best in all cases. There are three sorting methods in this author's toolbox that are all

very fast and that are useful in different situations. Those methods are quick sort, merge sort, and radix sort. The Quick Sort The quick sort algorithm is of the divide and conquer type. That means it works by reducing a sorting problem into several easier sorting problems and solving each of them. A dividing value is chosen from the input data, and the data is partitioned into three sets: elements that belong before the dividing value, the value itself, and elements that come after the dividing value. The partitioning is performed by exchanging elements that are in the first set but belong in the third with elements that are in the third set but belong in the first Elements that are equal to the dividing element can be put in any of the three sets the algorithm will still work properly. The Merge Sort The merge sort is a divide and conquer sort as well. It works by considering the data to be sorted as a sequence of already-sorted lists (in the worst case, each list is one element long). Adjacent sorted lists are merged into larger sorted lists until there is a single sorted list containing all the elements. The merge sort is good at sorting lists and other data structures that are not in arrays, and it can be used to sort things that don't fit into memory. It also can be implemented as a stable sort. .The Radix Sort The radix sort takes a list of integers and puts each element on a smaller list, depending on the value of its least significant byte. Then the small lists are concatenated, and the process is repeated for each more significant byte until the list is sorted. The radix sort is simpler to implement on fixed-length data such as ints. 12.How can I search for data in a linked list? Unfortunately, the only way to search a linked list is with a linear search, because the only way a linked list's members can be accessed is sequentially. Sometimes it is quicker to take the data from a linked list and store it in a different data structure so that searches can be more efficient. 13.What is the heap? The heap is where malloc(), calloc(), and realloc() get memory. Getting memory from the heap is much slower than getting it from the stack. On the other hand, the heap is much more flexible than the stack. Memory can be allocated at any time and deallocated in any order. Such memory isn't deallocated automatically; you have to call free(). Recursive data structures are almost always implemented with memory from the heap. Strings often come from there too, especially strings that could be very long at runtime. If you can keep data in a local variable (and allocate it from the stack), your code will run faster than if you put the data on the heap. Sometimes you can use a better algorithm if you use the heap faster, or more robust, or more flexible. Its a tradeoff. If memory is allocated from the heap, its available until the program ends. That's great if you remember to deallocate it when you're done. If you forget, it's a problem. A memory leak is some allocated memory that's no longer needed but isn't deallocated. If you have a memory leak inside a loop, you can use up all the memory on the heap and not be able to get any more. (When that happens, the allocation functions return a null pointer.) In some environments, if a program doesn't deallocate everything it allocated, memory stays unavailable even after the program ends. 14.What is the easiest sorting method to use? The answer is the standard library function qsort(). It's the easiest sort by far for several reasons: It is already written. It is already debugged. It has been optimized as much as possible (usually). Void qsort(void *buf, size_t num, size_t size, int (*comp)(const void *ele1, const void *ele2));

Data Structures Interview Questions Set -2

1.What is the bucket size, when the overlapping and collision occur at same time? One. If there is only one entry possible in the bucket, when the collision occurs, there is no way to accommodate the colliding value. This results in the overlapping of values. 2.In an AVL tree, at what condition the balancing is to be done? If the pivotal value (or the Height factor) is greater than 1 or less than 1. 3.Minimum number of queues needed to implement the priority queue? Two. One queue is used for actual storing of data and another for storing priorities. 4.How many different trees are possible with 10 nodes ? 1014 - For example, consider a tree with 3 nodes(n=3), it will have the maximum combination of 5 different (ie, 23 3 =? 5) trees. 5.What is a node class? A node class is a class that, relies on the base class for services and implementation, provides a wider interface to users than its base class, relies primarily on virtual functions in its public interface depends on all its direct and indirect base class can be understood only in the context of the base class can be used as base for further derivation can be used to create objects. A node class is a class that has added new services or functionality beyond the services inherited from its base class. 6.When can you tell that a memory leak will occur? A memory leak occurs when a program loses the ability to free a block of dynamically allocated memory. 7.What is placement new? When you want to call a constructor directly, you use the placement new. Sometimes you have some raw memory thats already been allocated, and you need to construct an object in the memory you have. Operator news special version placement new allows you to do it. class Widget { public : Widget(int widgetsize); Widget* Construct_widget_int_buffer(void *buffer,int widgetsize) { return new(buffer) Widget(widgetsize); } }; This function returns a pointer to a Widget object thats constructed within the buffer passed to the function. Such a function might be useful for applications using shared memory or memory-mapped I/O, because objects in such applications must be placed at specific addresses or in memory allocated by special routines. 8.List out the areas in which data structures are applied extensively ? Compiler Design, Operating System, Database Management System, Statistical analysis package, Numerical Analysis, Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation 9.If you are using C language to implement the heterogeneous linked list, what pointer type will you use? The heterogeneous linked list contains different data types in its nodes and we need a link, pointer to connect them. It is not possible to use ordinary pointers for this. So we go for void pointer. Void pointer is capable of storing pointer to any type as it is a generic pointer type.

10.What is the data structures used to perform recursion? Stack. Because of its LIFO (Last In First Out) property it remembers its caller so knows whom to return when the function has to return. Recursion makes use of system stack for storing the return addresses of the function calls. Every recursive function has its equivalent iterative (non-recursive) function. Even when such equivalent iterative procedures are written, explicit stack is to be used. 11.Whether Linked List is linear or Non-linear data structure? According to Access strategies Linked list is a linear one. According to Storage Linked List is a Non-linear one 12.Tell how to check whether a linked list is circular ? Create two pointers, each set to the start of the list. Update each as follows: while (pointer1) { pointer1 = pointer1->next; pointer2 = pointer2->next; if (pointer2) pointer2=pointer2->next; if (pointer1 == pointer2) ??????{ print (\circular\n\); } } 13.What is the difference between ARRAY and STACK? STACK follows LIFO. Thus the item that is first entered would be the last removed. In array the items can be entered or removed in any order. Basically each member access is done using index. No strict order is to be followed here to remove a particular element. 14.What is the difference between NULL AND VOID pointer? NULL can be value for pointer type variables. VOID is a type identifier which has not size. NULL and void are not same. Example: void* ptr = NULL; 15.What is precision? Precision refers the accuracy of the decimal portion of a value. Precision is the number of digits allowed after the decimal point. 16.What is impact of signed numbers on the memory? Sign of the number is the first bit of the storage allocated for that number. So you get one bit less for storing the number. For example if you are storing an 8-bit number, without sign, the range is 0-255. If you decide to store sign you get 7 bits for the number plus one bit for the sign. So the range is -128 to +127. 17.How memory is reserved using a declaration statement ? Memory is reserved using data type in the variable declaration. A programming language implementation has predefined sizes for its data types. For example, in C# the declaration int i; will reserve 32 bits for variable i. A pointer declaration reserves memory for the address or the pointer variable, but not for the data that it will point to.

The memory for the data pointed by a pointer has to be allocated at runtime. The memory reserved by the compiler for simple variables and for storing pointer address is allocated on the stack, while the memory allocated for pointer referenced data at runtime is allocated on the heap. 18.How many parts are there in a declaration statement? There are two main parts, variable identifier and data type and the third type is optional which is type qualifier like signed/unsigned. 19.Is Pointer a variable? Yes, a pointer is a variable and can be used as an element of a structure and as an attribute of a class in some programming languages such as C++, but not Java. However, the contents of a pointer is a memory address of another location of memory, which is usually the memory address of another variable, element of a structure, or attribute of a class. 20.What is Data Structure? A data structure is a group of data elements grouped together under one name. These data elements, known as members, can have different types and different lengths. Some are used to store the data of same type and some are used to store different types of data. 21.What is significance of * ? The symbol * tells the computer that you are declaring a pointer. Actually it depends on context. In a statement like int *ptr; the * tells that you are declaring a pointer. In a statement like int i = *ptr; it tells that you want to assign value pointed to by ptr to variable i. The symbol * is also called as Indirection Operator/ Dereferencing Operator. 22.Why do we Use a Multidimensional Array? A multidimensional array can be useful to organize subgroups of data within an array. In addition to organizing data stored in elements of an array, a multidimensional array can store memory addresses of data in a pointer array and an array of pointers. Multidimensional arrays are used to store information in a matrix form. e.g. a railway timetable, schedule cannot be stored as a single dimensional array. One can use a 3-D array for storing height, width and length of each room on each floor of a building. 23.How do you assign an address to an element of a pointer array ? We can assign a memory address to an element of a pointer array by using the address operator, which is the ampersand (&), in an assignment statement such as ptemployee[0] = &projects[2]; 24.Run Time Memory Allocation is known as ? Allocating memory at runtime is called a dynamically allocating memory. In this, you dynamically allocate memory by using the new operator when declaring the array, for example : int grades[] = new int[10]; 25.What method is used to place a value onto the top of a stack? push() method, Push is the direction that data is being added to the stack. push() member method places a value onto the top of a stack. 26.What method removes the value from the top of a stack? The pop() member method removes the value from the top of a stack, which is then returned by the pop() member method to the statement that calls the pop() member method.

27.What does isEmpty() member method determines? isEmpty() checks if the stack has at least one element. This method is called by Pop() before retrieving and returning the top element. 28.What is a queue ? A Queue is a sequential organization of data. A queue is a first in first out type of data structure. An element is inserted at the last position and an element is always taken out from the first position. 29.What is the relationship between a queue and its underlying array? Data stored in a queue is actually stored in an array. Two indexes, front and end will be used to identify the start and end of the queue. When an element is removed front will be incremented by 1. In case it reaches past the last index available it will be reset to 0. Then it will be checked with end. If it is greater than end queue is empty. When an element is added end will be incremented by 1. In case it reaches past the last index available it will be reset to 0. After incrementing it will be checked with front. If they are equal queue is full. 30.Which process places data at the back of the queue? Enqueue is the process that places data at the back of the queue. 31.Why is the isEmpty() member method called? The isEmpty() member method is called within the dequeue process to determine if there is an item in the queue to be removed i.e. isEmpty() is called to decide whether the queue has at least one element. This method is called by the dequeue() method before returning the front element. 32.How is the front of the queue calculated ? The front of the queue is calculated by front = (front+1) % size. 33.What does each entry in the Link List called? Each entry in a linked list is called a node. Think of a node as an entry that has three sub entries. One sub entry contains the data, which may be one attribute or many attributes. Another points to the previous node, and the last points to the next node. When you enter a new item on a linked list, you allocate the new node and then set the pointers to previous and next nodes. 34.What is Linked List ? Linked List is one of the fundamental data structures. It consists of a sequence of? nodes, each containing arbitrary data fields and one or two (links) pointing to the next and/or previous nodes. A linked list is a self-referential datatype because it contains a pointer or link to another data of the same type. Linked lists permit insertion and removal of nodes at any point in the list in constant time, but do not allow random access. 35.What member function places a new node at the end of the linked list? The appendNode() member function places a new node at the end of the linked list. The appendNode() requires an integer representing the current data of the node. 36.How is any Data Structure application is classified among files? A linked list application can be organized into a header file, source file and main application file. The first file is the header file that contains the definition of the NODE structure and the LinkedList class definition. The second file is a source code file containing the implementation of member functions of the LinkedList class. The last file is the application file that contains code that creates and uses the LinkedList class. 37.Which file contains the definition of member functions? Definitions of member functions for the Linked List class are contained in the LinkedList.cpp file.

38.What are the major data structures used in the following areas : RDBMS, Network data model & Hierarchical data model. 1. RDBMS Array (i.e. Array of structures) 2. Network data model Graph 3. Hierarchical data model Trees. 39.Difference between calloc and malloc ? malloc: allocate n bytes calloc: allocate m times n bytes initialized to 0

Implement an algorithm to sort an array Stack can be described as a pointer. Explain

 Write an algorithm to draw a 3D pie chart Write a function to find the nth item from the end of a linked list in a single pass Write a function to compute the factorial of a given integer Give me an algorithm for telling me the number I didn't give you in a given range of numbers. (Numbers are given at random) Write a function that allocates memory for a two-dimensional array of given size(parameter x & y Write a function that finds the last instance of a character in a string Reverse a string. You are given two strings S1 and S2. Delete from S2 all those characters which occur in S1 also and create a clean S2 with the relevant characters deleted. Write a function to print the Fibonacci numbers. Delete an element from a doubly linked list. Given a sequence of characters, how will you convert the lower case characters to upper case characters? Write a routine to draw a circle given a center coordiante (x,y) and a radius (r) without making use of any floating point computations Write a function that takes in a string parameter and checks to see whether or not it is an integer, and if it is then return the integer value Write a funtion that finds repeating characters in a string Implement an algorithm to sort a linked list How would you do conditional compilation Given a linked list which is sorted, how will you insert in sorted way Write a routine that prints out a 2-D array in spiral order Write a small lexical analyzer for expressions like "a*b" etc Given an array t[100] which contains numbers between 1 and 99. Return the duplicated value. Try both O(n) and O(n-square). Give a one-line C expression to test whether a number is a power of 2. Now implement it without using loops. Print an integer using only putchar. Try doing it without using extra storage Write programs for Bubble Sort, Quick sort Logical Error Runtime Error How can you correct these errors? In which data structure, elements can be added or removed at either end, but not in the middle? What does abstract data type means? Write a Binary Search program Convert the following infix expression to post fix notation ((a+2)*(b+4)) -1 (Similar types can be asked) Parenthesis are never needed in prefix or postfix expressions. Why? How will inorder, preorder and postorder traversals print the elements of a tree? Evaluate the following prefix expression " ++ 26 + - 1324" (Similar types can be asked) When will you sort an array of pointers to list elements, rather than sorting the elements themselves? How would you sort a linked list? Syntax Error What is the maximum total number of nodes in a tree that has N levels? Note that the root is level (zero) A list is ordered from smaller to largest when a sort is called. Which sort would take the shortest time to execute? How many different binary trees and binary search trees can be made from three nodes that contain the key values 1, 2 & 3? The element being searched for is not found in an array of 100 elements. What is the average number of comparisons needed in a sequential search to determine that the element is not there, if the elements are completely unordered? What is the average number of comparisons needed in a sequential search to determine the position of an element in an array of 100 elements, if the elements are ordered from largest to smallest? Which sort show the best average behavior? Explain binary searching, Fibinocci search. What data structure would you mostly likely see in a non recursive implementation of a recursive algorithm? Which data structure is needed to convert infix notations to post fix notations? Write the programs for Linked List (Insertion and Deletion) operations What is the average number of comparisons in a sequential search? Explain quick sort and merge sort algorithms and derive the time-constraint relation for these.

 A list is ordered from smaller to largest when a sort is called. Which sort would take the longest time to execute? Implement an algorithm to insert in a sorted list. Write efficient code for extracting unique elements from a sorted list of array. Which is the ideal data structure to use for implementing priority queue ? Write a routine to reverse a series of numbers without using an array. Give a fast way to multiply a number by 7. How is it possible to insert different type of elements in stack? How would you print out the data in a binary tree, level by level, starting at the top? Implement a TIC-TAC-TOE game assuming Computer as one of the player. Optimize it for fast computer play time and space. Do some analysis on memory and processing requirements . Which one is faster? A binary search of an orderd set of elements in an array or a sequential search of the elements. What is a data structure? Explain about the types of linked lists What do you mean by Base case, Recursive case, Binding Time, Run-Time Stack and Tail Recursion?