Solutions to Assessment: Basic Programming Constructs

Question 1:
Specify the minimum number of comparisons required to find the largest number among a set of 3
integers X, Y and Z.
Solution:
We already know how to find the largest number between X, Y and Z using 2 comparisons. Using 1
comparison, we can compare only two numbers; so there is no way of telling the largest among X, Y, Z
using just 1 comparison. Therefore, the answer is 2
Ans: 2
Question 2:
Specify the minimum number of comparisons required to find the largest number among a set of 4
integers W, X, Y and Z.
Solution: We need N-1 comparisons in general to find the minimum of N numbers.
Ans: 3
Question 3:
What is the value of variable a at the end of the following program segment?
1. int a,b,c,d,e;
2. a = 6;
3. b = 3;
4. c = -2;
5. d = 2;e = 4;
6. a = a * b;
7. d = d * 2;
8. a = a + c * d / e;
9. a = a - 5;
Solution:
Value of variable a after execution of line 6 is 18
Value of variable d after execution of line 7 is 4
Line 8 can be re-written as a = (a + ((c*d)/e)), because operators * and / have an equal precedence,
which is higher than +
Value of variable a after execution of line 8 is 16
Value of variable a after execution of line 9 is 11
Ans: 11
Question 4:
What is the value of variable a at the end of the following program segment?

b = 10;
a = b++;
Solution:
The expression b++ increments the value of the variable b to 11, but the expression b++ evaluates
to the value 10. This value is assigned to the variable a.
Ans: 10
Note: ++ in the expression b++ is called post-increment operator. Operator ++ can also be written
before a variables name (Eg: ++b). In that case, its called pre-increment operator and the expression
++b evaluates to 11
Question 5:
Which among the following operators has the highest precedence?
a.) * b) == c) & d)
+
Solution:
The order of precedence for the operators in descending order is as follows:
*, +, ==,&
Ans: a
Question 6:
What is the output of the following code segment?
int x=10;
int y=5;
printf("%d",(y,x));
Solution:
In the expression (y, x) comma acts as an operator. The expression (y, x) evaluates to the second value,
i.e. x. Thus the value of variable x is printed.
Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_operator#Examples for more examples
Ans: 10
Question 7:
What is the output of the following code segment?
int x=1000;
int y=5000;
printf("%d",y,x);
Solution:
In this question, comma acts only as separator. printf() statement prints the value of the variable y and
ignores the variable x

Ans: 5000
Question 8:
What is the output of the following code segment?
int a=10,b=200;
int c;
c=a,b;
printf("%d",c);
Solution:
c = a, b; is equivalent to (c = a), b; so the variable c is assigned the value of variable a. Therefore the
answer is 10.
Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_operator#Examples for more examples
Ans: 10
Question 9:
Consider the following code snippet. What is the output if x is 10?
switch(x)
{
default: printf(x);
case 10: printf(y);
case 20: printf(z);
}
Solution:
In switch statement, code under a matching label is first executed, and the execution continues till the end
of switch.
When x = 10; case 10: block is executed and then case 20:
Ans: yz
Question 10:
What is the output of the following code snippet?
1. int x=10;
2. if (x==5)
3. printf("5");
4. if (x%5==0)
5. printf("10");
6. else
7. printf("bye");
Solution:

In line 2, x == 5 evaluates to 0 (or False), line 3 doesnt get executed.

In line 4, x % 5 == 0 evaluates to 1(or True), statement in line 5 is executed. else in line 6 is not
executed obviously because if statement was already true.
Ans: 10
Question 11:
What is the output of the following code snippet?
1. int x=5;
2. if ( x < 10 )
3. printf( "<10" );
4. else if ( x % 2 == 0 )
5. printf( "even" );
6. else if ( x >= 5)
7. printf(">=5" );
8. else
9. printf( "odd and <=5");
Solution:
In if else if else construct, only the first true statement will be executed.
x < 10 in Line 2 evaluates to True, Line 3 will be executed.
Ans: <10
Question 12:
Is the program segment below valid?
for(;;);

Solution:
The statement above is a valid C statement
Ans: Yes
Question 13:
What is of the following is the output of the following code segment?
int i;
for(i=1;i++<=5;printf(%d,i));
Solution:
for(variable initialization; condition; variable update){
Code to execute while the condition is true
}
For the first iteration, condition is executed and if it evaluates to True, the body of for loop is executed.
For the subsequent iterations, statement(s) in variable update is/are executed, followed by statement(s)

in condition. If condition evaluates to True, body of the for loop is executed.

Also note that, if i = 5, the statement i++ evaluates to 5; and hence i++ <= 5 evaluates to True
Ans: 23456
Question 14:
What is the output of the following code segment?
int i=1;
while(i++<5);
printf("%d",i);
Solution:
The while loop starts with the check (1 < 5) but it gets post-incremented to 2. This loop continues till i =
5. When you check (i++ < 5), it evaluates (5 <5) which is FALSE and the loop exits. However, because of
i++, i gets incremented to 6. The result printed would be 6.
Ans: 6
Question 15:
What is the output of the following code segment?
1. int i=1;
2. do
3.
while(i++<=5);
4. while(i++<=4);
5. while(i++<=3);
6. printf(%d,i);
Solution:
Just like in Q15, the while loop in Line 3, would leave i with the value 7.
The check in line 4, checks (7<=4) but also increments it to 8. Finally, the check in line 9 fails but the
value of i gets incremented to 9. Thus 9 is the final answer.
Ans: 9

Solutions to Programming Assignments

Question 1:
Write a program that reads numbers which are in the range 0 to 100, till it encounters -1. Print the sum of
all the integers that you have read before you encountered -1

INPUT:
A sequence of integers separated by whitespace. There may be other integers following -1.
OUTPUT:
Sum of all integers in the sequence before you encounter -1. Any integer that is input after -1 in
the sequence should be ignored.
CONSTRAINTS:
Atmost 10 integers will be given in the input. One of them is guaranteed to be a -1.
Inputs will be in the range 0 to 100 (both included).
Solution:
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
int sum=0;
int number=0;
do
{
sum=sum+number; //update partial sum
scanf("%d",&number); //read a number from the input
}while(number!=-1); //check whether recently added number is -1 or not
printf("%d",sum); //print the final sum
return 0;
}
Public test cases:
Input

Output

2 -1 2 3

-1 4 5

10 3 4 -1

17

2 2 3 4 5 6 -1 7 8 9

22

Private test cases:

Input

Output

-1

0 0 0 2 -1 4 99

2 3 4 -1

9 3 2 8 -1

22

5 7 -1 9

12

11 -1

11

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -1

45

0 0 0 0 0 -1

Question 2:
Solution described in the video.
Given three points (x1, y1), (x2, y2) and (x3, y3), write a program to check if all the three points fall on
one straight line.
INPUT:
Six integers x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3 separated by whitespace.
OUTPUT:
Print Yes if all the points fall on straight line, No otherwise.
CONSTRAINTS:
-1000 <= x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3 <= 1000
Solution:
#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
int x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3;
//Reading all 6 integers from the input using scanf()
scanf("%d %d %d %d %d %d", &x1,&y1,&x2,&y2,&x3,&y3);
//Checking if the slopes (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) == (y3-y2)/(x3-x2). If they are equal, then all the
points lie on the same line.
//Instead of performing division in LHS and RHS, we cross multiply (x2-x1) and (x3-x2) to
handle the case when either (x2-x1) = 0 or (x3-x2) = 0.
if ((y2-y1)*(x3-x2) == (y3-y2)*(x2-x1)) {
printf("Yes");
} else {
printf("No");
}
return 0;
}
PUBLIC TEST CASES:

Input

Output

100030

Yes

-2 0 -2 1 -2 2

Yes

-62 14 -18 -23 -6 23

No

111213

Yes

PRIVATE TEST CASES:

Input

Output

71 44 -36 -47 60 -74

No

0 1 0 4 0 -10

Yes

-26 24 77 -44 -55 -28

No

8 -4 10 0 23 26

Yes

60 -9 -71 -57 2 -71

No

7 9 72 74 -20 -28

Yes

9 -1 23 13 422 412

Yes

10 30 -18 -54 23 69

Yes

Question 3:
The digital root (also called repeated digital sum) of a number is a single digit value obtained
by an iterative process of summing digits. Digital sum of 65536 is 7, because 6+5+5+3+6=25
and 2+5 = 7. Write a program that takes an integer as input and prints its digital root.
INPUT:
A single integer N
OUTPUT:
Digital root of the number N.
CONSTRAINTS:
1 <= N <= 10^7
PUBLIC TEST CASES:
Input

Output

65536

1214

9199999

PRIVATE TEST CASES:

Input

Output

99999

1233

1234

132224

239123

96999999

9077

887

9009

Solution: Check the video posted in the course webpage for a detailed explanation of the
following code:
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
int N, sum=0;
scanf("%d",&N);
while(N>9){
sum=0;
while(N>0){
sum += N%10;
N = N/10;
}
N = sum;
}

printf("%d",N);
return 0;
}

Question 4:
Write a program to print all the factors of a positive integer A.
INPUT:
A single integer A
OUTPUT:
Factors of the number A, in ascending order, separated by whitespace. 1 and A are also factors of A.
CONSTRAINTS:
2 <= A <= 10000
Solution:
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
int number;
int i=1;
scanf("%d",&number);
printf("%d",i);
for(i=2;i<=number;i++) //iterating over all numbers from 2 to number
{
if(number%i==0) //checking whether 'i' is a factor of number or not
{
printf(" %d",i); //printing a factor with a preceding whitespace
}
}
return 0;
}
PUBLIC TEST CASES:
Input

Output

1 2 3 6

8128

1 2 4 8 16 32 64 127 254 508 1016 2032

4064 8128

92

1 2 4 23 46 92

97

1 97

PRIVATE TEST CASES:

Input

Output

496

1 2 4 8 16 31 62 124 248 496

28

1 2 4 7 14 28

24

1 2 3 4 6 8 12 24

3234

1 2 3 6 7 11 14 21 22 33 42 49 66 77
98 147 154 231 294 462 539 1078 1617
3234

4006

1 2 2003 4006

2003

1 2003

30

1 2 3 5 6 10 15 30

1 2