Handbook

- A Comprehensive Guide to
Placements

Preface

Campus placements play an important role in a students life. It sometimes

becomes a turning point in their lives too. As in the case with every worthy endeavor,
preparation makes a lot of difference towards achieving it. This book is primarily targeted
at students looking for a guide to help them in preparation for placements.Target
Audience
This book is primarily targeted at graduates and post-graduates of computer science
(and related disciplines), who want to refresh and improve their knowledge in core
computer science areas focusing towards placements.

This book also serves as a question bank for Computer Science. However this book
has a three main differences from other question banks available in the market. This book
covers only the most important of the subjects; within the concerned subject it covers only
essential questions and most in cases, it gives detailed answers. So, this book stands with
an advantage over the question banks.

This book can also serve for students appearing for various competitive exams
related to computer science. For instance the first part of book is suitable for the entrance
exam preparation for MCA for various universities and colleges throughout the country.
Similarly this book can be handy for the students appearing for NCSTs CST (Competency

in Software Technology) Exams of levels E, I, D, G and DOEACCs exams and other

similar competitive exams.

This book is very handy for students and teachers looking for a book that cover the essence
of important subjects in form of question and answers.

Part II Concepts of this book can serve also as a FAQ on important topics in Computer
Science.

Anyone interested in increasing the aptitude in computer related areas, can use this book.
Even though this book is not written having beginners in mind, with little struggle, they can
make-up to read the book, because this book addresses main concepts from the basics
moving towards more tough areas.

Sometimes it can also serve as a general reference; when in doubt about important topic,
they can always look for information about that topic.

This book neither has full-fledged/in-depth coverage of subjects, nor can be used as
teaching material/textbook. If that is your intention, there are other books available; few of
them listed under suggested reading. This book is meant to be far from them. It is rather a
refresher of core concepts in important subjects.

Each chapter is organized such that the reader can start from any chapter and know more
about that topic and is mostly independent of other chapters. General readers may be
selective in reading the chapters according to their need.

The book starts with a short introduction to placements. The whole book is divided into
two parts:
Part I - Aptitude and
Part II - Concepts.

Part I - Aptitude covers the aptitude part essential for appearing for the written tests for
the various companies and exams. This part mostly follows a question-answer-explanation
format, because for aptitude preparation, the objective type is not sufficient. If the reader is
able to prepare and answers in this manner, answering objective questions is direct and
easy.

Part II Concepts is for information on areas of specialization that will be useful for
attending technical interviews (and sometimes asked in the written tests too). It is more
likely that the interviewers ask questions on most important of the topics in Computer
Science to judge the technical capability of the candidate. This part serves to be a refresher
of concepts on important topics and covers most of the important underlying facts/concepts
that a computer science student should be familiar with.

The Part I Aptitude has a problem solving approach and consists of four chapters. We
encourage the readers to try to solve the problems provided than to just read them. Problem
solving is an area where there are more possibilities for making silly errors; only practice
can help in avoiding them. This will also enable them to access their strong-points and
weaknesses and help improving them. Since explanations are provided, it will help
understanding the concept behind the question asked and reason it out why the answer is.

Chapter 1 is on C Aptitude. This is the most important of the aptitude to be developed. A

careful selection is made in picking and framing the questions, to enable coverage of all
topics of importance in C, and their complexity vary from very easy to tough.

The next chapter is on C++ and Java aptitude. C++ is such a complex language that it is
almost impossible to cover all the areas, so we have given our best to address most
important of the concepts. Java is a relatively new language and it will take some more
time for the companies to concentrate more on Java. So there are comparatively few
questions on Java and that too are intended to be sampling questions on most of the mustknow topics in Java.
The third chapter is on UNIX and SQL. This part is useful both for written tests and
interviews; so it doesn't follow the question-answer-explanation format. UNIX covers the
most important of the usage of various commands in the common subset of UNIX systems.
The shell programming is not covered because there exits many popular UNIX shells and
providing a common subset of questions for all shells is not possible. SQL questions are

targeted at improving the ability to solve commonly asked SQL queries given a schema.
PL/SQL is not covered for the same reason as with shell programming.

The final chapter of the first part of this book is on general aptitude. Quantitative aptitude
takes major part in placement selection papers. It is almost impossible to cover the general
aptitude section in a full-fledged manner. So important formulae are listed in the beginning
of the chapter. This chapter is just gives a taste of how the general aptitude questions will
look like in actual written tests.
The Part II Concepts is made-up of 7 chapters.
The chapter on Data Structures and Algorithms is of primary importance of all the chapters
in this part. Since this subject is a base subject for computer science, a clear understanding
of the concepts is necessary and this chapter serves the purpose of covering the important
of the concepts to be understood.
The next chapter is on Database Management Systems. This chapter covers most of the
important rules and concepts that an interviewer may expect that the candidate be aware of.

The next chapter is on Object Oriented Programming and Object Oriented Analysis and
Design. OOPs concepts are covered based on C++ since it is the widely used language.
OOAD addresses the analysis and design concepts in general and UML in particular.

The next two chapters, Operating Systems and UNIX are interrelated. The general
concepts on OS are covered in the chapter on OS and the application of those concepts of
how they take shape in the UNIX operating system is discussed in the chapter on UNIX.

The chapter on UNIX has three sub-sections: process management, memory management
and file management. Some questions that are specific to UNIX System V are there in
section of memory management and such contexts are specified explicitly.

Computer Networks is a hot topic in todays context and many of the definitions are
covered in this chapter. The final chapter is on client/server computing and there is more
possibility that the interviewers will ask questions on this since this is the age of Internet
As a whole the chapters are organized such that they provide an overall coverage of most
of the concepts required to be known by a student attending for placements.
.
Appendix-I of the book lists the subjects covered for the written tests conduced by
important IT companies. Appendix-II lists the books suggested for further reading on
selected topics.

Notes on Formatting
The questions are italicized to distinguish them from the answers. The words that
are italicized inside the normal text indicate special meaning or their importance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
An Introduction to Placements
PART I
APTITUDE
C Aptitude
C++ and Java Aptitude
UNIX Commands and SQL Statements
General Aptitude
PART II
CONCEPTS
Data Structures and Algorithms
RDBMS concepts
OOPs and OOAD Concepts
Operating System Concepts
UNIX Concepts
Computer Networks
Client/Server Computing
APPENDIX I
List of Subjects Covered in Written Tests by Various Companies
APPENDIX II
Suggested Reading

An Introduction to
Placements

Introduction
This chapter gives an overview on campus placements (particularly on-campus, still the
most of the ideas will apply for off-campus selections too) and preparations for the
placements. You might already know most of the information given here, but we think
there is no harm in giving it.

What Companies Expect

The IT field is a constantly growing one, where the technology of yesterday is a relic today.
There is a wide gap between the requirement and supply of the skilled manpower. So there
is a very high demand for such capable people. They are looking forward for such people
and expect their employees to be dynamic enough to have the aptitude for continuous
learning and a willingness to work more. Software development is teamwork, so the
companies expect reasonably good communication skills. Its enough that you have the

capability to express your thoughts freely.

The Selection Procedure

Most of the companies follow the similar methodology for campus selections. We feel that
the companies adopt more a filtering approach to selection strategy in initial stages.
Many companies mandate a 60%-75% average in the qualifying degree. Few companies
look for good track record from school days itself. Consistent performance is also
sometimes taken into account: some companies require that the candidates should have no
arrears.
Next comes the written test. The test topics and weight age given for each of the subject
tested varies between the companies. The aim is to select the candidates with good aptitude
that includes C aptitude and general aptitude (analytical aptitude and reasoning).
Depending on the companies the other subjects tested varies. The list of companies and the
subjects they cover for written test in given in Appendix-I of this book.
When you are selected in the written test, some companies have Group Discussion
for further filtering of the candidates.
Finally you have personal interview. Depending on the company there may be one
or two interviews; in case of technical session and HR/Stress interviews. Performance in
interviews is crucial in the selection process because it is where you are evaluated fully and
final decision is made on your selection.

What to prepare and How to prepare

Proper planning for placements will help a lot in improving your chances for

getting placed. Identify your strong points and weaknesses and plan accordingly.
Preparation should start well ahead of the placement dates, and 6 months time will be more
than enough.
There are many facets that are to be considered for preparing for placements. The
preparation should constitute: improving technical capabilities, increasing the general
aptitude, developing good communication skills and mental preparation.

Technical Capabilities:
Long before placements start, you should have clearly identified your areas of
interest and specialization.

There is more possibility that the interviewers will ask

questions in those areas.

As far as technical capabilities are concerned, its more a long-term preparation.
You can go through the textbooks of the concerned subjects once again and know the
subject better. Don't mug-up; this is not for your semester exams. Concentrate more on
concepts than data; employees prefer good thinkers to RAMs.
A wide knowledge in all the fields concerned with computer science is a very big
advantage. This book can help very much as a refresher of important concepts and having
an overall view of almost all the important subjects concerned with computer science in
placements point of view. For full coverage of information you should read the text-books
and few of the books on selected topics are listed in Appendix-II suggested reading.
Data Structures and Algorithms, Computer Networks, Operating Systems, DBMS
are very important areas in Computer Science. Knowledge in these areas will be a big
advantage, even if your area of interest/specialization doesn't happen to be one of these

subjects.
Non-computer science students need to be strong in their areas of graduation. Still
knowledge of computers and C language is very much desirable.
If you don't know C language basics, start learning C immediately. Knowledge of C
language is a must and almost all the companies test C aptitude. C++, Java and UNIX
aptitude will be an added advantage. It is worthwhile investing lot of time improving your
aptitude in these areas; they are here to stay in IT field for a long time.

General Aptitude:
Good skills in general aptitude is a must to pass the written test, and sometimes in
interview also general aptitude skills are tested. You can perform better if you prepare well
for improving this aptitude. Both short and long term preparation shall be useful. Know the
shortcuts for answering these questions since time is an important factor in answering these
questions. Memorize important formulae and many of them are listed in the chapter
dedicated for general aptitude in this book.
Now lets look at few tips on solving the general aptitude questions.
- Each one of you will have your own positive and negative aspects in problem
solving. First identify your gray areas first and work on them assiduously.
- The two most important attributes when we go for any aptitude test is speed and
accuracy. One without the other is meaningless.
- Remember that it is almost humanly impossible to solve all the problems in the
stipulated time because it will then reflect poorly on the standard of the question paper
being set and no company will ever allow that. So don't be in too much of a hurry to answer

all the questions and in the process make some stupid errors.
- Reasoning ability is more important and not our mathematical skills. Almost 95%
of our problems do not require too much of a mathematical intellect on our part.
- When you sit in for a test try to identify those problems that take more time to
solve. Remember that all the questions carry equal marks and it doesn't make sense for us
to solve one problem in say 30 seconds and another in, say 3 minutes. Skip such questions
in the beginning and come back to them later if and when you have time.
Communication Skills:
Having good oral communication skills is a must for success in the personal
interview. Its enough that you are able to communicate your ideas effectively without any
inhibitions in English.
English is a language in which you can achieve a considerable fluency in a short
time span. This requires a conscious effort on your part, and thus, a good command over
the English language can be achieved. Make it a point that you speak in English with your
friends and ask them to point out the mistakes you commit while you speak.

Mental Preparation
Mental preparation plays a vital role in the placements. We should have the
confidence that we can get placed. This is the basic and most important point to be noted.
Build a positive self-image and project the best in you.

Conclusion

The problem India faces is not the problem of unemployment; it is rather the
problem of 'unemployability'. We should make ourselves capable and improve ourselves to
make suitable for being employed. For that preparations will help a lot.

Part I : Aptitude

C Aptitude

Note: All the programs are tested under Turbo C/C++ compilers.
It is assumed that,
Programs run under DOS environment,
The underlying machine is an x86 system,
Program is compiled using Turbo C/C++ compiler.
Proper and required header files are included,
The program output may depend on the information based on this assumptions (for
example sizeof(int) == 2 may be assumed).

Predict the output or error(s) for the following:

1.

void main(){
int const * p=5;

printf("%d",++(*p));
}
Answer:
Compiler error: Cannot modify a constant value.
Explanation:
p is a pointer to a "constant integer". But we tried to change the value of the
"constant integer".

2.

main(){
char s[ ]="man";
int i;
for(i=0;s[ i ];i++)
printf("\n%c%c%c%c",s[ i ],*(s+i),*(i+s),i[s]);
}
Answer:
mmmm
aaaa
nnnn
Explanation:
s[i], *(i+s), *(s+i), i[s] are all different ways of expressing the same idea.
Generally array name is the base address for that array. Here s is the base address. i
is the index number/displacement from the base address. So, indirecting it with * is
same as s[i]. i[s] may be surprising. But in the case of C it is same as s[i].

3.

main(){
float me = 1.1;
double you = 1.1;
if(me==you)
printf("I love U");
else
printf("I hate U");
}
Answer:
I hate U
Explanation:
For floating point numbers (float, double, long double) the values cannot be
predicted exactly. Depending on the number of bytes, the precision with of the
value represented varies. Float takes 4 bytes and long double takes 10 bytes. So
float stores 0.9 with less precision than long double.

Rule of Thumb:
Never compare or at-least be cautious when using floating point numbers
with relational operators (== , >, <, <=, >=,!= ) .

4.

main() {
static int var = 5;
printf("%d ",var--);

if(var)
main();
}
Answer:
54321
Explanation:
When static storage class is given, it is initialized once. The change in the
value of a static variable is retained even between the function calls. Main is also
treated like any other ordinary function, which can be called recursively.

5.

main(){
int c[ ]={2.8,3.4,4,6.7,5};
int j,*p=c,*q=c;
for(j=0;j<5;j++) {
printf(" %d ",*c);
++q;

for(j=0;j<5;j++){
printf(" %d ",*p);
++p;
}
Answer:
2222223465
Explanation:

Initially pointer c is assigned to both p and q. In the first loop, since only q
is incremented and not c , the value 2 will be printed 5 times. In second loop p itself
is incremented. So the values 2 3 4 6 5 will be printed.

6.

main(){
extern int i;
i=20;
printf("%d",i);
}
Answer:
Linker Error : Undefined symbol '_i'
Explanation:
extern storage class in the following declaration,
extern int i;
specifies to the compiler that the memory for i is allocated in some other program
and that address will be given to the current program at the time of linking. But
linker finds that no other variable of name i is available in any other program with
memory space allocated for it. Hence a linker error has occurred .

7.

main(){
int i=-1,j=-1,k=0,l=2,m;
m=i++&&j++&&k++||l++;
printf("%d %d %d %d %d",i,j,k,l,m);

}
Answer:
00131
Explanation :
Logical operations always give a result of 1 or 0 . And also the logical AND
(&&) operator has higher priority over the logical OR (||) operator. So the
expression i++ && j++ && k++ is executed first. The result of this expression
is 0

(-1 && -1 && 0 = 0). Now the expression is 0 || 2 which evaluates to 1

(because OR operator always gives 1 except for 0 || 0 combination- for which it

gives 0). So the value of m is 1. The values of other variables are also incremented
by 1.

8.

main(){
char *p;
printf("%d %d ",sizeof(*p),sizeof(p));
}
Answer:
12
Explanation:
The sizeof() operator gives the number of bytes taken by its operand. P is a
character pointer, which needs one byte for storing its value (a character). Hence
sizeof(*p) gives a value of 1. Since it needs two bytes to store the address of the
character pointer sizeof(p) gives 2.

9.

main(){
int i=3;
switch(i) {
default:printf("zero");
case 1: printf("one");
break;
case 2:printf("two");
break;
case 3: printf("three");
break;
}
}
Answer :
three
Explanation :
The default case can be placed anywhere inside the loop. It is executed only
when all other cases doesn't match.

10.

main(){
printf("%x",-1<<4);
}
Answer:

fff0
Explanation :
-1 is internally represented as all 1's. When left shifted four times the least
significant 4 bits are filled with 0's.The %x format specifier specifies that the
integer value be printed as a hexadecimal value.

11.

main(){
char string[]="Hello World";
display(string);
}
void display(char *string){
printf("%s",string);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error : Type mismatch in redeclaration of function display
Explanation :
In third line, when the function display is encountered, the compiler doesn't
know anything about the function display. It assumes the arguments and return
types to be integers, (which is the default type). When it sees the actual function
display, the arguments and type contradicts with what it has assumed previously.
Hence a compile time error occurs.

12.

main(){

int c=- -2;

printf("c=%d",c);
}
Answer:
c=2;
Explanation:
Here unary minus (or negation) operator is used twice. Same maths rules
applies, ie. minus * minus= plus.
Note:
However you cannot give like --2. Because -- operator can only be applied
to variables as a decrement operator (eg., i--). 2 is a constant and not a variable.

13.

#define int char

main(){
int i=65;
printf("sizeof(i)=%d",sizeof(i));
}
Answer:
sizeof(i)=1
Explanation:
Since the #define replaces the string int by the macro char

14.

main(){

int i=10;
i=!i>14;
printf("i=%d",i);
}
Answer:
i=0
Explanation:
In the expression !i>14, NOT (!) operator has more precedence than >
symbol. ! is a unary logical operator. !i (!10) is 0 (not of true is false). 0>14 is false
(zero).

15.

main(){
char s[]={'a','b','c','\n','c','\0'};
char *p,*str,*str1;
p=&s[3];
str=p;
str1=s;
printf("%d",++*p + ++*str1-32);
}
Answer:
77
Explanation:

p is pointing to character '\n'. str1 is pointing to character 'a' ++*p. "p is

pointing to '\n' and that is incremented by one." the ASCII value of '\n' is 10, which
is then incremented to 11. The value of ++*p is 11. ++*str1, str1 is pointing to 'a'
that is incremented by 1 and it becomes 'b'. ASCII value of 'b' is 98.
Now performing (11 + 98 32), we get 77 (77 is the ASCII value for "M");
So we get the output 77.

16.

main(){
int a[2][2][2] = { {10,2,3,4}, {5,6,7,8} };
int *p,*q;
p=&a[2][2][2];
*q=***a;
printf("%d----%d",*p,*q);
}
Answer:
SomeGarbageValue---1
Explanation:
p=&a[2][2][2] you declare only two 2D arrays, but you are trying to access
the third 2D(which you are not declared) it will print garbage values. *q=***a
starting address of a is assigned integer pointer. Now q is pointing to starting
address of a. If you print *q, it will print first element of 3D array.

17.

main(){

struct xx{
char name[]="hello";
};
struct xx *s;
printf("%s",s->name);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error
Explanation:
You should not initialize variables in structure declaration.

18.

main(){
struct xx{
int x;
struct yy{
char s;
struct xx *p;
};
struct yy *q;
};
}
Answer:
No output.

Explanation:
Pointer to the same type of structures are known as self referential
structures. They are particularly used in implementing datastructures like trees.
Structures within structures are known as nested structures.

19.

main()
{
printf("\nab");
printf("\bsi");
printf("\rha");
}
Answer:
hai
Explanation:
\n - newline
\b - backspace
\r - linefeed

20.

main()
{
int i=5;
printf("%d%d%d%d%d%d",i++,i--,++i,--i,i);
}

Answer:
45545
Explanation:
The arguments in a function call are pushed into the stack from left to right.
The evaluation is by popping out from the stack. and the evaluation is from right to
left, hence the result.

21.

#define square(x) x*x

main()
{
int i;
i = 64/square(4);
printf("%d",i);
}
Answer:
64
Explanation:
The macro call square(4) will substituted by 4*4 so the expression becomes
i = 64/4*4 . Since / and * has equal priority the expression will be evaluated as
(64/4)*4 i.e. 16*4 = 64

22.

main()
{

char *p="hai friends",*p1;

p1=p;
while(*p!='\0') ++*p++;
printf("%s %s",p,p1);
}
Answer:
ibj!gsjfoet
Explanation:
++*p++ will be parse in the given order
*p that is value at the location currently pointed by p will be taken
++*p the retrieved value will be incremented
when ; is encountered the location will be incremented, that is p++ will
be executed
Hence, in the while loop initial value pointed by p is h, which is changed
to i by executing ++*p and pointer moves to point, a which is similarly changed
to b and so on. Similarly blank space is converted to !. Thus, we obtain value in
p becomes ibj!gsjfoet and since p reaches \0 and p1 points to p thus p1doesnot
print anything.

23.

#define a 10
main()
{
#define a 50

printf("%d",;
}
Answer:
50
Explanation:
The preprocessor directives can be redefined anywhere in the program. So
the most recently assigned value will be taken.

24.

#define clrscr() 100

main(){
clrscr();
printf("%d\n",clrscr());
}
Answer:
100
Explanation:
Preprocessor executes as a seperate pass before the execution of the
compiler. So textual replacement of clrscr() to 100 occurs.The input program to
compiler looks like this :
main()
{
100;
printf("%d\n",100);

}
Note:
100; is an executable statement but with no action. So it doesn't give any
problem.

25.

main(){
printf("%p",main);
}
Answer:
Some address will be printed.
Explanation:
Function names are just addresses (just like array names are
addresses).main() is also a function. So the address of function main will be printed.
%p in printf specifies that the argument is an address. They are printed as
hexadecimal numbers.

26.

main(){
clrscr();
}
clrscr();

Answer:
No output/error

Explanation:
The first clrscr() occurs inside a function. So it becomes a function call. In
the second clrscr(); is a function declaration (because it is not inside any function).

27.

enum colors {BLACK,BLUE,GREEN}

main(){
printf("%d..%d..%d",BLACK,BLUE,GREEN);
return(1);
}
Answer:
0..1..2
Explanation:
enum assigns numbers starting from 0, if not explicitly defined.

28.

void main(){
char far *farther,*farthest;
printf("%d..%d",sizeof(farther),sizeof(farthest));
}
Answer:
4..2
Explanation:
The second pointer is of char type and not a far pointer

29.

main(){
int i=400,j=300;
printf("%d..%d");
}
Answer:
400..300
Explanation:
printf takes the values of the first two assignments of the program. Any
number of printf's may be given. All of them take only the first two values. If more
number of assignments given in the program,then printf will take garbage values.

30.

main(){
char *p;
p="Hello";
printf("%c\n",*&*p);
}
Answer:
H
Explanation:
* is a dereference operator & is a reference operator. They can be

applied

any number of times provided it is meaningful. Here p points to the first character
in the string "Hello". *p dereferences it and so its value is H. Again & references it
to an address and * dereferences it to the value H.

31.

main(){
int i=1;
while (i<=5){
printf("%d",i);
if (i>2)
goto here;
i++;
}
}
fun(){
here:
printf("PP");
}
Answer:
Compiler error: Undefined label 'here' in function main
Explanation:
Labels have functions scope, in other words The scope of the labels is
limited to functions . The label 'here' is available in function fun() Hence it is not
visible in function main.

32.

main(){
static char names[5][20]={"pascal","ada","cobol","fortran","perl"};

int i;
char *t;
t=names[3];
names[3]=names[4];
names[4]=t;
for (i=0;i<=4;i++)
printf("%s",names[i]);
}
Answer:
Compiler error: Lvalue required in function main
Explanation:
Array names are pointer constants. So it cannot be modified.

33.

void main(){
int i=5;
printf("%d",i++ + ++i);
}
Answer:
Output Cannot be predicted exactly.
Explanation:
Side effects are involved in the evaluation of i.

34.

void main(){

int i=5;
printf("%d",i+++++i);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error
Explanation:
The expression i+++++i is parsed as i ++ ++ + i which is an illegal
combination of operators.

35.

main(){
int i=1,j=2;
switch(i){
case 1: printf("GOOD");
break;
case j: printf("BAD");
break;
}
}
Answer:
Compiler Error: Constant expression required in function main.
Explanation:
The case statement can have only constant expressions (this implies that we
cannot use variable names directly so an error).

Note:
Enumerated types can be used in case statements.

36.

main(){
int i;
printf("%d",scanf("%d",&i)); // value 10 is given as input here
}
Answer:
1
Explanation:
Scanf returns number of items successfully read.Here 10 is given as input
which should have been scanned successfully. So number of items read is 1.

37.

#define f(g,g2) g##g2

main(){
int var12=100;
printf("%d",f(var,12));
}
Answer:
100

38.

main(){
int i=0;

for(;i++;printf("%d",i)) ;
printf("%d",i);
}
Answer:
1
Explanation:
Before entering into the for loop the checking condition is "evaluated". Here
it evaluates to 0 (false) and comes out of the loop, and i is incremented (note the
semicolon after the for loop).

39.

main(){
extern int i;
i=20;
printf("%d",sizeof(i));
}
Answer:
Linker error: undefined symbol '_i'.
Explanation:
extern declaration specifies that the variable i is defined somewhere else.
The compiler passes the external variable to be resolved by the linker. So compiler
doesn't find an error. During linking the linker searches for the definition of i. Since
it is not found the linker flags an error.

40.

main(){
printf("%d", out);
}
int out=100;
Answer:
Compiler error: undefined symbol out in function main.
Explanation:
The rule is that a variable is available for use from the point of declaration.
Even though a is a global variable, it is not available for main. Hence an error.

41.

main(){
extern out;
printf("%d", out);
}
int out=100;
Answer:
100
Explanation:
This is the correct way of writing the previous program.

42.

main(){
show();
}

void show(){
printf("I'm the greatest");
}
Answer:
Compier error: Type mismatch in redeclaration of show.
Explanation:
When the compiler sees the function show it doesn't know anything about it.
So the default return type (ie, int) is assumed. But when compiler sees the actual
definition of show mismatch occurs since it is declared as void. Hence the error.
The solutions are as follows:
1. declare void show() in main() .
2. define show() before main().
3. declare extern void show() before the use of show().

43. main( ){
int a[2][3][2] = {{{2,4},{7,8},{3,4}},{{2,2},{2,3},{3,4}}};
printf(%u %u %u %d \n,a,*a,**a,***;
printf(%u %u %u %d \n,a+1,*a+1,**a+1,***a+1);
}
Answer:
100, 100, 100, 2
114, 104, 102, 3
Explanation:

The given array is a 3-D one. It can also be viewed as a 1-D array.

2 4
7 8 3
4 2
2 2
3
3
4
100 102 104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122

Thus, for the first printf statement a, *a, **a give address of first element.
Since the indirection ***a gives the value. Hence, the first line of the output. For
the second printf a+1 increases in the third dimension thus points to value at 114,
*a+1 increments in second dimension thus points to 104, **a +1 increments the
first dimension thus points to 102 and ***a+1 first gets the value at first location
and then increments it by 1. Hence, the output.

44.

main( ){
int a[ ] = {10,20,30,40,50},j,*p;
for(j=0; j<5; j++){
printf(%d ,*;
a++;
}
p = a;
for(j=0; j<5; j++){
printf(%d ,*p);
p++;
}

}
Answer:
Compiler error: lvalue required.
Explanation:
Error is in line with statement a++. The operand must be an lvalue and may
be of any of scalar type for the any operator, array name only when subscripted is
an lvalue. Simply array name is a non-modifiable lvalue.

45.

main( ){
static int a[ ] = {0,1,2,3,4};
int *p[ ] = {a,a+1,a+2,a+3,a+4};
int **ptr = p;
ptr++;
printf(\n %d %d %d, ptr-p, *ptr-a, **ptr);
*ptr++;
printf(\n %d %d %d, ptr-p, *ptr-a, **ptr);
*++ptr;
printf(\n %d %d %d, ptr-p, *ptr-a, **ptr);
++*ptr;
printf(\n %d %d %d, ptr-p, *ptr-a, **ptr);
}
Answer:
111

222
333
344
Explanation:
Let us consider the array and the two pointers with some address
a
0
100

1
102

2
104

3
106

4
108
p

100
102
104
106
108
1000 1002 1004 1006 1008
ptr
1000
2000
After execution of the instruction ptr++ value in ptr becomes 1002, if
scaling factor for integer is 2 bytes. Now ptr p is value in ptr starting location of
array p, (1002 1000) / (scaling factor) = 1, *ptr a = value at address pointed by
ptr starting value of array a, 1002 has a value 102 so the value is (102 100)/
(scaling factor) = 1, **ptr is the value stored in the location pointed by the pointer
of ptr = value pointed by value pointed by 1002 = value pointed by 102 = 1. Hence
the output of the firs printf is 1, 1, 1.
After execution of *ptr++ increments value of the value in ptr by scaling
factor, so it becomes1004. Hence, the outputs for the second printf are ptr p = 2,
*ptr a = 2, **ptr = 2.

After execution of *++ptr increments value of the value in ptr by scaling

factor, so it becomes1004. Hence, the outputs for the third printf are ptr p = 3,
*ptr a = 3, **ptr = 3.
After execution of ++*ptr value in ptr remains the same, the value pointed
by the value is incremented by the scaling factor. So the value in array p at location
1006 changes from 106 10 108,. Hence, the outputs for the fourth printf are ptr p
= 1006 1000 = 3, *ptr a = 108 100 = 4, **ptr = 4.

46.

main( ){
char *q;
int j;
for (j=0; j<3; j++) scanf(%s ,(q+j));
for (j=0; j<3; j++) printf(%c ,*(q+j));
for (j=0; j<3; j++) printf(%s ,(q+j));
}
Explanation:
Here we have only one pointer to type char and since we take input in the
same pointer thus we keep writing over in the same location, each time shifting the
pointer value by 1. Suppose the inputs are MOUSE, TRACK and VIRTUAL. Then
for the first input suppose the pointer starts at location 100 then the input one is
stored as
M

\0

When the second input is given the pointer is incremented as j value

becomes 1, so the input is filled in memory starting from 101.

M
T
R
A
C
K
\0
The third input starts filling from the location 102
M
T
V
I
R
This is the final value stored .

\0

The first printf prints the values at the position q, q+1 and q+2 = M T V
The second printf prints three strings starting from locations q, q+1, q+2
i.e MTVIRTUAL, TVIRTUAL and VIRTUAL.

47.

main( ){
void *vp;
char ch = g, *cp = goofy;
int j = 20;
vp = &ch;
printf(%c, *(char *)vp);
vp = &j;
printf(%d,*(int *)vp);
vp = cp;
printf(%s,(char *)vp + 3);
}
Answer:
g20fy
Explanation:
Since a void pointer is used it can be type casted to any other type pointer.
vp = &ch stores address of char ch and the next statement prints the value stored in

vp after type casting it to the proper data type pointer. the output is g. Similarly
the output from second printf is 20. The third printf statement type casts it to print
the string from the 4th value hence the output is fy.

48.

main ( ){
static char *s[ ] = {black, white, yellow, violet};
char **ptr[ ] = {s+3, s+2, s+1, s}, ***p;
p = ptr;
**++p;
printf(%s,*--*++p + 3);
}
Answer:
ck
Explanation:
In this problem we have an array of char pointers pointing to start of 4
strings. Then we have ptr which is a pointer to a pointer of type char and a variable
p which is a pointer to a pointer to a pointer of type char. p hold the initial value of
ptr, i.e. p = s+3. The next statement increment value in p by 1 , thus now value of p
= s+2. In the printf statement the expression is evaluated *++p causes gets value s
+1 then the pre decrement is executed and we get s+1 1 = s . the indirection
operator now gets the value from the array of s and adds 3 to the starting address.
The string is printed starting from this position. Thus, the output is ck.

49. main(){
int i, n;
char *x = girl;
n = strlen(x);
*x = x[n];
for(i=0; i<n; ++i){
printf(%s\n,x);
x++;
}
}
Answer:
(blank space)
irl
rl
l

Explanation:
Here a string (a pointer to char) is initialized with a value girl. The strlen
function returns the length of the string, thus n has a value 4. The next statement
assigns value at the nth location (\0) to the first location. Now the string becomes
\0irl . Now the printf statement prints the string after each iteration it increments
it starting position. Loop starts from 0 to 4. The first time x[0] = \0 hence it prints
nothing and pointer value is incremented. The second time it prints from x[1] i.e

irl and the third time it prints rl and the last time it prints l and the loop
terminates.

50.

int i,j;
for(i=0;i<=10;i++){
j+=5;
assert(i<5);
}
Answer:
Runtime error: Abnormal program termination.
assert failed (i<5), <file name>,<line number>
Explanation:
asserts are used during debugging to make sure that certain conditions are
satisfied. If assertion fails, the program will terminate reporting the same. After
debugging use,
#undef NDEBUG
and this will disable all the assertions from the source code. Assertion is a
good debugging tool to make use of.

51.

main(){
int i=-1;
+i;
printf("i = %d, +i = %d \n",i,+i);

}
Answer:
i = -1, +i = -1
Explanation:
Unary + is the only dummy operator in C. Where-ever it comes you can just
ignore it just because it has no effect in the expressions (hence the name dummy
operator).

52.

What are the files which are automatically opened when a C file is executed?
Answer:
stdin, stdout, stderr (standard input,standard output,standard error).

53.

What will be the position of the file marker?

a) fseek(ptr,0,SEEK_SET);
b) fseek(ptr,0,SEEK_CUR);
Answer :
a) The SEEK_SET sets the file position marker to the starting of the file.
b) The SEEK_CUR sets the file position marker to the current position of
the file.

54.

main(){
char name[10],s[12];
scanf(" \"%[^\"]\"",s);

}
How scanf will execute?
Answer:
First it checks for the leading white space and discards it.Then it matches
with a quotation mark and then it reads all character upto another quotation mark.

55.

What is the problem with the following code segment?

while ((fgets(receiving array,50,file_ptr)) != EOF)

Answer & Explanation:

fgets returns a pointer. So the correct end of file check is checking for !=
NULL.

56.

main(){
main();
}
Answer:
Runtime error : Stack overflow.
Explanation:
main function calls itself again and again. Each time the function is called
its return address is stored in the call stack. Since there is no condition to terminate
the function call, the call stack overflows at runtime. So it terminates the program
and results in an error.

57.

main(){
char *cptr,c;
void *vptr,v;
c=10; v=0;
cptr=&c; vptr=&v;
printf("%c%v",c,v);
}
Answer:
Compiler error (at line number 4): size of v is Unknown.
Explanation:
You can create a variable of type void * but not of type void, since void is
an empty type. In the second line you are creating variable vptr of type void * and v
of type void hence an error.

58.

main() {
char *str1="abcd";
char str2[]="abcd";
printf("%d %d %d",sizeof(str1),sizeof(str2),sizeof("abcd"));
}
Answer:
255
Explanation:

In first sizeof, str1 is a character pointer so it gives you the size of the
pointer variable. In second sizeof the name str2 indicates the name of the array
whose size is 5 (including the '\0' termination character). The third sizeof is similar
to the second one.

59.

main(){
char not;
not=!2;
printf("%d",not);
}
Answer:
0
Explanation:
! is a logical operator. In C the value 0 is considered to be the boolean value
FALSE, and any non-zero value is considered to be the boolean value TRUE. Here
2 is a non-zero value so TRUE. !TRUE is FALSE (0) so it prints 0.

60.

#define FALSE -1
#define TRUE 1
#define NULL 0
main(){
if(NULL)
puts("NULL");

else if(FALSE)
puts("TRUE");
else
puts("FALSE");
}
Answer:
TRUE
Explanation:
The input program to the compiler after processing by the preprocessor is,
main(){
if(0)
puts("NULL");
else if(-1)
puts("TRUE");
else
puts("FALSE");
}
Preprocessor doesn't replace the values given inside the double quotes. The
check by if condition is boolean value false so it goes to else. In second if -1 is
boolean value true hence "TRUE" is printed.

61.

main(){
int k=1;

printf("%d==1 is ""%s",k,k==1?"TRUE":"FALSE");
}
Answer:
1==1 is TRUE
Explanation:
When two strings are placed together (or separated by white-space) they are
concatenated (this is called as "stringization" operation). So the string is as if it is
given as "%d==1 is %s". The conditional operator( ?: ) evaluates to "TRUE".

62.

main(){
int y;
scanf("%d",&y); // input given is 2000
if( (y%4==0 && y%100 != 0) || y%100 == 0 )
printf("%d is a leap year");
else
printf("%d is not a leap year");
}
Answer:
2000 is a leap year
Explanation:
An ordinary program to check if leap year or not.

63.

#define max 5

#define int arr1[max]

main(){
typedef char arr2[max];
arr1 list={0,1,2,3,4};
arr2 name="name";
printf("%d %s",list[0],name);
}
Answer:
Compiler error (in the line arr1 list = {0,1,2,3,4})
Explanation:
arr2 is declared of type array of size 5 of characters. So it can be used to
declare the variable name of the type arr2. But it is not the case of arr1. Hence an
error.
Rule of Thumb:
#defines are used for textual replacement whereas typedefs are used for
declaring new types.

64.

int i=10;
main() {
extern int i; {
int i=20;{
const volatile unsigned i=30;
printf("%d",i);

}
printf("%d",i);
}
printf("%d",i);
}
Answer:
30,20,10
Explanation:
'{' introduces new block and thus new scope. In the innermost block i is
declared as, const volatile unsigned which is a valid declaration. i is assumed of
type int. So printf prints 30. In the next block, i has value 20 and so printf prints 20.
In the outermost block, i is declared as extern, so no storage space is allocated for
it. After compilation is over the linker resolves it to global variable i (since it is the
only variable visible there). So it prints i's value as 10.

65.

main(){
int *j;{
int i=10;
j=&i;
}
printf("%d",*j);
}
Answer:

10
Explanation:
The variable i is a block level variable and the visibility is inside that block
only. But the lifetime of i is lifetime of the function so it lives upto the exit of main
function. Since the i is still allocated space, *j prints the value stored in i since j
points i.

66.

main(){
int i=-1;
-i;
printf("i = %d, -i = %d \n",i,-i);
}
Answer:
i = -1, -i = 1
Explanation:
-i is executed and this execution doesn't affect the value of i. In printf first
you just print the value of i. After that the value of the expression -i = -(-1) is
printed.

67.

main() {
const int i=4;
float j;
j = ++i;

printf("%d %f", i,++j);

}
Answer:
Compiler error
Explanation:
i is a constant. you cannot change the value of constant

68.

main(){
int a[2][2][2] = { {10,2,3,4}, {5,6,7,8} };
int *p,*q;
p=&a[2][2][2];
*q=***a;
printf("%d..%d",*p,*q);
}
Answer:
garbagevalue..1
Explanation:
p=&a[2][2][2] you declare only two 2D arrays. but you are trying to access
the third 2D(which you are not declared) it will print garbage values. *q=***a
starting address of a is assigned integer pointer. now q is pointing to starting
address of a.if you print *q meAnswer:it will print first element of 3D array.

69.

main() {

register i=5;
char j[]= "hello";
printf("%s %d",j,i);
}
Answer:
hello 5
Explanation:
if you declare i as register compiler will treat it as ordinary integer and it
will take integer value. i value may be stored either in register or in memory.

70.

main(){
int i=5,j=6,z;
printf("%d",i+++j);
}
Answer:
11
Explanation:
The expression i+++j is treated as (i++ + j).

71.

struct aaa{
struct aaa *prev;
int i;
struct aaa *next;

};
main(){
struct aaa abc,def,ghi,jkl;
int x=100;
abc.i=0;abc.prev=&jkl;
abc.next=&def;
def.i=1;def.prev=&abc;def.next=&ghi;
ghi.i=2;ghi.prev=&def;
ghi.next=&jkl;
jkl.i=3;jkl.prev=&ghi;jkl.next=&abc;
x=abc.next->next->prev->next->i;
printf("%d",x);
}
Answer:
2
Explanation:
above all statements form a double circular linked list;
abc.next->next->prev->next->i
this one points to "ghi" node the value of at particular node is 2.

72.

struct point{
int x;
int y;

};
struct point origin,*pp;
main(){
pp=&origin;
printf("origin is(%d%d)\n",(*pp).x,(*pp).y);
printf("origin is (%d%d)\n",pp->x,pp->y);
}
Answer:
origin is(0,0)
origin is(0,0)
Explanation:
pp is a pointer to structure. we can access the elements of the structure
either with arrow mark or with indirection operator.
Note:
Since structure point is globally declared x & y are initialized as zeroes

73.

main(){
int i=_l_abc(10);
printf("%d\n",--i);
}
int _l_abc(int i){
return(i++);
}

Answer:
9
Explanation:
return(i++) it will first return i and then increments. i.e. 10 will be returned.

74.

main(){
char *p;
int *q;
long *r;
p=q=r=0;
p++;
q++;
r++;
printf("%p...%p...%p",p,q,r);
}
Answer:
0001...0002...0004
Explanation:
++ operator when applied to pointers increments address according to their
corresponding data-types.

75.

main(){
char c=' ',x,convert(z);

getc(c);
if((c>='a') && (c<='z'))
x=convert(c);
printf("%c",x);
}
convert(z){
return z-32;
}
Answer:
Compiler error
Explanation:
Declaration of convert and format of getc() are wrong.

76.

main(int argc, char **argv){

printf("enter the character");
getchar();
sum(argv[1],argv[2]);
}
sum(num1,num2)int num1,num2;{
return num1+num2;
}
Answer:
Compiler error.

Explanation:
argv[1] & argv[2] are strings. They are passed to the function sum without
converting it to integer values.

77.

int one_d[]={1,2,3};
main(){
int *ptr;
ptr=one_d;
ptr+=3;
printf("%d",*ptr);
}
Answer:
garbage value
Explanation:
ptr pointer is pointing to out of the array range of one_d.

78.

aaa() {
printf("hi");
}
bbb(){
printf("hello");
}
ccc(){

printf("bye");
}
main(){
int (*ptr[3])();
ptr[0]=aaa;
ptr[1]=bbb;
ptr[2]=ccc;
ptr[2]();
}
Answer:
bye
Explanation:
ptr is array of pointers to functions of return type int.ptr[0] is assigned to
address of the function aaa. Similarly ptr[1] and ptr[2] for bbb and ccc respectively.
ptr[2]() is in effect of writing ccc(), since ptr[2] points to ccc.

79.

main(){
FILE *ptr;
char i;
ptr=fopen("zzz.c","r");
while((i=fgetch(ptr))!=EOF)
printf("%c",i);
}

Answer:
contents of zzz.c followed by an infinite loop
Explanation:
The condition is checked against EOF, it should be checked against NULL.

80.

main(){
int i =0;j=0;
if(i && j++)
printf("%d..%d",i++,j);
printf("%d..%d,i,j);
}
Answer:
0..0
Explanation:
The value of i is 0. Since this information is enough to determine the truth
value of the boolean expression. So the statement following the if statement is not
executed. The values of i and j remain unchanged and get printed.

81.

main(){
int i;
i = abc();
printf("%d",i);
}

abc(){
_AX = 1000;
}
Answer:
1000
Explanation:
Normally the return value from the function is through the information from
the accumulator. Here _AH is the pseudo global variable denoting the accumulator.
Hence, the value of the accumulator is set 1000 so the function returns value 1000.

82.

int i;
main(){
int t;
for ( t=4;scanf("%d",&i)-t;printf("%d\n",i))
printf("%d--",t--);
}
// If the inputs are 0,1,2,3 find the o/p
Answer:
4--0
3--1
2--2
Explanation:

Let us assume some x= scanf("%d",&i)-t the values during execution will

be,

83.

-4

-2

main(){
int a= 0;int b = 20;char x =1;char y =10;
if(a,b,x,y)
printf("hello");
}
Answer:
hello
Explanation:
The comma operator has associativity from left to right. Only the rightmost
value is returned and the other values are evaluated and ignored. Thus the value of
last variable y is returned to check in if. Since it is a non zero value if becomes true
so, "hello" will be printed.

84.

main(){
unsigned int i;
for(i=1;i>-2;i--)

printf("c aptitude");
}
Explanation:
i is an unsigned integer. It is compared with a signed value. Since the both
types doesn't match, signed is promoted to unsigned value. The unsigned equivalent
of -2 is a huge value so condition becomes false and control comes out of the loop.

85.

In the following pgm add a stmt in the function fun such that the address of 'a'
gets stored in 'j'.
main(){
int * j;
void fun(int **);
fun(&j);
}
void fun(int **k) {
int a =0;
/* add a stmt here*/
}
Answer:
*k = &a
Explanation:
The argument of the function is a pointer to a pointer.

86.

What are the following notations of defining functions known as?

i.

int abc(int a,float b) {

/* some code */
}

ii. int abc(a,b)

int a; float b; {
/* some code*/
}
Answer:
i. ANSI C notation
ii. Kernighan & Ritche notation

87.

main(){
char *p;
p="%d\n";
p++;
p++;
printf(p-2,300);
}
Answer:
300
Explanation:

The pointer points to % since it is incremented twice and again decremented

by 2, it points to '%d\n' and 300 is printed.

88.

main(){
char a[100];
a[0]='a';a[1]]='b';a[2]='c';a[4]='d';
abc(;
}
abc(char a[]){
a++;
printf("%c",*;
a++;
printf("%c",*;
}
Explanation:
The base address is modified only in function and as a result a points to 'b'
then after incrementing to 'c' so bc will be printed.

89.

func(a,b)
int a,b;{
return( a= (a==b) );
}
main(){

int process(),func();
printf("The value of process is %d !\n ",process(func,3,6));
}
process(pf,val1,val2)
int (*pf) ();
int val1,val2;{
return((*pf) (val1,val2));
}
Answer:
The value if process is 0 !
Explanation:
The function 'process' has 3 parameters - 1, a pointer to another function 2
and 3, integers. When this function is invoked from main, the following
substitutions for formal parameters take place: func for pf, 3 for val1 and 6 for val2.
This function returns the result of the operation performed by the function 'func'.
The function func has two integer parameters. The formal parameters are
substituted as 3 for a and 6 for b. since 3 is not equal to 6, a==b returns 0. therefore
the function returns 0 which in turn is returned by the function 'process'.

90. void main(){

static int i=5;
if(--i){
main();

printf("%d ",i);
}
}
Answer:
0000
Explanation:
The variable "I" is declared as static, hence memory for I will be allocated
for only once, as it encounters the statement. The function main() will be called
recursively unless I becomes equal to 0, and since main() is recursively called, so
the value of static I ie., 0 will be printed every time the control is returned.

91. void main(){

int k=ret(sizeof(float));
printf("\n here value is %d",++k);
}
int ret(int ret){
ret += 2.5;
return(ret);
}
Answer:
Here value is 7
Explanation:

The int ret(int ret), ie., the function name and the argument name can be the
same.
Firstly, the function ret() is called in which the sizeof(float) ie., 4 is passed,
after the first expression the value in ret will be 6, as ret is integer hence the value
stored in ret will have implicit type conversion from float to int. The ret is returned
in main() it is printed after and preincrement.

92. void main(){

char a[]="12345\0";
int i=strlen(;
printf("here in 3 %d\n",++i);
}
Answer:
here in 3 6
Explanation:
The char array 'a' will hold the initialized string, whose length will be
counted from 0 till the null character. Hence the 'I' will hold the value equal to 5,
after the pre-increment in the printf statement, the 6 will be printed.

93. void main(){

unsigned giveit=-1;
int gotit;
printf("%u ",++giveit);

printf("%u \n",gotit=--giveit);
}
Answer:
0 65535

94. void main(){

int i;
char a[]="\0";
if(printf("%s\n",)
printf("Ok here \n");
else
printf("Forget it\n");
}
Answer:
Ok here
Explanation:
Printf will return how many characters does it print. Hence printing a null
character returns 1 which makes the if statement true, thus "Ok here" is printed.

95. void main(){

void *v;
int integer=2;
int *i=&integer;

v=i;
printf("%d",(int*)*v);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error. We cannot apply indirection on type void*.
Explanation:
Void pointer is a generic pointer type. No pointer arithmetic can be done on
it. Void pointers are normally used for,
1. Passing generic pointers to functions and returning such pointers.
2. As a intermediate pointer type.
3. Used when the exact pointer type will be known at a later point of
time.

96. void main(){

int i=i++,j=j++,k=k++;
printf(%d%d%d,i,j,k);
}
Answer:
Garbage values.
Explanation:
An identifier is available to use in program code from the point of its
declaration.

So expressions such as i = i++ are valid statements. The i, j and k are

automatic variables and so they contain some garbage value. Garbage in is garbage
out (GIGO).

97. void main(){

static int i=i++, j=j++, k=k++;
printf(i = %d j = %d k = %d, i, j, k);
}
Answer:
i=1j=1k=1
Explanation:
Since static variables are initialized to zero by default.

98. void main(){

while(1){
if(printf("%d",printf("%d")))
break;
else
continue;
}
}
Answer:
Garbage values

Explanation:
The inner printf executes first to print some garbage value. The printf
returns no of characters printed and this value also cannot be predicted. Still the
outer printf prints something and so returns a non-zero value. So it encounters the
break statement and comes out of the while statement.

99. main(){
unsigned int i=10;
while(i-->=0)
printf("%u ",i);
}
Answer:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 65535 65534..
Explanation:
Since i is an unsigned integer it can never become negative. So the
expression i-- >=0 will always be true, leading to an infinite loop.

100.main(){
int x,y=2,z,a;
if(x=y%2) z=2;
a=2;
printf("%d %d ",z,x);
}

Answer:
Garbage-value 0
Explanation:
The value of y%2 is 0. This value is assigned to x. The condition reduces to
if (x) or in other words if(0) and so z goes uninitialized.
Thumb Rule: Check all control paths to write bug free code.

101.main(){
int a[10];
printf("%d",*a+1-*a+3);
}
Answer:
4
Explanation:
*a and -*a cancels out. The result is as simple as 1 + 3 = 4 !

102.main(){
unsigned int i=65000;
while(i++!=0);
printf("%d",i);
}
Answer:
1

Explanation:
Note the semicolon after the while statement. When the value of i becomes
0 it comes out of while loop. Due to post-increment on i the value of i while
printing is 1.

103.main(){
int i=0;
while(+(+i--)!=0)
i-=i++;
printf("%d",i);
}
Answer:
-1
Explanation:
Unary + is the only dummy operator in C. So it has no effect on the
expression and now the while loop is,

while(i--!=0) which is false and so

breaks out of while loop. The value 1 is printed due to the post-decrement
operator.

104.main(){
float f=5,g=10;
enum{i=10,j=20,k=50};
printf("%d\n",++k);

printf("%f\n",f<<2);
printf("%lf\n",f%g);
printf("%lf\n",fmod(f,g));
}
Answer:
Line no 5: Error: Lvalue required
Line no 6: Cannot apply leftshift to float
Line no 7: Cannot apply mod to float
Explanation:
Enumeration constants cannot be modified, so you cannot apply ++.Bitwise operators and % operators cannot be applied on float values.fmod() is to find
the modulus values for floats as % operator is for ints.

105.main(){
int i=10;
void pascal f(int,int,int);
f(i++,i++,i++);
printf(" %d",i);
}
void pascal f(integer :i,integer:j,integer :k){
write(i,j,k);
}
Answer:

Compiler error: unknown type integer

Compiler error: undeclared function write
Explanation:
Pascal keyword doesnt mean that pascal code can be used. It means that the
function follows Pascal argument passing mechanism in calling the functions.

106.void pascal f(int i,int j,int k){

printf(%d %d %d,i, j, k);

}
void cdecl f(int i,int j,int k){
printf(%d %d %d,i, j, k);
}
main(){
int i=10;
f(i++,i++,i++);
printf(" %d\n",i);
i=10;
f(i++,i++,i++);
printf(" %d",i);
}
Answer:
10 11 12 13
12 11 10 13

Explanation:
Pascal argument passing mechanism forces the arguments to be called from
left to right. cdecl is the normal C argument passing mechanism where the
arguments are passed from right to left.

107.What is the output of the program given below

main(){
signed char i=0;
for(;i>=0;i++) ;
printf("%d\n",i);
}
Answer:
-128
Explanation:
Notice the semicolon at the end of the for loop. THe initial value of the i is
set to 0. The inner loop executes to increment the value from 0 to 127 (the positive
range of char) and then it rotates to the negative value of -128. The condition in the
for loop fails and so comes out of the for loop. It prints the current value of i that is
-128.

108.main(){
unsigned char i=0;
for(;i>=0;i++) ;

printf("%d\n",i);
}
Answer:
infinite loop
Explanation:
The difference between the previous question and this one is that the char is
declared to be unsigned. So the i++ can never yield negative value and i>=0 never
becomes false so that it can come out of the for loop.

109.main(){
char i=0;
for(;i>=0;i++) ;
printf("%d\n",i);

}
Answer:
Behavior is implementation dependent.
Explanation:
The detail if the char is signed/unsigned by default is implementation
dependent. If the implementation treats the char to be signed by default the program
will print 128 and terminate. On the other hand if it considers char to be unsigned
by default, it goes to infinite loop.
Rule:

You can write programs that have implementation dependent behavior. But
dont write programs that depend on such behavior.

110.Is the following statement a declaration/definition. Find what does it mean?

int (*x)[10];
Answer:
Definition. x is a pointer to array of(size 10) integers.
Apply clock-wise rule to find the meaning of this definition.

111.What is the output for the program given below?

typedef enum errorType{warning, error, exception,}error;
main() {
error g1;
g1=1;
printf("%d",g1);
}
Answer:
Compiler error: Multiple declaration for error
Explanation:
The name error is used in the two meanings. One means that it is a
enumerator constant with value 1. The another use is that it is a type name (due to
typedef) for enum errorType. Given a situation the compiler cannot distinguish the
meaning of error to know in what sense the error is used:

error g1;
g1=error;
// which error it refers in each case?
When the compiler can distinguish between usages then it will not issue
error (in pure technical terms, names can only be overloaded in different
namespaces).
Note:
The extra comma in the declaration,enum errorType{warning, error,
exception,}

is not an error. An extra comma is valid and is provided just for

programmers convenience.

112.typedef struct error{int warning, error, exception;}error;

main(){
error g1;
g1.error =1;
printf("%d",g1.error);
}
Answer:
1
Explanation:
The three usages of name errors can be distinguishable by the compiler at
any instance, so valid (they are in different namespaces).
Typedef struct error{int warning, error, exception;}error;

This error can be used only by preceding the error by struct kayword as in:
struct error someError;
typedef struct error{int warning, error, exception;}error;
This can be used only after . (dot) or -> (arrow) operator preceded by the
variable name as in :
g1.error =1;
printf("%d",g1.error);
typedef struct error{int warning, error, exception;}error;
This can be used to define variables without using the preceding struct
keyword as in:
error g1;
Since the compiler can perfectly distinguish between these three usages, it is
perfectly legal and valid.

Note:
This code is given here to just explain the concept behind. In real
programming dont use such overloading of names. It reduces the readability of the
code. Possible doesnt mean that we should use it!

113.#ifdef something
int some=0;
#endif
main(){

int thing = 0;
printf("%d %d\n", some ,thing);
}
Answer:
Compiler error : undefined symbol some
Explanation:
This is a very simple example for conditional compilation. The name
something is not already known to the compiler making the declaration
int some = 0;
effectively removed from the source code.

114.#if something == 0
int some=0;
#endif
main(){
int thing = 0;
printf("%d %d\n", some ,thing);
}
Answer:
00
Explanation:

This code is to show that preprocessor expressions are not the same as the
ordinary expressions. If a name is not known the preprocessor treats it to be equal
to zero.

115.What is the output for the following program?

main(){
int arr2D[3][3];
printf("%d\n", ((arr2D==* arr2D)&&(* arr2D == arr2D[0])) );
}
Answer:
1
Explanation:
This is due to the close relation between the arrays and pointers. N
dimensional arrays are made up of (N-1) dimensional arrays. arr2D is made up of a
3 single arrays that contains 3 integers each .
arr2D
arr2D[1]

arr2D[2]
arr2D[3]

The name arr2D refers to the beginning of all the 3 arrays. *arr2D refers to
the start of the first 1D array (of 3 integers) that is the same address as arr2D. So
the expression (arr2D == *arr2D) is true (1).
Similarly, *arr2D is nothing but *(arr2D + 0), adding a zero doesnt change
the value/meaning. Again arr2D[0] is the another way of telling *(arr2D + 0). So
the expression (*(arr2D + 0) == arr2D[0]) is true (1).
Since both parts of the expression evaluates to true the result is true(1) and
the same is printed.

116. void main(){

if(~0 == (unsigned int)-1)
printf(You can answer this if you know how values are represented
in memory);
}
Answer:
You can answer this if you know how values are represented in memory
Explanation:
~ (tilde operator or bit-wise negation operator) operates on 0 to produce all
ones to fill the space for an integer. 1 is represented in unsigned value as all 1s
and so both are equal.

117.int swap(int *a,int *b){

*a=*a+*b;*b=*a-*b;*a=*a-*b;

}
main() {
int x=10,y=20;
swap(&x,&y);
printf("x= %d y = %d\n",x,y);
}
Answer:
x = 20 y = 10
Explanation:
This is one way of swapping two values. Simple checking will help
understand this.

118.main(){
char *p = ayqm;
printf(%c,++*(p++));
}
Answer:
b

119.main()

{
int i=5;
printf("%d",++i++);
}

Answer:
Compiler error: Lvalue required in function main
Explanation:
++i yields an rvalue. For postfix ++ to operate an lvalue is required.

120.main(){
char *p = ayqm;
char c;
c = ++*p++;
printf(%c,c);
}
Answer:
b
Explanation:
There is no difference between the expression ++*(p++) and ++*p++.
Parenthesis just works as a visual clue for the reader to see which expression is first
evaluated.
121.
int aaa() {printf(Hi);}
int bbb(){printf(hello);}
iny ccc(){printf(bye);}
main(){
int ( * ptr[3]) ();

ptr[0] = aaa;
ptr[1] = bbb;
ptr[2] =ccc;
ptr[2]();
}
Answer:
bye
Explanation:
int (* ptr[3])() says that ptr is an array of pointers to functions that takes no
arguments and returns the type int. By the assignment ptr[0] = aaa; it means that the
first function pointer in the array is initialized with the address of the function aaa.
Similarly, the other two array elements also get initialized with the addresses of the
functions bbb and ccc. Since ptr[2] contains the address of the function ccc, the call
to the function ptr[2]() is same as calling ccc(). So it results in printing "bye".

122.main(){
int i=5;
printf(%d,i=++i ==6);
}
Answer:
1
Explanation:

The expression can be treated as i = (++i==6), because == is of higher

precedence than = operator. In the inner expression, ++i is equal to 6 yielding
true(1). Hence the result.

123.main(){
char p[ ]="%d\n";
p[1] = 'c';
printf(p,65);
}
Answer:
A
Explanation:
Due to the assignment p[1] = c the string becomes, %c\n. Since this
string becomes the format string for printf and ASCII value of 65 is A, the same
gets printed.

124.void ( * abc( int, void ( *def) () ) ) ();

Answer:
abc is a ptr to a function which takes 2 parameters .(. an integer variable.
(b).

a ptrto a funtion which returns void. the return type of the function is void.

Explanation:
Apply the clock-wise rule to find the result.

125.main(){
while (strcmp(some,some\0))
printf(Strings are not equal\n);
}
Answer:
No output
Explanation:
Ending the string constant with \0 explicitly makes no difference. So
some and some\0 are equivalent. So, strcmp returns 0 (false) hence breaking
out of the while loop.

126.main(){
char str1[] = {s,o,m,e};
char str2[] = {s,o,m,e,\0};
while (strcmp(str1,str2))
printf(Strings are not equal\n);
}
Answer:
Strings are not equal
Strings are not equal
.
Explanation:

If a string constant is initialized explicitly with characters, \0 is not

appended automatically to the string. Since str1 doesnt have null termination, it
treats whatever the values that are in the following positions as part of the string
until it randomly reaches a \0. So str1 and str2 are not the same, hence the result.

127.main(){
int i = 3;
for (;i++=0;) printf(%d,i);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error: Lvalue required.
Explanation:
As we know that increment operators return rvalues and hence it cannot
appear on the left hand side of an assignment operation.

128.void main(){
int *mptr, *cptr;
mptr = (int*)malloc(sizeof(int));
printf(%d,*mptr);
int *cptr = (int*)calloc(sizeof(int),1);
printf(%d,*cptr);
}
Answer:

garbage-value 0
Explanation:
The memory space allocated by malloc is uninitialized, whereas calloc
returns the allocated memory space initialized to zeros.

129.void main(){
static int i;
while(i<=10)
(i>2)?i++:i--;
printf(%d, i);
}
Answer:
32767
Explanation:
Since i is static it is initialized to 0. Inside the while loop the conditional
operator evaluates to false, executing i--. This continues till the integer value rotates
to positive value (32767). The while condition becomes false and hence, comes out
of the while loop, printing the i value.

130.main(){
int i=10,j=20;
j = i, j?(i,j)?i:j:j;
printf("%d %d",i,j);

}
Answer:
10 10
Explanation:
The Ternary operator ( ? : ) is equivalent for if-then-else statement. So the
question can be written as:
if(i,j){
if(i,j)
j = i;
else
j = j;
}
else
j = j;

131.1. const char *a;

2. char* const a;
3. char const *a;
-Differentiate the above declarations.

Answer:
1. 'const' applies to char * rather than 'a' ( pointer to a constant char )

*a='F'

: illegal

a="Hi"

: legal

2. 'const' applies to 'a' rather than to the value of a (constant pointer to

char )
*a='F'
a="Hi"

: legal
: illegal

3. Same as 1.

132.

main(){
int i=5,j=10;
i=i&=j&&10;
printf("%d %d",i,j);
}
Answer:
1 10
Explanation:
The expression can be written as i=(i&=(j&&10)); The inner expression
(j&&10) evaluates to 1 because j==10. i is 5. i = 5&1 is 1. Hence the result.

133.main(){
int i=4,j=7;
j = j || i++ && printf("YOU CAN");

printf("%d %d", i, j);

}
Answer:
41
Explanation:
The boolean expression needs to be evaluated only till the truth value of the
expression is not known. j is not equal to zero itself means that the expressions
truth value is 1. Because it is followed by || and true || (anything) => true where
(anything) will not be evaluated. So the remaining expression is not evaluated and
so the value of i remains the same.
Similarly when && operator is involved in an expression, when any of the
operands become false, the whole expressions truth value becomes false and hence
the remaining expression will not be evaluated.
false && (anything) => false where (anything) will not be evaluated.

134.main(){
register int a=2;
printf("Address of a = %d",&;
printf("Value of a = %d",;
}
Answer:
Compier Error: '&' on register variable
Rule to Remember:

& (address of ) operator cannot be applied on register variables.

135.main(){
float i=1.5;
switch(i){
case 1: printf("1");
case 2: printf("2");
default : printf("0");
}
}
Answer:
Compiler Error: switch expression not integral
Explanation:
Switch statements can be applied only to integral types.

136.main(){
extern i;
printf("%d\n",i);{
int i=20;
printf("%d\n",i);
}
}
Answer:

Linker Error : Unresolved external symbol i

Explanation:
The identifier i is available in the inner block and so using extern has no use
in resolving it.

137.main(){
int a=2,*f1,*f2;
f1=f2=&a;
*f2+=*f2+=a+=2.5;
printf("\n%d %d %d",a,*f1,*f2);
}
Answer:
16 16 16
Explanation:
f1 and f2 both refer to the same memory location a. So changes through f1
and f2 ultimately affects only the value of a.

138.main(){
char *p="GOOD";
char a[ ]="GOOD";
printf("\n sizeof(p) = %d, sizeof(*p) = %d, strlen(p) = %d", sizeof(p),
sizeof(*p), strlen(p));
printf("\n sizeof( = %d, strlen( = %d", sizeof(, strlen();

}
Answer:
sizeof(p) = 2, sizeof(*p) = 1, strlen(p) = 4
sizeof( = 5, strlen( = 4
Explanation:
sizeof(p) => sizeof(char*) => 2
sizeof(*p) => sizeof(char) => 1
Similarly,
sizeof( => size of the character array => 5
When sizeof operator is applied to an array it returns the sizeof the array
and it is not the same as the sizeof the pointer variable. Here the sizeof( where a is
the character array and the size of the array is 5 because the space necessary for the
terminating NULL character should also be taken into account.

139.#define DIM( array, type) sizeof(array)/sizeof(type)

main(){
int arr[10];
printf(The dimension of the array is %d, DIM(arr, int));
}
Answer:
10
Explanation:

The size of integer array of 10 elements is 10 * sizeof(int). The macro

expands to sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int) => 10 * sizeof(int) / sizeof(int) => 10.

140.int DIM(int array[]) {

return sizeof(array)/sizeof(int );
}
main(){
int arr[10];
printf(The dimension of the array is %d, DIM(arr));
}
Answer:
1
Explanation:
Arrays cannot be passed to functions as arguments and only the pointers
can be passed. So the argument is equivalent to int * array (this is one of the very
few places where [] and * usage are equivalent). The return statement becomes,
sizeof(int *)/ sizeof(int) that happens to be equal in this case.

141.main(){
static int a[3][3]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};
int i,j;
static *p[]={a,a+1,a+2};
for(i=0;i<3;i++){

for(j=0;j<3;j++)
printf("%d\t%d\t%d\t%d\n",*(*(p+i)+j),
*(*(j+p)+i),*(*(i+p)+j),*(*(p+j)+i));
}
}
Answer:
1

Explanation:
*(*(p+i)+j) is equivalent to p[i][j].

142.main(){
void swap();
int x=10,y=8;
swap(&x,&y);
printf("x=%d y=%d",x,y);

}
void swap(int *a, int *b){
*a ^= *b, *b ^= *a, *a ^= *b;
}
Answer:
x=10 y=8
Explanation:
Using ^ like this is a way to swap two variables without using a temporary
variable and that too in a single statement.
Inside main(), void swap(); means that swap is a function that may take any
number of arguments (not no arguments) and returns nothing. So this doesnt issue
a compiler error by the call swap(&x,&y); that has two arguments.
This convention is historically due to pre-ANSI style (referred to as
Kernighan and Ritchie style) style of function declaration. In that style, the swap
function will be defined as follows,
void swap()
int *a, int *b{
*a ^= *b, *b ^= *a, *a ^= *b;
}
where the arguments follow the (). So naturally the declaration for swap
will look like, void swap() which means the swap can take any number of
arguments.

143.main(){
int i = 257;
int *iPtr = &i;
printf("%d %d", *((char*)iPtr), *((char*)iPtr+1) );
}
Answer:
11
Explanation:
The integer value 257 is stored in the memory as, 00000001 00000001, so
the individual bytes are taken by casting it to char * and get printed.

144.main(){
int i = 258;
int *iPtr = &i;
printf("%d %d", *((char*)iPtr), *((char*)iPtr+1) );
}
Answer:
21
Explanation:
The integer value 257 can be represented in binary as, 00000001 00000001.
Remember that the INTEL machines are small-endian machines. Small-endian
means that the lower order bytes are stored in the higher memory addresses and

the higher order bytes are stored in lower addresses. The integer value 258 is
stored in memory as: 00000001 00000010.

145.main(){
int i=300;
char *ptr = &i;
*++ptr=2;
printf("%d",i);
}
Answer:
556
Explanation:
The integer value 300 in binary notation is: 00000001 00101100. It is
stored in memory (small-endian) as: 00101100 00000001. Result of the expression
*++ptr = 2 makes the memory representation as: 00101100 00000010. So the
integer corresponding to it is 00000010 00101100 => 556.

146.main()
{
char * str = "hello";
char * ptr = str;
char least = 127;
while (*ptr++)

least = (*ptr<least ) ?*ptr :least;

printf("%d",least);
}
Answer:
0
Explanation:
After ptr reaches the end of the string the value pointed by str is \0. So
the value of str is less than that of least. So the value of least finally is 0.

147.
Declare an array of N pointers to functions returning pointers to functions
returning pointers to characters?
Answer:
(char*(*)( )) (*ptr[N])( );

148.main(){
struct student {
char name[30];
struct date dob;
}stud;
struct date{
int day,month,year;
};

scanf("%s%d%d%d", stud.rollno, &student.dob.day, &student.dob.month,

&student.dob.year);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error: Undefined structure date
Explanation:
Inside the struct definition of student the member of type struct date is
given. The compiler doesnt have the definition of date structure (forward
reference is not allowed in C in this case) so it issues an error.

149.main(){
struct date;
struct student{
char name[30];
struct date dob;
}stud;
struct date{
int day,month,year;
};
scanf("%s%d%d%d", stud.rollno, &student.dob.day, &student.dob.month,
&student.dob.year);
}
Answer:

Compiler Error: Undefined structure date

Explanation:
Only declaration of struct date is available inside the structure definition of
student but to have a variable of type struct date the definition of the structure is
required.

150.
There were 10 records stored in somefile.dat but the following program printed
11 names. What went wrong?
void main(){
struct student{
char name[30], rollno[6];
}stud;
FILE *fp = fopen(somefile.dat,r);
while(!feof(fp)) {
fread(&stud, sizeof(stud), 1 , fp);
puts(stud.name);
}
}
Explanation:
fread reads 10 records and prints the names successfully. It will return EOF
only when fread tries to read another record and fails reading EOF (and returning

EOF). So it prints the last record again. After this only the condition feof(fp)
becomes false, hence comes out of the while loop.

151.Is there any difference between the two declarations,

1. int foo(int *arr[]) and

2. int foo(int *arr[2])
Answer:
No
Explanation:
Functions can only pass pointers and not arrays. The numbers that are
allowed inside the [] is just for more readability. So there is no difference between
the two declarations.

152.What is the subtle error in the following code segment?

void fun(int n, int arr[]){
int *p=0;
int i=0;
while(i++<n)
p = &arr[i];
*p = 0;
}
Answer & Explanation:

If the body of the loop never executes p is assigned no address. So p

remains NULL where *p =0 may result in problem (may rise to runtime error
NULL pointer assignment and terminate the program).

153.What is wrong with the following code?

int *foo(){
int *s = malloc(sizeof(int)100);
assert(s != NULL);
return s;
}
Answer & Explanation:
assert macro should be used for debugging and finding out bugs. The check
s != NULL is for error/exception handling and for that assert shouldnt be used. A
plain if and the corresponding remedy statement has to be given.

154.What is the hidden bug with the following statement?

assert(val++ != 0);
Answer & Explanation:
Assert macro is used for debugging and removed in release version. In
assert, the experssion involves side-effects. So the behavior of the code becomes
different in case of debug version and the release version thus leading to a subtle
bug.
Rule to Remember:

Dont use expressions that have side-effects in assert statements.

155.void main(){
int *i = 0x400; // i points to the address 400
*i = 0;

// set the value of memory location pointed by i;

}
Answer:
Undefined behavior
Explanation:
The second statement results in undefined behavior because it points to
some location whose value may not be available for modification. This type of
pointer in which the non-availability of the implementation of the referenced
location is known as 'incomplete type'.

156.#define assert(cond) if(!(cond)) \

(fprintf(stderr, "assertion failed: %s, file %s, line %d \n",#cond,\
__FILE__,__LINE__), abort())

void main(){
int i = 10;
if(i==0)
assert(i < 100);
else

printf("This statement becomes else for if in assert macro");

}
Answer:
No output
Explanation:
The else part in which the printf is there becomes the else for if in the assert
macro. Hence nothing is printed. The solution is to use conditional operator instead
of if statement
#define assert(cond) ((cond)?(0): (fprintf (stderr, "assertion failed: \ %s, file %s,
line %d \n",#cond, __FILE__,__LINE__), abort()))
Note:
However this problem of matching with nearest else cannot be solved by
the usual method of placing the if statement inside a block like this,
#define assert(cond) { \
if(!(cond)) \
(fprintf(stderr, "assertion failed: %s, file %s, line %d \n",#cond,\
__FILE__,__LINE__), abort()) \
}

157.Is the following code legal?

struct a {
int x;
struct a b;

}
Answer:
No
Explanation:
Is it not legal for a structure to contain a member that is of the same type as
in this case. Because this will cause the structure declaration to be recursive without
end.

158.Is the following code legal?

struct a {
int x;
struct a *b;
}
Answer:
Yes.
Explanation:
*b is a pointer to type struct a and so is legal. The compiler knows, the size
of the pointer to a structure even before the size of the structure is determined(as
you know the pointer to any type is of same size). This type of structures is known
as self-referencing structure.

159.Is the following code legal?

typedef struct a {

int x;
aType *b;
}aType;
Answer:
No
Explanation:
The typename aType is not known at the point of declaring the structure
(forward references are not made for typedefs).

160.Is the following code legal?

typedef struct a aType;
struct a{
int x;
aType *b;
};
Answer:
Yes
Explanation:
The typename aType is known at the point of declaring the structure,
because it is already typedefined.

161.Is the following code legal?

void main(){

typedef struct a aType;

aType someVariable;
struct a {
int x;
aType *b;
};
}
Answer:
No
Explanation:
When the declaration,typedef struct a aType; is encountered body of struct a
is not known. This is known as incomplete types.

162.void main(){
printf(sizeof (void *) = %d \n, sizeof( void *));
printf(sizeof (int *) = %d \n, sizeof(int *));
printf(sizeof (double *) = %d \n, sizeof(double *));
printf(sizeof(struct unknown *) = %d \n, sizeof(struct unknown *));
}
Answer:
sizeof (void *) = 2
sizeof (int *) = 2
sizeof (double *) = 2

sizeof(struct unknown *) = 2
Explanation:
The pointer to any type is of same size.

163.char inputString[100] = {0};

To get string input from the keyboard which one of the following is better?
1) gets(inputString)
2) fgets(inputString, sizeof(inputString), fp)
Answer & Explanation:
The second one is better because gets(inputString) doesn't know the size of
the string passed and so, if a very big input (here, more than 100 chars) the
charactes will be written past the input string. When fgets is used with stdin
performs the same operation as gets but is safe.

164.Which version do you prefer of the following two,

1) printf(%s,str);

// or the more curt one

2) printf(str);
Answer & Explanation:
Prefer the first one. If the str contains any format characters like %d then it
will result in a subtle bug.

165.void main(){
int i=10, j=2;

int *ip= &i, *jp = &j;

int k = *ip/*jp;
printf(%d,k);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error: Unexpected end of file in comment started in line 5.
Explanation:
The programmer intended to divide two integers, but by the maximum
munch rule, the compiler treats the operator sequence / and * as /* which happens
to be the starting of comment. To force what is intended by the programmer,
int k = *ip/ *jp;
// give space explicity separating / and *
//or
int k = *ip/(*jp);
// put braces to force the intention
will solve the problem.

166.void main(){
char ch;
for(ch=0;ch<=127;ch++)
printf(%c %d \n, ch, ch);
}
Answer:

Implementaion dependent
Explanation:
The char type may be signed or unsigned by default. If it is signed then ch+
+ is executed after ch reaches 127 and rotates back to -128. Thus ch is always
smaller than 127.

167.Is this code legal?

int *ptr;
ptr = (int *) 0x400;Answer:
Yes
Explanation:
The pointer ptr will point at the integer in the memory location 0x400.
168.main(){
char a[4]="HELLO";
printf("%s",;
}
Answer:
Compiler error: Too many initializers
Explanation:
The array a is of size 4 but the string constant requires 6 bytes to get stored.

169.main(){
char a[4]="HELL";

printf("%s",;
}
Answer:
HELL%@!~@!@???@~~!
Explanation:
The character array has the memory just enough to hold the string HELL
and doesnt have enough space to store the terminating null character. So it prints
the HELL correctly and continues to print garbage values till it accidentally comes
across a NULL character.

170.main(){
int a=10,*j;
void *k;
j=k=&a;
j++;
k++;
printf("\n %u %u ",j,k);
}
Answer:
Compiler error: Cannot increment a void pointer
Explanation:

Void pointers are generic pointers and they can be used only when the type
is not known and as an intermediate address storage type. No pointer arithmetic can
be done on it and you cannot apply indirection operator (*) on void pointers.

171.Printf can be implemented by using __________ list.

Answer:
Variable length argument lists

172. char *someFun(){

char *temp = string constant";

return temp;
}
int main(){
puts(someFun());
}
Answer:
string constant
Explanation:
The program suffers no problem and gives the output correctly because the
character constants are stored in code/data area and not allocated in stack, so this
doesnt lead to dangling pointers.

173.char *someFun1(){

char temp[ ] = string";

return temp;
}
char *someFun2(){
char temp[ ] = {s, t,r,i,n,g};
return temp;
}
int main(){
puts(someFun1());
puts(someFun2());
}
Answer:
Garbage values.
Explanation:
Both the functions suffer from the problem of dangling pointers. In
someFun1() temp is a character array and so the space for it is allocated in heap and
is initialized with character string string. This is created dynamically as the
function is called, so is also deleted dynamically on exiting the function so the
string data is not available in the calling function main() leading to print some
garbage values. The function someFun2() also suffers from the same problem but
the problem can be easily identified in this case.

174.Explain Internal linkage.

Internal linkage means that all declarations of the identifier within one
source file refer to a single entity but declarations of the same identifier in other
source files refer to different entities.

175.Can the formal parameter to a function be declared static?

No, because arguments are always passed on the stack to support recursion.

176.What is an lvalue?
Something that can appear on the left side of the "=" sign, it identifies a
place where the result can be stored. For example, in the equation a=b+25, a is an
lvalue.
In the equation b+25=a, b+25 cannot be used as an lvalue, because it does
not identify a specific place. Hence the above assignment is illegal.

177.Every expression that is an lvalue, is also an rvalue. Is the reverse true?

No, lvalue denotes a place in the computer's memory. An rvalue denotes a
value, so it can only be used on the right hand side of an assignment.

178.What happens if indirection is performed on a NULL pointer?

On some machines the indirection accesses the memory location zero. On
other machines indirection on a NULL pointer cause a fault that terminate the
program. Hence the result is implementation dependent.

179.Is the statement legal? d=10-*d.

Illegal because it specifies that an integer quantity (10-*d) be stored in a
pointer variable

180.What does the below indicate?

int *func(void)
a. void indicates that there aren't any arguments.
b. there is one argument of type void.
Answer: a

181.What are data type modifiers?

To extend the data handling power, C adds 4 modifiers which may only be
applied to char and int. They are namely signed, unsigned, long and short. Although
long may also be applied to double.

182.Interpret the meaning of the following.

a. ab,a+b
b. w+t
Answer:
"ab","a+b"->open a binary file for appending
"w+t" ->create a text file for reading and writing.

183.What is NULL in the context of files?

In using files, if any error occurs, a NULL pointer is returned.

184.What is Register storage class?

It concerns itself with storing data in the registers of the microprocessor and
not in memory. The value of the variable doesn't have to be loaded freshly from
memory every time. It's important to realize that this a request to the compiler and
not a directive. The compiler may not be able to do it. Since the registers are
normally of 16 bits long, we can use the register storage class for ints and char's.

185.What is an assertion statement?

They are actually macros. They test statements you pass to them and if the
statement is false, they halt the program and inform you that the assertion failed. It
is defined in the header file <assert.h>.

186.Parse int *(*(*(*abc)())[6])();

abc is a pointer to a function returning a pointer to array of pointer to
functions returning pointer to integer.

C++ and Java Aptitude

Section I C++
Note: All the programs are tested under Turbo C++ 3.0/4.5 and Microsoft VC++ 6.0
compilers.
It is assumed that,
Programs run under DOS/Windows environment,
Proper and required header files are inlcuded,
The underlying machine is an x86 based system,
The program output may depend on the information based on this assumptions.

1.

What is the output of the following program?

void main(){
char str[] = "String continued"
" at the next line";

cout << str;

}
Answer:
String continued at the next line.
Explanation:
C++ concatenates these strings. When a new-line or white spaces separate
two adjacent strings, they are concatenated to a single string. This operation is
called as stringization operation. So str could have initialized by the single string
String continued at the next line..

2.

void main(){
int a, *pa, &ra;
pa = &a;
ra = a;
cout <<"a="<<a <<"*pa="<<*pa <<"ra"<<ra ;
}
Answer :
Compiler Error: 'ra', reference must be initialized
Explanation :
Pointers are different from references. One of the main differences is that
the pointers can be both initialized and assigned, whereas references can only be
initialized. So this code issues an error.

3.

ANSI C++ introduces new style of casts (const_cast, dynamic_cast, static_cast and
reinterpret_cast). For the following C style cast which of the new cast syntax should be
applied?
pDerived = (Cderived *) pBase;
Answer:

dynamic_cast.
Explanation:
dynamic_cast is used for traversing up and down in inheritance hierarchy.
So it can be applied here to cast pointer type from the base class to derived class.
The cast in the new syntax will look like this:
pDerived = dynamic_cast <Cderived*> (pBase);

4.

const int size = 5;

void print(int *ptr){
cout<<ptr[0];
}
void print(int ptr[size]){
cout<<ptr[0];
}
void main(){
int a[size] = {1,2,3,4,5};
int *b = new int(size);
print(;

print(b);
}
Answer:
Compiler Error : function 'void print(int *)' already has a body
Explanation:
Arrays cannot be passed to functions, only pointers (for arrays, base
addresses) can be passed. So the arguments int *ptr and int prt[size] have no
difference as function arguments. In other words, both the functoins have the same
signature and so cannot be overloaded.

5.

In which of the following cases will the copy constructor of the class X be called?
A)X x1,Y Y!:
foo(&x1,&y2);

//function foo already defined

B)X x1,x2, Y y1;

x2 = bar(x1,y1);

// function bar already defined

C)X x1(0.2) ,x2;x2 =x1;

D)X x1; X x2 =x1;
Answer:
B, C and D
Explanation:
In the function call foo, the address of the x1 is passed. So there is no need
for the copy constructor. But in the other cases there is an assignment of X, which
calls for a copy constructor.

6.

class Sample{
public:
int *ptr;
Sample(int i){
ptr = new int(i);
}
~Sample(){
delete ptr;
}
void PrintVal(){
cout << "The value is " << *ptr;
}
};
void SomeFunc(Sample x){
cout << "Say i am in someFunc " << endl;
}
int main(){
Sample s1= 10;
SomeFunc(s1);
s1.PrintVal();
}
Answer:

Say i am in someFunc.
Null pointer assignment(Run-time error)
Explanation:
As the object is passed by value to SomeFunc the destructor of the object
is called when the control returns from the function. So when PrintVal is called, it
meets up with ptr that has been freed.The solution is to pass the Sample object by
reference to SomeFunc:
void SomeFunc(Sample &x){
cout << "Say i am in someFunc " << endl;
}
because when we pass objects by refernece that object is not destroyed. while
returning from the function.

7.

What is the output of the following program?

void Sample(int x=6,int y,int z=34){
cout << "Say i am in sample with the values " <<x<<y<<z;
}
void main(){
int a,b,c;
cin >>a>>b>>c;
Sample(a,b,c);
}
Answer:

Compile Time error: Missing default parameter for parameter 2.

Explanation:
The program wouldnt compile because, as far as default arguments are
concerned, the right-most argument must be supplied with a default value before a
default argument to a parameter to its left can be supplied.

8.

class base{
public:
int bval;
base(){ bval=0;}
};
class deri:public base{
public:
int dval;
deri(){ dval=1;}
};
void SomeFunc(base *arr,int size){
for(int i=0; i<size; i++,arr++)
cout<<arr->bval;
cout<<endl;
}
int main(){
base BaseArr[5];

SomeFunc(BaseArr,5);
deri DeriArr[5];
SomeFunc(DeriArr,5);
}
Answer:
00000
01010
Explanation:
The function SomeFunc expects two arguments.The first one is a pointer to
an array of base class objects and the second one is the sizeof the array.The first
call of someFunc calls it with an array of base objects, so it works correctly and
prints the bval of all the objects. When SomeFunc is called the second time the
argument passed is a pointer to an array of derived class objects and not the array of
base class objects. But that is what the function expects to be sent. So the derived
class pointer is promoted to base class pointer and the address is sent to the
function. SomeFunc() knows nothing about this and just treats the pointer as an
array of base class objects. So when arr++ is met, the size of base class object is
taken into consideration and is incremented by sizeof(int) bytes for bval (the deri
class objects have bval and dval as members and so is of size >= sizeof(int)
+sizeof(int) ).

9.

class some{
public:

~some(){
cout<<"some's destructor"<<endl;
}
};
void main(){
some s;
s.~some();
}
Answer:
some's destructor
some's destructor
Explanation:
Destructors can be called explicitly (constructors can not be). Here
's.~some()' explicitly calls the destructor of 's'. When main() returns, destructor of s
is called again, hence the result.

10.

class base{
public:
void baseFun(){ cout<<"from base"<<endl;}
};
class deri:public base{
public:
void baseFun(){ cout<< "from derived"<<endl;}

};
void SomeFunc(base *baseObj){
baseObj->baseFun();
}
int main(){
base baseObject;
SomeFunc(&baseObject);
deri deriObject;
SomeFunc(&deriObject);
}
Answer:
from base
from base
Explanation:
As we have seen in the previous case, SomeFunc expects a pointer to a base
class. Since a pointer to a derived class object is passed, it treats the argument only
as a base class pointer and the corresponding base function is called.

11.

class base{
public:
virtual void baseFun(){ cout<<"from base"<<endl;}
};
class deri:public base{

public:
void baseFun(){ cout<< "from derived"<<endl;}
};
void SomeFunc(base *baseObj){
baseObj->baseFun();
}
int main(){
base baseObject;
SomeFunc(&baseObject);
deri deriObject;
SomeFunc(&deriObject);
}
Answer:
from base
from derived
Explanation:
Remember that baseFunc is a virtual function. That means that it supports
run-time polymorphism. So the function corresponding to the derived class object is
called.

12.

What is the output of the following code?

class base
{

public:
int n;
virtual void foo(){n=1;}
void print(){cout <<n<<endl;}
};
class derived: base
{
public:
void foo(){n=2;}
void print(){cout <<n<<endl;}
};
void main()
{
derived y;
base *bp =dynamic_cast<base *>(&y);
bp->foo();
bp->print();
}
Answer:
Undefined behavior : dynamic_cast used to convert to inaccessible or
ambiguous base;
Explanation:

In this program private inheritance is used (by default the inheritance is

private). There is no implicit conversion from the derived to base due to this. An
explicit dynamic cast is used to overcome this. But at runtime environment may
impose the restrictions on access to the code, resulting in an undefined behavior.

13.

class fig2d{
int dim1, dim2;
public:
fig2d() { dim1=5; dim2=6;}
virtual void operator<<(ostream & rhs);
};
void fig2d::operator<<(ostream &rhs){
rhs <<this->dim1<<" "<<this->dim2<<" ";
}
class fig3d : public fig2d{
int dim3;
public:
fig3d() { dim3=7;}
virtual void operator<<(ostream &rhs);
};
void fig3d::operator<<(ostream &rhs){
fig2d::operator <<(rhs);
rhs<<this->dim3;

}
void main(){
fig2d obj1;
fig3d obj2;
obj1 << cout;
obj2 << cout;
}
Answer :
56
Explanation:
In this program, the << operator is overloaded with ostream as argument.
This enables the 'cout' to be present at the right-hand-side. Normally, operator << is
implemented as global function, but it doesn't mean that it is not possible to be
overloaded as member function. Overloading << as virtual member function
becomes handy when the class in which it is overloaded is inherited, and this
becomes available to be overrided. This is as opposed to global friend functions,
where friend's are not inherited.

14.

class opOverload{
public:
bool operator==(opOverload temp);
};
bool opOverload::operator==(opOverload temp){

if(*this == temp ){
cout<<"The both are same objects\n";
return true;
}
cout<<"The both are different\n";
return false;
}
void main(){
opOverload a1, a2;
a1== a2;
}
Answer :
Runtime Error: Stack Overflow
Explanation :
Just like normal functions, operator functions can be called recursively. This
program just illustrates that point, by calling the operator == function recursively,
leading to an infinite loop.

15.

class complex{
double re;
double im;
public:
complex() : re(1),im(0.5) {}

operator int(){}
};
int main(){
complex c1;
cout<< c1;
}
Answer :
Garbage value
Explanation:
The programmer wishes to print the complex object using output redirection operator,which he has not defined for his class.But the compiler instead of
giving an error sees the conversion function and converts the user defined object to
standard object and prints some garbage value.

16.

class complex{
double re;
double im;
public:
complex() : re(0),im(0) {}
complex(double n) { re=n,im=n;};
complex(int m,int n) { re=m,im=n;}
void print() { cout<<re; cout<<im;}
};

void main(){
complex c3;
double i=5;
c3 = i;
c3.print();
}
Answer:
5,5
Explanation:
There is no operator= function taking double as an argument is defined. So
the compiler creates a complex object using the single argument constructor that
takes double as an argument. This temporary object is assigned to c3.

17.

Consider the following piece of code.

String s(hello!);
String s2 = s1+ how are You;

Will this code compile for this class declaration:

class String {
public:
String(char *);
String & operator=(String &);

String operator+(String);
friend operator+(String,String);
};
Answer:
No, this code will not compile.
Explanation:
Because there is an ambiguity between the overloading of the + operator as
a member function and friend function. Given the statement:
String s2 = s1+ how are You;
the compiler doesnt know to which function should it resolve to and call.

18.

What is the output of the following code?

class base {/*....*/};
class derived :public base{/*....*/};
void foo()
{

try
{
throw derived();
}
catch (base b)
{
cout<<"Received exception, but can't handle\n";
throw;

}
};
void main()
{
try
{
foo();
}
catch (derived d)
{
cout<<"In derived handler";
}
catch (base b)
{
cout << "In Base handler";
}
}
Answer:
Received exception, but can't handle
In derived handler
Explanation:
When the function foo is called, the exception object of type derived is
thrown. Now the catch block for that derived exception object is searched but it is

found that there is a catch block for base is available. Since exception objects of
type base can handle all such exceptions in its hierarchy, this exception is caught.
A plain throw inside a catch indicates a re-throw of the exception caught.
So the derived exception object is again thrown and is caught by the catch block
in main(). Although both the catch blocks are eligible to handle the exception, this
time the derived which is defined first will catch the exception.

19.

What is the output of the following program?

void main(){
vector<int> vec1,vec2;
vec1.push_back(12);
vec1.push_back(13);
vec2.push_back(12);
vec2.push_back(13);
cout << (vec1<vec2);
}
Answer:
0
Explanation:
The values contained in both the containers are equal. Therefore the
comparison returns 0. Each container supports a set of comparison operators. The
comparison is based on a pair-wise comparison of the elements of the two
containers. If all the elements are equal and if both the containers contain the same

number of elements, the two containers are equal; otherwise, they are unequal. A
comparison of the first unequal element determines the less-than or greater-than
relationship of the 2 containers.

20.

Consider the following lines of code:

list<int> aList;
list<int>::iterator anIterator(&aList);
what can you say about the relationship between aList and anIterator?
Answer:
The class iterator is a friend of class list.
Explanation:
Iterators are always friend functions.

21.

#include <list>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void main()
{
list<int> ilist;
list<int>::iterator iiter;
for (int i=0;i<10;i++) ilist.push_back(i);
iiter = find(ilist.begin(),ilist.end(),3);

if ( *(iiter+1) ==4) cout <<"yeah ! found";

}
Output:
Compile time error:
Explanation:
The code wont compile because , iterators associated with list containers
do not support the operator + used in the expression (*(iter+1) ==4 ), because
iterators associated with list are of type bi-directional iterator, which doesnt
support the + operator.

Exercise:
1) Determine the output of the following 'C++' Codelet.
class base{
public :
out() {
cout<<"base ";
}
};
class deri : public base{
public : out(){
cout<<"deri ";
}
};

void main(){
deri dp[3];
base *bp = (base*)dp;
for (int i=0; i<3;i++)
(bp++)->out();
}

2) Is there anything wrong with this C++ class declaration?

class something{
char *str;
public:
something(){
st = new char[10];
}
~something(){
delete str;
}
};

3) Is there anything wrong with this C++ class declaration?

class temp{
int value1;
mutable int value2;

public:
void fun(int val) const{
((temp*) this)->value1 = 10;
value2 = 10;
}
};

22.

Name the four parts of a declaration.

A set of specifiers
A base type
A declarator
An optional initializer

23.

Differentiate between declaration and definition in C++.

A declaration introduces a name into the program; a definition provides a
unique description of an entity (e.g. type, instance, and function). Declarations can
be repeated in a given scope, it introduces a name in a given scope. There must be
exactly one definition of every object, function or class used in a C++ program.
A declaration is a definition unless:
it declares a function without specifying its body,
it contains an extern specifier and no initializer or function body,
it is the declaration of a static class data member without a class
definition,

 it is a class name definition,

it is a typedef declaration.
A definition is a declaration unless:
it defines a static class data member,
it defines a non-inline member function.

24.

Differentiate between initialization and assignment

Initialization is the process that creates the first value of an object.
Assignment on the other hand is an operation that usually changes the value of an
object. Assignment is expressed using the token '=' but sometimes initialization can
also be indicated with that symbol.
int a=12; // Initialization
a=13;

// Assignment

Initialization can also occur without the '=' token, as well. For example,
int a(12);
For classes, you can define your own initialization procedure by providing
constructors and your own assignment operation by providing constructors and
your own assignment operation by providing an operator '=' will not be called for
initialization is expressed using the '=' symbol.

25.

Find five different C++ constructs for which the meaning is undefined an for which
the meaning is implementation defined.
Undefined behavior in C++

1. Access outside the bounds of an array.

int a[10];
int *p=&a[10];
2. Use of a destroyed object
int &r=*new int;
delete &r;
r=r+1;
3. Attempting to reinterpret variables
int i;
*(float*)&i=1.0;
//Access through undeclared type
4. Casting to a type that is not the real type of the source object
struct B {int i;}
struct D:B{}
B *bp=new B;
D* dp=static_cast <D*> (bp); //Invalid cast
5. Casting away constness of an object that was defined const
void f(int const &r)
{
const_cast <int&>(r)=2;
}
int const i=3;
f(i);

// Invalid

Five implementation-defined constructs in C++

1. Size of certain types:
sizeof(int);
2. Output of type_info :: name()
std::cout<<typeid(double).name()
3. The effect of bitwise operators
int mistery=~0;
4. The extreme values of fundamental types
int mx = numeric_limits <int> =max()
5. The number of temporary copies
struct s
{
s(s const&)
{
std::cout<<"copy\n ";
}
}
s f( )
{
s a;
return a;
}

int main()
{
f();return 0;
}

26.

When is a volatile qualifier is required to be used?

In certain cases, you don't want the compiler to produce optimizations.
When dealing with variables that are accessible both from an interrupt servicing
routine (ISR) and by the regular code, the compiler should not make any
assumptions about the value of a variable from one line of code to the next.
Similarly, in a multiprocessing environment, there may be other processors that
have access to shared memory variables, thereby making changes to them without
warning. In such cases that involve memory mapped hardware devices, you need
the volatile qualifier. Volatile qualifier prevents any optimizations done on the
names they qualify, making the program possible to be used in such environments.

27.

What is the use of qualifier 'mutable'?

The mutable qualifier is used to indicate that a particular member of a
structure or class can be altered even if a particular structure or class variable is a
const.
Example:
struct data
{

char name[30];
mutable int noOfAccesses;
..........
};
.........
const data d1{"some string ",0,.......};
strcpy(d1.name,"another string"); // not allowed
d1.noOfAccesses++;

// allowed

The const qualifier to d1 prevents a program from changing d1's members,

but the mutable qualifier to the accesses member shields accesses from that
restriction.

28.

In c++ by default, all functions have external storage class, they can be shared
across files. What are the functions to which the above statement proves false.
Inline functions and functions qualified with the keyword static have
internal linkage and are confined to the defining file.

29.

What is the ODR?

The requirement that global objects and functions either have only one
definition or have exactly the same definition many times in a program is called the
one definition rule(ODR).

30.

When do implicit type conversions occur?

 In an arithmetic expression of mixed types. These are known as arithmetic

conversions.
In the assignment of an expression of one type to an object of another
When passing arguments to functions
Function return types.

31.

List the predefined conversions available in C++.

C++ supplies certain conversions for all types, and these apply to all classes as
well. These include,
The trivial conversions between a class and a reference to that class.
The trivial conversion between an array of class objects and a pointer to
that class.
The trivial conversion from a class instance to a const class object.
The standard conversion from a pointer to a class object to the type void*.
The compiler uses these conversions implicitly in matching argument and
parameter types.

32.

Define namespace.
It is a feature in c++ to minimize name collisions in the global name space.
This namespace keyword assigns a distinct name to a library that allows other
libraries to use the same identifier names without creating any name collisions.
Furthermore, the compiler uses the namespace signature for differentiating the
definitions.

32.

Is there any space(memory) associated with namespaces?

No, because namespaces simply deal with names and no space is allocated
for a name within a namespace. It is a way by which variables with same name but
with different usage are accommodated into a single program.

33.

What are using declarations?

It is possible to make a member of a namespace visible within a program.
Using Declarations does this. For example:
namespace MySpace{
char * FileName;
char * FileBuffer[300];
}
using MySpace::FileName;
void main(){
cin >>FileName;
}
In this example we have a namespace that consists of two data members.
But we have decided to use only one of those data members. We have specified that
we want to use only the member FileName.

34.

What are using directives?

Whenever we want to make all the members of a namespace visible within

a given program, we use a using directive. This gives a direction to the compiler
that it has to look into this namespace for name resolution.
using namespace MySpace;
void main(){
cin >>FileName;
}
Here all the data members of the namespace MySpace are visible within the
program.

35.

When does a name clash occur?

A name clash occurs when a name is defined in more than one place. For
example., two different class libraries could give two different classes the same
name. If you try to use many class libraries at the same time, there is a fair chance
that you will be unable to compile or link the program because of name clashes.

36.

How can a '::' operator be used as unary operator?

The scope operator can be used to refer to members of the global
namespace. Because the global namespace doesnt have a name, the notation ::
member-name refers to a member of the global namespace. This can be useful for
referring to members of global namespace whose names have been hidden by
names declared in nested local scope. Unless we specify to the compiler in which
namespace to search for a declaration, the compiler simple searches the current

scope, and any scopes in which the current scope is nested, to find the declaration
for the name.

37.

ANSI C++ introduces four version of casts, for four different conversions. What
are they and give their purpose.
The new casting syntax introduced are const_cast, static_cast, dynamic_cast
and reinterpret_cast.
The general syntax for ANSI C++ style casting is :
toTypeVar = xxx_cast < toType > ( fromTypeVar );
This casting syntax helps programmer to identify the casting that are done
in program, and its purpose easily than in C, where it can be easily missed.
const_cast is to be used to remove the const or volatileness involved with
that object.
char *str = "something";
strlen( const_cast< const char * > str );
// strlen requires const char * as its argument.
It can also be used to remove the volatileness of the object, but that
requirement arises very rarely.
static_cast shall be used in all the cases where C casts are normally used.
char *a;
int * b = static_cast < int * > (a);
This converts from char * to int * and this reqires static_cast.
dynamic_cast is used for traversing up and down in inheritance hierarchy.

Base *bp = new Base();

Deri *dp = dynamic_cast < Deri * > (bp);
It should be noted that this is applicable only to 'safe casts', the types that
contain the virtual functions.
reinterpret_cast is the cast that can be applied for pointers (particularly
function pointers)
int foo();
void (*fp)() = reinterpret_cast< void (*)() > (foo);
fp();

38.

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.

39.

What is an activation record?

The entire storage area of a function is known as the activation record. This
is allocated from the programs run-time stack. This contains all the information
related with the function, such as the value of the parameters passed, the value of
the various local variables etc.

40.

Differentiate between a deep copy and a shallow copy?

Deep copy involves using the contents of one object to create another
instance of the same class. In a deep copy, the two objects may contain ht same

information but the target object will have its own buffers and resources. the
destruction of either object will not affect the remaining object. The overloaded
assignment operator would create a deep copy of objects.
Shallow copy involves copying the contents of one object into another
instance of the same class thus creating a mirror image. Owing to straight copying
of references and pointers, the two objects will share the same externally contained
contents of the other object to be unpredictable.
Using a copy constructor we simply copy the data values member by
member. This method of copying is called shallow copy. If the object is a simple
class, comprised of built in types and no pointers this would be acceptable. This
function would use the values and the objects and its behavior would not be altered
with a shallow copy, only the addresses of pointers that are members are copied and
not the value the address is pointing to. The data values of the object would then be
inadvertently altered by the function. When the function goes out of scope, the copy
of the object with all its data is popped off the stack.
If the object has any pointers a deep copy needs to be executed. With the
deep copy of an object, memory is allocated for the object in free store and the
elements pointed to are copied. A deep copy is used for objects that are returned
from a function.

41.

Which is the parameter that is added implicitly to every non-static member function
in a class?
this pointer

42.

Give few important properties of this pointer

A)The this pointer is an implicit pointer used by the system.
B)The this pointer is a constant pointer to an object.
C)The object pointed to by the this pointer can be de-referenced and modified.

43.

What is a dangling pointer?

A dangling pointer arises when you use the address of an object after its
lifetime is over. This may occur in situations like returning addresses of the
automatic variables from a function or using the address of the memory block after
it is freed.

44.

What is an opaque pointer?

A pointer is said to be opaque if the definition of the type to which it points
to is not included in the current translation unit. A translation unit is the result of
merging an implementation file with all its headers and header files.

45.

What is a smart pointer?

A smart pointer is an object that acts, looks and feels like a normal pointer
but offers more functionality. In C++, smart pointers are implemented as template
classes that encapsulate a pointer and override standard pointer operators. They
have a number of advantages over regular pointers. They are guaranteed to be
initialized as either null pointers or pointers to a heap object. Indirection through a

null pointer is checked. No delete is ever necessary. Objects are automatically freed
when the last pointer to them has gone away. One significant problem with these
smart pointers is that unlike regular pointers, they don't respect inheritance. Smart
pointers are unattractive for polymorphic code. Given below is an example for the
implementation of smart pointers.
Example:

template <class X> class smart_pointer{

public:
smart_pointer();

// makes a null pointer

smart_pointer(const X& x)

// makes pointer to copy of x

X& operator *( );
const X& operator*( ) const;
X* operator->() const;
smart_pointer(const smart_pointer <X> &);
const smart_pointer <X> & operator =(const smart_pointer<X>&);
~smart_pointer();
private:
//...
};
This class implement a smart pointer to an object of type X. The object
itself is located on the heap. Here is how to use it:
smart_pointer <employee> p= employee("Harris",1333);
Like other overloaded operators, p will behave like a regular pointer,
cout<<*p;

p->raise_salary(0.5);

46.

How will you decide whether to use pass by reference, by pointer and by value?
The selection of the argument passing depends on the situation.
If a function uses passed data without modifying it,
If the data object is small, such as a built-in data type or a small structure then
pass it by value.
If the data object is an array, use a pointer because that is the only choice. Make
the pointer a pointer to const.
If the data object is a good-sized structure, use a const pointer or a const
reference to increase program efficiency. You save the time and space needed
to copy a structure or a class design, make the pointer or reference const.
If the data object is a class object, use a const reference. The semantics of class
design often require using a reference. The standard way to pass class object
arguments is by reference.

A function modifies data in the calling function,

If the data object is a built-in data type, use a pointer. If you spot a code like
fixit(&x), where x is an int, its clear that this function intends to modify x.
If the data object is an array, use the only choice, a pointer.
If the data object is a structure, use a reference or a pointer.
If the data object is a class object, use a reference.

47.

Describe the main characteristics of static functions.

The main characteristics of static functions include,

It is without the a this pointer,
It can't directly access the non-static members of its class
It can't be declared const, volatile or virtual.
It doesn't need to be invoked through an object of its class, although for
convenience, it may.

48.

Will the inline function be compiled as the inline function always? Justify.
An inline function is a request and not a command. Hence it won't be
compiled as an inline function always.
Inline-expansion could fail if the inline function contains loops, the address
of an inline function is used, or an inline function is called in a complex expression.
The rules for inlining are compiler dependent.

49.

Define a way other than using the keyword inline to make a function inline.
The function must be defined inside the class.

50.

What is name mangling?

Name mangling is the process through which your c++ compilers give each
function in your program a unique name. In C++, all programs have at-least a few
functions with the same name. Name mangling is a concession to the fact that
linker always insists on all function names being unique.
Example:

In general, member names are made unique by concatenating the name of

the member with that of the class e.g. given the declaration:
class Bar{
public:
int ival;
...
};
ival becomes something like:
// a possible member name mangling
ival__3Bar
Consider this derivation:
class Foo : public Bar {
public:
int ival;
...
}
The internal representation of a Foo object is the concatenation of its base
and derived class members.
// Pseudo C++ code
// Internal representation of Foo
class Foo{
public:
int ival__3Bar;

int ival__3Foo;
...
};
Unambiguous access of either ival members is achieved through name
mangling. Member functions, because they can be overloaded, require an extensive
mangling to provide each with a unique name. Here the compiler generates the
same name for the two overloaded instances(Their argument lists make their
instances unique).

51.

Name the operators that cannot be overloaded.

sizeof .

52.

.*

.->

::

?:

List out the rules for selecting a particular function under function overloading.
An exact match is better than a trivial adjustment.
A trivial adjustment (e.g. adding const qualification and/or decaying an
array to a pointer to its first element) is preferred over an integral
promotion.
Integral promotion - such as conversion from char to int - beat other
standard conversions.
Standard conversions are better than user defined conversions.
Matching ellipsis arguments is the worst kind of match.

53.

What is the dominance rule?

The dominance rule states that if two classes contain the function searched
for, and if one class is derived from the another, the derived class dominates.

54.

List out the factors for distinguishing overloaded functions

The functions must contain a different number of arguments,
At least one of the arguments must be different.
The return type of a function is not a factor in distinguishing overloaded
functions.

55.

Define the intersection rule for overloaded operators.

For overloaded functions with more than one parameter, argument matching
is more complex. So, the intersection rule was adopted which uses the following
procedure:
1. For each argument in the invocation, determine the set of function
definitions that contain the best matches for that argument's type.
2. Take the intersection of these sets, and if the result is not a single
definition, then the call is ambiguous.
3. The resulting definition must also match at least one argument better than
every other definition.

56.

List out the argument matching rules for overloaded function selection within the
same type.

1. No conversions are necessary. Functions returning no argument

conversions are the best candidates.
2. Argument promotions are necessary. One or more arguments are
promoted along the path
char -->int--> float-->double-->long-->double
3. Arguments conversions are necessary. One or more arguments are
converted according to standard or user defined conversions.

57.

List out the functions that are not (and can't be) inherited in C++.
Constructors,
Destructors,
User defined new operators,
User defined assignment operators,
Friend relationships.

58.

Declaring a static member function with the const keyword doesn't make sense.
Why?
The purpose of the const keyword is to prevent the modification of the values

through this and makes the following invisible declaration:

const example *const this;
The static member functions are not passed with an invisible this pointer when
they are called. So it doesnt make any sense to declare a static member function as const.

59.

Can an operator member function be virtual?

It is possible to declare an operator member function to be virtual, because
the mechanics of invoking a member operator function and a regular member
function are the same.

60.

Can an assignment operator function be declared as friend?

No, an assignment operator can be declared only as a member function,
never as a friend.

61.

Can a constructor be declared as static?

A static member function can be used without referring to a specific object,
using only a class name. They have no this pointer, so they cannot access class
member data unless they are passed a this pointer explicitly.
We can't declare constructors to be static. If a constructor was allowed to be
static, it could be invoked without a this pointer and therefore would not be able
to build specific objects from raw storage.

62.

List out the differences between the constructors and destructors

destructors can be virtual whereas constructors cant,
you cannot pass arguments to destructors,
there can be one destructor can be declared for a given class,
constructors cannot be called explicitly like the way a normal function is called
using their qualified name whereas a destructor can be.

63.

Describe some unique features of constructors and destructors.

1. They do not have return value declaration.
2. They cannot be inherited.
3. Their addresses cannot be extracted.

64.

What are the situations under which a copy constructor is used?

When a new object is initialized to an object of the same class.
When an object is passed to a function by value.
When a function returns an object by value.
When the compiler generates a temporary object.

65.

What are candidate functions?

Let us consider that we have a set of overloaded functions. The set of all
these functions are known as candidate functions, because whenever a overloaded
function is met in the program they are the candidates for that particular function
invocation. In other words, they are the set of functions considered for a resolving a
function call. For example:
void f();
void f(int){/*do something*/};
void f(double){ /*do something*/};
void main(){
f(5.6);

}
In this example the functions f() ,f(int) and f(double) are the candidate
functions .

66.

What are viable functions?

Viable functions are the ones that can possibly be resolved into a function
call; they are a subset of candidate functions. For example:
void f();
void f(short){/*do something*/};
void f(double){ /*do something*/};
void main(){
f(5.6);// two viable functions f(short) and f(double).
}
In this case there are 2 viable functions f(short) and f(double), because we
can have a standard conversion by which float can be converted to an short or float
getting promoted to type double by promotion. But in this case the value 5.6 is
promoted to a value of type double and is passed to that function.

67.

When is the bad_alloc exception thrown?

We know that new operator is used to allocate space for new objects. If
the new operator could not find the space needed to allocate memory for the object,
then the allocator throws a bad_alloc exception.

68.

What is placement new?

When you want to call a constructor directly, you use the placement new.
Sometimes you have some raw memory that's already been allocated, and you need
to construct an object in the memory you have. Operator new's 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 that's 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.

69.

Which operators are called as insertion and extraction operators? Why?

The C++ operator >> is called the extraction operator, used to extract
characters from an input stream and the operator << is called the insertion operator,
used to extract text into an output stream.

70.

71.

List out the iostream manipulators

Dec

-- Display a numeric values in decimal notation.

endl

-- Output a newline char and flush the stream

ends

-- Output a null character

flush

-- Flush the stream buffer

hex

-- Display numeric values in hexadecimal notation

oct

-- Display numeric values in octal notation

ws

-- Skip over leading white space.

What is a parameterized type?

A template is a parameterized construct or type containing generic code that
can use or manipulate any type. It is called parameterized because an actual type is
a parameter of the code body. Polymorphism may be achieved through
parameterized types. This type of polymorphism is called parameteric
polymorphism. Parameteric polymorphism is the mechanism by which the same
code is used on different types passed as parameters.

72.

List some characteristics of templates that macros do not have.

As opposed to macros, templates:
have linkage for their instantiations,
obey scoping rules (template maybe visible only inside a namespace),
Templates can be overloaded or specialized,
there can be pointers to function template specializations,

can be recursive.

73.

What is the use of autoptr template?

Each use of new should be paired with a use of delete. This can lead to
problems if a function in which new is used terminates early through an exception
being thrown. Using an autoptr object to keep track of an object created by
automates the activation of delete.
Example:
void model(string &str)
{
string *ps=new string(str);
..........
if(weird_thing())
throw exception();
str=*ps;
delete ps;
return;
}
If the exception is thrown, the delete statement isn't reached and there is a
memory leak. The auto_ptr template defines a pointer-like object that is intended to
be assigned an address obtained by new. When an auto_ptr object expires, its
destructor uses delete to free the memory.

To create an auto_ptr object, include the memory header file, which

includes the auto_ptr template. The template includes the following:
template<class x>class auto_ptr{
public:
explicit auto_ptr(x *p=0) throw();
.......};
Thus asking for an auto_ptr of type x gives you an auto_ptr of type x.
auto_ptr<double>pd(new double); //auto_ptr to double
auto_ptr<string>ps(new string);

74.

//auto_ptr to string

How would you classify friends to templates.

Non template friends.
Bound template friends, meaning that the type of the class determines the type
of the friend when a class is instantiated.
Unbound template friends, meaning that all instantiations of the friend are
friends to each instantiation of the class.

75.

Differentiate between a template class and class template.

Template class:

A generic definition or a parameterized class not instantiated until the client

provides the needed information. Its jargon for plain templates.
Class template:

A class template specifies how individual classes can be constructed much

like the way a class specifies how individual objects can be constructed. Its jargon
for plain classes.

76.

What is meant by template specialization?

Some cases the general template definition may not fit for a particular data
type. For example, let us consider a situation where we are writing a generic
function for comparing two values.
Example:
template <class T> T max (T t1,T t2) {
return T1>T2?T1:T2;
}
But this template definition wont suit for character strings. So we must
have a separate function which implements this function for character strings.
template <char *> char * max(char * a,char *b ){
return ( strcmp(a,b,)>0?a:b);
}

77.

What are Iterators in STL?

Iterators are generalized pointers that may be used to traverse through the
contents of a sequence (for example, an STL container or a C++ array). Iterators
provide data access for both reading and writing data in a sequence. They serve as
intermediaries between containers and generic algorithms. A C++ pointer is an

iterator, but an iterator is not necessarily a C++ pointer. Iterators, like pointers can
be dereferenced, incremented and decremented. At any point in time, an iterator is
positioned at exactly one place in one collection, and remains positioned there until
explicitly moved.
Container Classes

Generic Algorithms

Vector

Sort
Iterator

78.

How does the allocation of space take place in a vector?

Initially the size and capacity of a vector are initialized to 0 during
declaration. On inserting the first element, the capacity increases to 256, if the
vectors elements are of integer type, 128 if they are of type double, 85 if the
elements are of type string. As for as classes are concerned, the capacity after
initial insertion is 1, because the size and processing needed for copying or creating
a new object of a class is comparatively higher than that for all the above said
types. The size of a vector doubles with each reallocation. For example for a vector
of type int, during the first reallocation the size allocated is 512 bytes and during
the next reallocation it grows to 1024 and so on.

79.

What is an Iterator class?

A class that is used to traverse through the objects maintained by a
container class. There are five categories of iterators:
input iterators,
output iterators,
forward iterators,
bidirectional iterators,
random access.
An iterator is an entity that gives access to the contents of a container object
without violating encapsulation constraints. Access to the contents is granted on a
one-at-a-time basis in order. The order can be storage order (as in lists and queues)
or some arbitrary order (as in array indices) or according to some ordering relation
(as in an ordered binary tree). The iterator is a construct, which provides an
interface that, when called, yields either the next element in the container, or some
value denoting the fact that there are no more elements to examine. Iterators hide
the details of access to and update of the elements of a container class.
The simplest and safest iterators are those that permit read-only access to
the contents of a container class. The following code fragment shows how an
iterator might appear in code:
cont_iter:=new cont_iterator();
x:=cont_iter.next();
while x/=none do
...

s(x);
...
x:=cont_iter.next();
end;
In this example, cont_iter is the name of the iterator. It is created on the first
line by instantiation of cont_iterator class, an iterator class defined to iterate over
some container class, cont. Succesive elements from the container are carried to x.
The loop terminates when x is bound to some empty value. (Here, none)In the
middle of the loop, there is s(x) an operation on x, the current element from the
container. The next element of the container is obtained at the bottom of the loop.

80.

What is stack unwinding?

It is a process during exception handling when the destructor is called for all
local objects between the place where the exception was thrown and where it is
caught. For example:
class ExpObj
{
private:
int Errno;
public:
ExpObj(int Eno):Errno(Eno) {};
void ShowError()
{

cout << "The error number is " <<Errno;

}
};

void sum(int x,int y)

{
if ( x<0 || y<0)
throw ExpObj(200);
int s = x+y;
cout << "Sum "<<s;
}
void main()
{
int i=12000, j=-100;
try
{
sum(i,j);
}
catch (ExpObj &Exp)
{
Exp.ShowError();
}
}

In this example, the exception is thrown in the function sum and there is
neither a try block, nor a catch bolock in the function. The control is shifted to
search in the calling function, looking for an exception handler. If one such handler
is found, program continues execution. If no such handler is found, the program
terminates. This process of searching for exception handler in the calling functions
resulting in the discarding of stack frames and subsequent calling of destructors for
the local objects is known as stack unwindling.

Exercise
1. Justify the use of virtual constructors and destructors in C++.
2. Each C++ object possesses the 4 member fns,(which can be declared by the
programmer explicitly or by the implementation if they are not available). What
are those 4 functions?
3. Inheritance is also known as -------- relationship. Containership as ________
relationship.
4. When is it necessary to use member-wise initialization list (also known as
header initialization list) in C++?
5. Which is the only operator in C++ which can be overloaded but NOT inherited.

Section-II Java

Note: All the programs are tested under JDK 1.3 Java compiler.

1. class ArrayCopy{
public static void main(String[] args){
int ia1[] = { 1, 2 };
int ia2[] = (int[])ia1.clone();
System.out.print((ia1 == ia2) + " ");
ia1[1]++;
System.out.println(ia2[1]);
}
}
Answer:
false 2
Explanation:
The clone function creates a new object with a copy of the original object.
The == operator compares for checking if the both refer to the same object and
returns false (a boolean value) because they are different objects. When
concatenated with a string it prints false instead of 0.
Since ia1 and ia2 are two different array objects the change in the values
stored in ia1 array object doesnt affect the object ia2.

2.

import javautil.StringTokenizer;
class STTest {
public static void main(String args[]) {
String s = "9 23 45.4 56.7";
StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(s);
while (st.hasMoreTokens())
System.out.println(st.nextToken());
}
}
Answer:

9
23
45.4
56.7

Explanation:
The StringTokenizer parses the given string to return the individual tokens.
Here the String s has four white-spaces that act as a separators, resulting in the
printing of those individual tokens.

3.

class ConvertTest {
public static void main (String args[]){
String str;
str = "25";

int i = Integer.valueOf(str).intValue();
System.out.println(i);
str = "25.6";
double d = Double.valueOf(str).doubleValue();
System.out.println(d);
}
}
Answer:
25 25.6
Explanation:
This program just explains how the static member funntions of the classes
Integer and Double can be used to convert the string values that have numbers to
the get primitive data-type values.

4.

class StaticTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int i = getX();
}
public int getX() {
return 3;
}
}
Answer:

Compiler Error : Cannot access a non-static member

Explanation:
The static method, main(), belongs to the class. However,getX() belongs to
an object in the class. The compiler doesn't know on which object it's invoking the
getX() method.There are a couple of ways around this problem. You could declare
that getX() as static; that is:
public static int getX()
Alternately, you can instantiate an object in the StaticTest class in the
main() method and invoke that object's getX() method, like this:
public static void main(String[] args) {
StaticTest st = new StaticTest();
int i = st.getX();
}

5.

class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s1 = new String("Hello World");
String s2 = new String("Hello World");
if (s1 == s2)
System.out.println("The strings are the same.");
else
System.out.println("The strings are different.");
}

}
Answer:
The strings are different.
Explanation:
When used on objects, == tests whether the two objects are the same
object, not whether they have the same value.
To compare two objects for equality, rather than identity, you should
use the equals() method.

6.

class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s1 = "Hello World";
String s2 = "Hello World";
if (s1 == s2)
System.out.println("The strings are the same");
else
System.out.println("The strings are different");
}
}
Answer:
The strings are the same.
Explanation:

Note that these two are string literals and not Strings. The compiler
recognizes that the two string literals have the same value and it performs a simple
optimization of only creating one String object. Thus s1 and s2 both refer to the
same object and are therefore equal. The Java Language Specification requires this
behavior. However, not all compilers get this right so in practice this behavior here
is implementation dependent.

7.

public class works{

public static int some;
static {
some = 100;
System.out.println("Inside static");
}
public static void main( String args[] ) {
new works();
System.out.println( "Inside main" );
}
works() {
System.out.println( "some = " + some );
}
}
Answer:
Inside static

some = 100
Inside main
Explanation:
Static blocks are executed before the invocation of main(). So at first the
Inside static is printed. After that the main function is called. It creates the object
of the same type. So it leads to the printing of some = 100. Finally the println
inside the main() is executed to print Inside main.

8.

public class func{

int g(){
System.out.println("inside g");
int h(){
System.out.println("inside h");
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
public static void main(String[] args){
int c;
c=g();
}
Answer:
error : ";" expected at - int h()

Explanation:
Java doesnt allow function declared within a function declaration (nested
functions). Hence the error.

9.

When an exceptional condition causes an exception to be thrown, that exception is

an object derived, either directly, or indirectly from the class Exception: True or
False?
Answer:
False.
Explanation:
When an exceptional condition causes an exception to be thrown, that
exception is an object derived, either directly, or indirectly from the class
Throwable

10.

class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Button b;
b.setText("Hello");
}
}
Answer:
Runtime Error : NullPointerException
Explanation:

A NullPointerException is thrown when the system tries to access a object

that points to a null value (objects are initalised to null).
This code tries to call setText() on b. b does not refrence any object, so
the exception is thrown. You must allocate space for the reference to point to an
object like this:
Button b = new Button("hello");
// Or
Button b;
b = new Button();
b.setText("hello");
This creates a reference (b) of type Button, then asssigns it to a new
instance of Button (new Button("hello")).

11.

class Test {
void Test() {
System.out.println("Testing") ;
}
public static void main(String argv[]) {
Test ex = new Test() ;
}
}
Answer:
Compiler Error : void before Test()

Explanation:
Constructor doesnt have any return type; so even void shouldn't be
specified as return type.

12.

class Test {
int some=10 ;
void Test() {
this(some++) ;
}
void Test(int i) {
System.out.println(some);
}
public static void main( String argv[] ) {
new Test();
}
}
Answer:
Compiler Error : Cannot use this inside the constructor
Explanation:
this is a special one that it refers to the same object. But this can be used
only after creation of the object. It cant be used within a constructor. This leads to
the issue of the error.

16.

class Test {
public int some;
public static void main(String argv[]) {
int i = new Test().some;
System.out.println(i) ;
}
}
Answer:
0
Explanation:
All member variables are initialised during creation of the object. In the
statement:
int i = new Test().some;
a new object of type Test is created and the value of member j in that
object is referenced (the object created is not assigned to any reference) unig the
. (dot) operator.

13.

What does this code do?

int f = 1+ (int)(Math.random()*6);
This code always assigns an integer to variable f in the range between 1 and
6.

14.

All programs can be written in terms of three types of control structures: What are
those three?
Sequence,selection and repetition.

15.

Is !(x<y) the same as (x>=y) in Java ?

In the case that x and y are of float or double, the value of x or y could be
NaN and the results would be different in that case.

16.

What are peer "classes"?

Peer classes exist mainly for the convenience of the people who wrote the
Java environment. They help in translating between the AWT user interface
the native (Windows, OpenWindows, Mac etc.) interfaces. Unless you're

and
porting

Java to a new platform you shouldn't have to use them.

17.

What are concrete classes?

The classes from which objects are instantiated are called concrete classes
(as opposed to abstract classes from which objects cannot be created).

18.

Which methods in Java are implcitly treated as final methods?

Methods that are declared static and that are declared as private.

19.

Java's finally block provides a mechanism that allows your method to clean up
after itself regardless of what happens within the try block. True or False?

True.

20.

Explain why you should place exception handlers furthermost from the root of the
exception hierarchy tree first in the list of exception handlers.
An exception hander designed to handle a specialized "leaf" object may be
preempted by another handler whose exception object type is closer to the root of
the exception hierarchy tree if the second exception handler appears earlier in the
list of exception handlers.

21.

What method of which class would you use to extract the message from an
exception object?
The getMessage() method of the Throwable class.

22.

What are"deprecated APIs"?

A deprecated API is a object or method that is not recommended to be used
and is an indication that it may be removed from the API list in future. The
programs that use such APIs still work fine but not recommended to be used for
this reason.

UNIX Commands and

SQL Statements

Section I UNIX Commands

1.

What is relative path and absolute path.

Absolute path : Exact path from root directory.
Relative path : Relative to the current path.

2.

Explain kill() and its possible return values.

There are four possible results from this call:

kill() returns 0. This implies that a process exists with the given PID,
and the system would allow you to send signals to it. It is systemdependent whether the process could be a zombie.

kill() returns -1, errno == ESRCH either no process exists with the
given PID, or security enhancements are causing the system to deny its
existence. (On

some systems, the process could be a zombie.)

kill() returns -1, errno == EPERM the system would not allow you to
kill the specified process. This means that either the process exists
(again, it could be a zombie) or draconian security enhancements are
present (e.g. your process is not allowed to send signals to *anybody*).

kill() returns -1, with some other value of errno you are in trouble!
The most-used technique is to assume that success or failure with
EPERM implies that the process exists, and any other error implies
that it doesn't.

An alternative exists, if you are writing specifically for a system (or all
those systems) that provide a /proc filesystem: checking for the existence of
/proc/PID may work.

3.

What is a pipe and give an example?

A pipe is two or more commands separated by pipe char '|'. That tells the
shell to arrange for the output of the preceding command to be passed as input to
the following command.
Example : ls -l | pr
The output for a command ls is the standard input of pr.
When a sequence of commands are combined using pipe, then it is called
pipeline.

4.

How to terminate a process which is running and the specialty on command kill 0?
With the help of kill command we can terminate the process.
Syntax: kill pid
Kill 0 - kills all processes in your system except the login shell.

5.

What is redirection?
Directing the flow of data to the file or from the file for input or output.
Example : ls > wc

6.

What are shell variables?

Shell variables are special variables, a name-value pair created and
maintained by the shell.
Example: PATH, HOME, MAIL and TERM

7.

How to switch to a super user status to gain privileges?

Use su command. The system asks for password and when valid entry is
made the user gains super user (admin) privileges.

8.

How does the kernel differentiate device files and ordinary files?
Kernel checks 'type' field in the file's inode structure.

9.

What is the significance of '&' at the end of any command?

To make the process run as a background process.

10.

How many prompts are available in a UNIX system?

Two prompts, PS1 (Primary Prompt), PS2 (Secondary Prompt).

11.

Name the data structure used to maintain file identification?

inode, each file has a separate inode and a unique inode number.

12.

What is the purpose of 'ps' command and its columns?

To display process status of all the processes currently running in the

system.

Columns include UID, PID, PPID, STATUS, COMMAND, TTY and

TIME.

13.

Various STATUS type are S - sleeping, R - Running, I - Intermediate.

Is it possible to count number char, line in a file; if so, How?

Yes, wc-stands for word count.
wc -c for counting number of characters in a file.
wc -l for counting lines in a file.

14.

Is du a command? If so, what is its use?

Yes, it stands for disk usage. With the help of this command you can find
the disk capacity and free space of the disk.

15.

What is the use of the command "ls -x chapter[1-5]"

ls stands for list; so it displays the list of the files that starts with 'chapter'
with suffix '1' to '5', chapter1, chapter2, and so on.

16.

Is it possible to restrict incoming message?

Yes, using the mesg command.

17.

Is it possible to create new a file system in UNIX?

Yes, mkfs is used to create a new file system.

18.

What will the following command do?

$ echo *
It is similar to 'ls' command and displays all the files in the current
directory.

19.

What is the purpose of 'FINGER', 'NICE' and 'TOUCH' command?

FINGER

: displays information about all the users logged in.

NICE

: sets priority of a process range of the NICE value 0 - 39.

TOUCH

: creates empty files as specified and can also be used to

change a file's modified time without modifying the file.

20.

What is the purpose of 'nohup' command?

A Set of processes are preceded by the command nohup along with a

output file. Even if the user is logged off the process is not killed and the resulted is
evaluated and stored in output file.

21.

Write a command to display a files contents in various formats?

$od -cbd file_name
c - character, b - binary (octal), d-decimal, od=Octal Dump.

22.

Which command is used to delete all files in the current directory and all its subdirectories?
rm -r *

23.

Write a command to kill the last background job?

Kill $!

24.

What is the difference between cat and more command?

Cat displays file contents. If the file is large the contents scroll off the
screen before we view it. So command 'more' is like a pager which displays the
contents page by page.

25.

What is the use of grep command?

grep is a pattern search command. It searches for the pattern, specified in
the command line with appropriate option, in a file(s).

Syntax :
Example :

26.

grep <options> <pattern> <filename(s)>

grep 99mx mcafile

What difference between cmp and diff commands?

cmp - Compares two files byte by byte and displays the first mismatch
diff - tells the changes to be made to make the files identical

27.

Explain the steps that a shell follows while processing a command.

After the command line is terminated by the <enter> key, the shel goes
ahead with processing the command line in one or more passes. The sequence is
well defined and assumes the following order.
Parsing: The shell first breaks up the command line into words, using
spaces and the delimiters, unless quoted. All consecutive occurrences of a space or
tab are replaced here with a single space.
Variable evaluation: All words preceded by a $ are avaluated as variables,
unless quoted or escaped.
Command substitution: Any command surrounded by backquotes is
executed by the shell which then replaces the standard output of the command into
the command line.
Wild-card interpretation: The shell finally scans the command line for wildcards (the characters *, ?, [, ]). Any word containing a wild-card is replaced by a
sorted list of filenames that match the pattern. The list of these filenames then
forms the arguments to the command.

PATH evaluation: It finally looks for the PATH variable to determine the
sequence of directories it has to search in order to hunt for the command.

28.

What is the difference between > and >> redirection operators ?

> is the output redirection operator when used it overwrites while >>
operator appends into the file.

29.

How is the command $cat <file1 >file2 different from $cat >file2 <file1 ?
Both the commands mean the same , the file file1 is read and its contents
are copied to file2

30.

Which of the following commands is not a filter

(a) man , (b) cat , (c) pg , (d) head
Ans: man
A filter is a program which can receive a flow of data from std input, process
(or filter) it and send the result to the std output.

31.

What does the command $ls | wc l > file1 do?

ls becomes the input to wc which counts the number of lines it receives as input and
instead of displaying this count , the value is stored in file1.

32.

What does the command $who | sort logfile > newfile do?

The input from a pipe can be combined with the input from a file . The trick
is to use the special symbol - (a hyphen) for those commands that recognize the
hyphen as std input.
In the above command the output from who becomes the std input to sort ,
meanwhile sort opens the file logfile, the contents of this file is sorted together with
the output of who (rep by the hyphen) and the sorted output is redirected to the file
newfile.

33.

What is the significance of the tee command?

It reads the standard input and sends it to the standard output while
redirecting a copy of what it has read to the file specified by the user.

34.

Explain the command $who | tee file1 file2 /dev/tty3a | sort > file3
Store the output of who in file1, file2 ,display the same output on the screen
store the sorted output int file3. /dev/tty3a is the file associated with the terminal.

Exercise :35.

Explain the following commands.

$ ls > file1
$ banner hi-fi > message
$ cat par.3 par.4 par.5 >> report
$ cat file1>file1
$ date ; who

$ date ; who > logfile

$ (date ; who) > logfile

36.

Construct pipes to execute the following jobs.

1. Output of who should be displayed on the screen with value of total number of
users who have logged in displayed at the bottom of the list.
2. Output of ls should be displayed on the screen and from this output the lines
containing the word poem should be counted and the count should be stored in
a file.
3. Contents of file1 and file2 should be displayed on the screen and this output
should be appended in a file .
4. From output of ls the lines containing poem should be displayed on the screen
along with the count.
5. Name of cities should be accepted from the keyboard . This list should be
combined with the list present in a file. This combined list should be sorted and
the sorted list should be stored in a file newcity.
6. All files present in a directory dir1 should be deleted any error while deleting
should be stored in a file errorlog.

Section II SQL

1.

Which is the subset of SQL commands used to manipulate Oracle Database

structures, including tables?

Data Definition Language (DDL)

2.

What operator performs pattern matching?

LIKE operator

3.

What operator tests column for the absence of data?

IS NULL operator

4.

Which command executes the contents of a specified file?

START <filename> or @<filename>

5.

What is the parameter substitution symbol used with INSERT INTO command?
&

6.

Which command displays the SQL command in the SQL buffer, and then executes

it?
RUN

7.

What are the wildcards used for pattern matching?

_ for single character substitution and % for multi-character substitution

8.

State true or false. EXISTS, SOME, ANY are operators in SQL.

True

9.

State true or false. !=, <>, ^= all denote the same operation.
True

10.

What are the privileges that can be granted on a table by a user to others?
Insert, update, delete, select, references, index, execute, alter, all

11.

What command is used to get back the privileges offered by the GRANT command?
REVOKE

12.

Which system tables contain information on privileges granted and privileges

obtained?
USER_TAB_PRIVS_MADE, USER_TAB_PRIVS_RECD

13.

Which system table contains information on constraints on all the tables created?
USER_CONSTRAINTS

14.

TRUNCATE TABLE EMP;

DELETE FROM EMP;
Will the outputs of the above two commands differ?

Both will result in deleting all the rows in the table EMP.

15.

What is the difference between TRUNCATE and DELETE commands?

TRUNCATE is a DDL command whereas DELETE is a DML command.
Hence DELETE operation can be rolled back, but TRUNCATE operation cannot be
rolled back. WHERE clause can be used with DELETE and not with TRUNCATE.

16.

What command is used to create a table by copying the structure of another table?
Answer :
CREATE TABLE .. AS SELECT command
Explanation :
To copy only the structure, the WHERE clause of the SELECT command
should contain a FALSE statement as in the following.
CREATE TABLE NEWTABLE AS SELECT * FROM EXISTINGTABLE
WHERE 1=2;
If the WHERE condition is true, then all the rows or rows satisfying the
condition will be copied to the new table.

17.

What will be the output of the following query?

SELECT

REPLACE(TRANSLATE(LTRIM(RTRIM('!!

ATHEN !!','!'), '!'), 'AN', '**'),'*','TROUBLE') FROM DUAL;

TROUBLETHETROUBLE

18.

What will be the output of the following query?

SELECT DECODE(TRANSLATE('A','1234567890','1111111111'),
'1','YES', 'NO' );
Answer :
NO
Explanation :
The query checks whether a given string is a numerical digit.

19.

What does the following query do?

SELECT SAL + NVL(COMM,0) FROM EMP;
This displays the total salary of all employees. The null values in the
commission column will be replaced by 0 and added to salary.

20.

Which date function is used to find the difference between two dates?
MONTHS_BETWEEN

21.

Why does the following command give a compilation error?

DROP TABLE &TABLE_NAME;
Variable names should start with an alphabet. Here the table name starts
with an '&' symbol.

22.

What is the advantage of specifying WITH GRANT OPTION in the GRANT

command?

The privilege receiver can further grant the privileges he/she has obtained
from the owner to any other user.

23.

What is the use of the DROP option in the ALTER TABLE command?
It is used to drop constraints specified on the table.

24.

What is the value of comm and sal after executing the following query if the

initial value of sal is 10000?

UPDATE EMP SET SAL = SAL + 1000, COMM = SAL*0.1;
sal = 11000, comm = 1000

25.

What is the use of DESC in SQL?

Answer :
DESC has two purposes. It is used to describe a schema as well as to
retrieve rows from table in descending order.
Explanation :
The query SELECT * FROM EMP ORDER BY ENAME DESC will
display the output sorted on ENAME in descending order.

26.

What is the use of CASCADE CONSTRAINTS?

When this clause is used with the DROP command, a parent table can be
dropped even when a child table exists.

27.

Which function is used to find the largest integer less than or equal to a specific

value?
FLOOR

28.

What is the output of the following query?

SELECT TRUNC(1234.5678,-2) FROM DUAL;
1200

SQL QUERIES

I. SCHEMAS

Table 1 : STUDIES
PNAME (VARCHAR), SPLACE (VARCHAR), COURSE (VARCHAR), CCOST
(NUMBER)

Table 2 : SOFTWARE
PNAME

(VARCHAR),

TITLE

(VARCHAR),

DEVIN

(VARCHAR),

SCOST

(NUMBER), DCOST (NUMBER), SOLD (NUMBER)

Table 3 : PROGRAMMER
PNAME (VARCHAR), DOB (DATE), DOJ (DATE), SEX (CHAR), PROF1
(VARCHAR), PROF2 (VARCHAR), SAL (NUMBER)

LEGEND :

PNAME Programmer Name, SPLACE Study Place, CCOST Course Cost, DEVIN
Developed in, SCOST Software Cost, DCOST Development Cost, PROF1
Proficiency 1

QUERIES :
1. Find out the selling cost average for packages developed in Oracle.
2. Display the names, ages and experience of all programmers.
3. Display the names of those who have done the PGDCA course.
4. What is the highest number of copies sold by a package?
5. Display the names and date of birth of all programmers born in April.
6. Display the lowest course fee.
7. How many programmers have done the DCA course.
8. How much revenue has been earned through the sale of packages developed in C.
9. Display the details of software developed by Rakesh.
10. How many programmers studied at Pentafour.
11. Display the details of packages whose sales crossed the 5000 mark.
12. Find out the number of copies which should be sold in order to recover the
development cost of each package.
13. Display the details of packages for which the development cost has been recovered.
14. What is the price of costliest software developed in VB?

15. How many packages were developed in Oracle ?

16. How many programmers studied at PRAGATHI?
17. How many programmers paid 10000 to 15000 for the course?
18. What is the average course fee?
19. Display the details of programmers knowing C.
20. How many programmers know either C or Pascal?
21. How many programmers dont know C and C++?
22. How old is the oldest male programmer?
23. What is the average age of female programmers?
24. Calculate the experience in years for each programmer and display along with
their names in descending order.
25. Who are the programmers who celebrate their birthdays during the current month?
26. How many female programmers are there?
27. What are the languages known by the male programmers?
28. What is the average salary?
29. How many people draw 5000 to 7500?
30. Display the details of those who dont know C, C++ or Pascal.
31. Display the costliest package developed by each programmer.
32. Produce the following output for all the male programmers
Programmer
Mr. Arvind has 15 years of experience

KEYS:

1. SELECT AVG(SCOST) FROM SOFTWARE WHERE DEVIN = 'ORACLE';

2. SELECT PNAME,TRUNC(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,DOB)/12) "AGE",
TRUNC(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,DOJ)/12) "EXPERIENCE" FROM
PROGRAMMER;
3. SELECT PNAME FROM STUDIES WHERE COURSE = 'PGDCA';
4. SELECT MAX(SOLD) FROM SOFTWARE;
5. SELECT PNAME, DOB FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE DOB LIKE '%APR%';
6. SELECT MIN(CCOST) FROM STUDIES;
7. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM STUDIES WHERE COURSE = 'DCA';
8. SELECT SUM(SCOST*SOLD-DCOST) FROM SOFTWARE GROUP BY
DEVIN HAVING DEVIN = 'C';
9. SELECT * FROM SOFTWARE WHERE PNAME = 'RAKESH';
10. SELECT * FROM STUDIES WHERE SPLACE = 'PENTAFOUR';
11. SELECT * FROM SOFTWARE WHERE SCOST*SOLD-DCOST > 5000;
12. SELECT CEIL(DCOST/SCOST) FROM SOFTWARE;
13. SELECT * FROM SOFTWARE WHERE SCOST*SOLD >= DCOST;
14. SELECT MAX(SCOST) FROM SOFTWARE GROUP BY DEVIN HAVING
DEVIN = 'VB';
15. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM SOFTWARE WHERE DEVIN = 'ORACLE';
16. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM STUDIES WHERE SPLACE = 'PRAGATHI';
17. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM STUDIES WHERE CCOST BETWEEN 10000 AND
15000;
18. SELECT AVG(CCOST) FROM STUDIES;

19. SELECT * FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE PROF1 = 'C' OR PROF2 = 'C';

20. SELECT * FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE PROF1 IN ('C','PASCAL') OR
PROF2 IN ('C','PASCAL');
21. SELECT * FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE PROF1 NOT IN ('C','C++') AND
PROF2 NOT IN ('C','C++');
22. SELECT TRUNC(MAX(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,DOB)/12)) FROM
PROGRAMMER WHERE SEX = 'M';
23. SELECT TRUNC(AVG(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,DOB)/12)) FROM
PROGRAMMER WHERE SEX = 'F';
24. SELECT PNAME, TRUNC(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,DOJ)/12) FROM
PROGRAMMER ORDER BY PNAME DESC;
25. SELECT PNAME FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE TO_CHAR(DOB,'MON') =
TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'MON');
26. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE SEX = 'F';
27. SELECT DISTINCT(PROF1) FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE SEX = 'M';
28. SELECT AVG(SAL) FROM PROGRAMMER;
29. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE SAL BETWEEN 5000
AND 7500;
30. SELECT * FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE PROF1 NOT IN ('C','C+
+','PASCAL') AND PROF2 NOT IN ('C','C++','PASCAL');
31. SELECT PNAME,TITLE,SCOST FROM SOFTWARE WHERE SCOST IN
(SELECT MAX(SCOST) FROM SOFTWARE GROUP BY PNAME);

32.SELECT

'Mr.'

||

PNAME

||

'

has

'

||

TRUNC(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,DOJ)/12) || ' years of experience'

Programmer FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE SEX = 'M' UNION SELECT
'Ms.' || PNAME || ' - has ' || TRUNC (MONTHS_BETWEEN (SYSDATE,DOJ)/12)
|| ' years of experience' Programmer FROM PROGRAMMER WHERE SEX =
'F';

II . SCHEMA :

Table 1 : DEPT
DEPTNO (NOT NULL , NUMBER(2)), DNAME (VARCHAR2(14)),
LOC (VARCHAR2(13)

Table 2 : EMP
EMPNO (NOT NULL , NUMBER(4)), ENAME (VARCHAR2(10)),
JOB (VARCHAR2(9)), MGR (NUMBER(4)), HIREDATE (DATE),
SAL (NUMBER(7,2)), COMM (NUMBER(7,2)), DEPTNO (NUMBER(2))

MGR is the empno of the employee whom the employee reports to. DEPTNO is a foreign
key.

QUERIES
1.List all the employees who have at least one person reporting to them.

2.List the employee details if and only if more than 10 employees are present in department
no 10.
3.List the name of the employees with their immediate higher authority.
4.List all the employees who do not manage any one.
5.List the employee details whose salary is greater than the lowest salary of an employee
belonging to deptno 20.
6.List the details of the employee earning more than the highest paid manager.
7.List the highest salary paid for each job.
8.Find the most recently hired employee in each department.
9.In which year did most people join the company? Display the year and the number of
employees.
10.Which department has the highest annual remuneration bill?
11.Write a query to display a * against the row of the most recently hired employee.
12.Write a correlated sub-query to list out the employees who earn more than the average
salary of their department.
13.Find the nth maximum salary.
14.Select the duplicate records (Records, which are inserted, that already exist) in the
EMP table.
15.Write a query to list the length of service of the employees (of the form n years and m
months).

KEYS:

1.SELECT DISTINCT(A.ENAME) FROM EMP A, EMP B WHERE A.EMPNO =

B.MGR; or SELECT ENAME FROM EMP WHERE EMPNO IN (SELECT MGR
FROM EMP);
2.SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE DEPTNO IN (SELECT DEPTNO FROM EMP
GROUP BY DEPTNO HAVING COUNT(EMPNO)>10 AND DEPTNO=10);
3.SELECT A.ENAME "EMPLOYEE", B.ENAME "REPORTS TO" FROM EMP A, EMP
B WHERE A.MGR=B.EMPNO;
4.SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE EMPNO IN ( SELECT EMPNO FROM EMP MINUS
SELECT MGR FROM EMP);
5.SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE SAL > ( SELECT MIN(SAL) FROM EMP GROUP
BY DEPTNO HAVING DEPTNO=20);
6.SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE SAL > ( SELECT MAX(SAL) FROM EMP GROUP
BY JOB HAVING JOB = 'MANAGER' );
7.SELECT JOB, MAX(SAL) FROM EMP GROUP BY JOB;
8.SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE (DEPTNO, HIREDATE) IN (SELECT DEPTNO,
MAX(HIREDATE) FROM EMP GROUP BY DEPTNO);
9.SELECT TO_CHAR(HIREDATE,'YYYY') "YEAR", COUNT(EMPNO) "NO. OF
EMPLOYEES" FROM EMP GROUP BY TO_CHAR(HIREDATE,'YYYY') HAVING
COUNT(EMPNO) = (SELECT MAX(COUNT(EMPNO)) FROM EMP GROUP BY
TO_CHAR(HIREDATE,'YYYY'));
10.SELECT DEPTNO, LPAD(SUM(12*(SAL+NVL(COMM,0))),15)
"COMPENSATION" FROM EMP GROUP BY DEPTNO HAVING SUM( 12*(SAL

+NVL(COMM,0))) = (SELECT MAX(SUM(12*(SAL+NVL(COMM,0)))) FROM EMP

GROUP BY DEPTNO);
11.SELECT ENAME, HIREDATE, LPAD('*',8) "RECENTLY HIRED" FROM EMP
WHERE HIREDATE = (SELECT MAX(HIREDATE) FROM EMP) UNION SELECT
ENAME NAME, HIREDATE, LPAD(' ',15) "RECENTLY HIRED" FROM EMP WHERE
HIREDATE != (SELECT MAX(HIREDATE) FROM EMP);
12.SELECT ENAME,SAL FROM EMP E WHERE SAL > (SELECT AVG(SAL) FROM
EMP F WHERE E.DEPTNO = F.DEPTNO);
13.SELECT ENAME, SAL FROM EMP A WHERE &N = (SELECT COUNT
(DISTINCT(SAL)) FROM EMP B WHERE A.SAL<=B.SAL);
14.SELECT * FROM EMP A WHERE A.EMPNO IN (SELECT EMPNO FROM EMP
GROUP BY EMPNO HAVING COUNT(EMPNO)>1) AND A.ROWID!=MIN
(ROWID));
15.SELECT ENAME
"EMPLOYEE",TO_CHAR(TRUNC(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,HIREDATE)/12)
)||' YEARS '|| TO_CHAR(TRUNC(MOD(MONTHS_BETWEEN (SYSDATE,
HIREDATE),12)))||' MONTHS ' "LENGTH OF SERVICE" FROM EMP;

Quantitative Aptitude

FORMULA LIST:

ALGEBRA :
1. Sum of first n natural numbers = n(n+1)/2
2. Sum of the squares of first n natural numbers = n(n+1)(2n+1)/6
3. Sum of the cubes of first n natural numbers = [n(n+1)/2]2
4. Sum of first n natural odd numbers = n2
5. Average = (Sum of items)/Number of items

Arithmetic Progression (A.P.):

An A.P. is of the form a, a+d, a+2d, a+3d, ...
where a is called the 'first term' and d is called the 'common difference'
1. nth term of an A.P. tn = a + (n-1)d

2. Sum of the first n terms of an A.P. Sn = n/2[2a+(n-1)d] or Sn = n/2(first term + last

term)

Geometrical Progression (G.P.):

A G.P. is of the form a, ar, ar2, ar3, ...
where a is called the 'first term' and r is called the 'common ratio'.
1. nth term of a G.P. tn = arn-1
2. Sum of the first n terms in a G.P. Sn = a|1-rn|/|1-r|

Permutations and Combinations :

1. nPr = n!/(n-r)!
2. nPn = n!
3. nP1 = n

1. nCr = n!/(r! (n-r)!)

2. nC1 = n
3. nC0 = 1 = nCn
4. nCr = nCn-r
5. nCr = nPr/r!

Number of diagonals in a geometric figure of n sides = nC2-n

Tests of Divisibility :

1. A number is divisible by 2 if it is an even number.

2. A number is divisible by 3 if the sum of the digits is divisible by 3.
3. A number is divisible by 4 if the number formed by the last two digits is divisible by 4.
4. A number is divisible by 5 if the units digit is either 5 or 0.
5. A number is divisible by 6 if the number is divisible by both 2 and 3.
6. A number is divisible by 8 if the number formed by the last three digits is divisible by 8.
7. A number is divisible by 9 if the sum of the digits is divisible by 9.
8. A number is divisible by 10 if the units digit is 0.
9. A number is divisible by 11 if the difference of the sum of its digits at odd places and the
sum of its digits at even places, is divisible by 11.

H.C.F and L.C.M :

H.C.F stands for Highest Common Factor. The other names for H.C.F are Greatest
Common Divisor (G.C.D) and Greatest Common Measure (G.C.M).
The H.C.F. of two or more numbers is the greatest number that divides each one of them
exactly.
The least number which is exactly divisible by each one of the given numbers is called
their L.C.M.
Two numbers are said to be co-prime if their H.C.F. is 1.
H.C.F. of fractions = H.C.F. of numerators/L.C.M of denominators
L.C.M. of fractions = G.C.D. of numerators/H.C.F of denominators

Product of two numbers = Product of their H.C.F. and L.C.M.

PERCENTAGES :
1. If A is R% more than B, then B is less than A by R / (100+R) * 100
2. If A is R% less than B, then B is more than A by R / (100-R) * 100
3. If the price of a commodity increases by R%, then reduction in consumption, not to
increase the expenditure is : R/(100+R)*100
4. If the price of a commodity decreases by R%, then the increase in consumption, not to
decrease the expenditure is : R/(100-R)*100

PROFIT & LOSS :

1. Gain = Selling Price(S.P.) - Cost Price(C.P)
2. Loss = C.P. - S.P.
3. Gain % = Gain * 100 / C.P.
4. Loss % = Loss * 100 / C.P.
5. S.P. = (100+Gain%)/100*C.P.
6. S.P. = (100-Loss%)/100*C.P.

Short cut Methods:

1. By selling an article for Rs. X, a man loses l%. At what price should he sell it to gain y
%? (or)
A man lost l% by selling an article for Rs. X. What percent shall he gain or lose by
selling it for Rs. Y?

(100 loss%) : 1st S.P. = (100 + gain%) : 2nd S.P.

2. A man sold two articles for Rs. X each. On one he gains y% while on the other he
loses y%. How much does he gain or lose in the whole transaction?
In such a question, there is always a lose. The selling price is immaterial.

Common loss or gain% 2

%

Formula: Loss % =

10

3. A discount dealer professes to sell his goods at cost price but uses a weight of 960
gms. For a kg weight. Find his gain percent.
Error
Formula: Gain % =

*100

True value - Error

RATIO & PROPORTIONS:

1. The ratio a : b represents a fraction a/b. a is called antecedent and b is called consequent.
2. The equality of two different ratios is called proportion.
3. If a : b = c : d then a, b, c, d are in proportion. This is represented by a : b :: c : d.
4. In a : b = c : d, then we have a* d = b * c.

5. If a/b = c/d then ( a + b ) / ( a b ) = ( d + c ) / ( d c ).

TIME & WORK :

1. If A can do a piece of work in n days, then A's 1 day's work = 1/n
2. If A and B work together for n days, then (A+B)'s 1 days's work = 1/n
3. If A is twice as good workman as B, then ratio of work done by A and B = 2:1

PIPES & CISTERNS :

1. If a pipe can fill a tank in x hours, then part of tank filled in one hour = 1/x
2. If a pipe can empty a full tank in y hours, then part emptied in one hour = 1/y
3. If a pipe can fill a tank in x hours, and another pipe can empty the full tank in y hours,
then on opening both the pipes,

the net part filled in 1 hour = (1/x-1/y) if y>x

the net part emptied in 1 hour = (1/y-1/x) if x>y

TIME & DISTANCE :

1. Distance = Speed * Time
2. 1 km/hr = 5/18 m/sec
3. 1 m/sec = 18/5 km/hr
4. Suppose a man covers a certain distance at x kmph and an equal distance at y kmph. Then,
the average speed during the whole journey is 2xy/(x+y) kmph.

PROBLEMS ON TRAINS :
1. Time taken by a train x metres long in passing a signal post or a pole or a standing man is
equal to the time taken by the train to cover x metres.
2. Time taken by a train x metres long in passing a stationary object of length y metres is
equal to the time taken by the train to cover x+y metres.
3. Suppose two trains are moving in the same direction at u kmph and v kmph such that u>v,
then their relative speed = u-v kmph.
4. If two trains of length x km and y km are moving in the same direction at u kmph and v
kmph, where u>v, then time taken by the faster train to cross the slower train = (x+y)/(u-v)
hours.
5. Suppose two trains are moving in opposite directions at u kmph and v kmph. Then, their
relative speed = (u+v) kmph.
6. If two trains of length x km and y km are moving in the opposite directions at u kmph and
v kmph, then time taken by the trains to cross each other = (x+y)/(u+v)hours.
7. If two trains start at the same time from two points A and B towards each other and after
crossing they take a and b hours in reaching B and A respectively, then A's speed : B's
speed = (b :

SIMPLE & COMPOUND INTERESTS :

Let P be the principal, R be the interest rate percent per annum, and N be the time
period.
1. Simple Interest = (P*N*R)/100
2. Compound Interest = P(1 + R/100)N P

3. Amount = Principal + Interest

LOGARITHMS :
If am = x , then m = logax.
Properties :
1. log xx = 1
2. log x1 = 0
3. log a(xy) = log ax + log ay
4. log a(x/y) = log ax - log ay
5. log ax = 1/log xa
6. log a(xp) = p(log ax)
7. log ax = log bx/log ba
Note : Logarithms for base 1 does not exist.

AREA & PERIMETER :

Shape

Area

Perimeter

Circle

(Radius)2

2(Radius)

Square

(side)2

4(side)

Rectangle

length*breadth

2(length+breadth)

1. Area of a triangle = 1/2*Base*Height or

2. Area of a triangle = (s(s-(s-b)(s-c)) where a,b,c are the lengths of the sides and s = (a+b
+c)/2

3. Area of a parallelogram = Base * Height

4. Area of a rhombus = 1/2(Product of diagonals)
5. Area of a trapezium = 1/2(Sum of parallel sides)(distance between the parallel sides)
6. Area of a quadrilateral = 1/2(diagonal)(Sum of sides)
7. Area of a regular hexagon = 6(3/4)(side)2
8. Area of a ring = (R2-r2) where R and r are the outer and inner radii of the ring.

VOLUME & SURFACE AREA :

Cube :
Let a be the length of each edge. Then,
1. Volume of the cube = a3 cubic units
2. Surface Area = 6a2 square units
3. Diagonal = 3 a units
Cuboid :
Let l be the length, b be the breadth and h be the height of a cuboid. Then
1. Volume = lbh cu units
2. Surface Area = 2(lb+bh+lh) sq units
3. Diagonal = (l2+b2+h2)
Cylinder :
Let radius of the base be r and height of the cylinder be h. Then,
1. Volume = r2h cu units
2. Curved Surface Area = 2rh sq units
3. Total Surface Area = 2rh + 2r2 sq units

Cone :
Let r be the radius of base, h be the height, and l be the slant height of the cone.
Then,
1. l2 = h2 + r2
2. Volume = 1/3(r2h) cu units
3. Curved Surface Area = rl sq units
4. Total Surface Area = rl + r2 sq units
Sphere :
Let r be the radius of the sphere. Then,
1. Volume = (4/3)r3 cu units
2. Surface Area = 4r2 sq units
Hemi-sphere :
Let r be the radius of the hemi-sphere. Then,
1. Volume = (2/3)r3 cu units
2. Curved Surface Area = 2r2 sq units
3. Total Surface Area = 3r2 sq units
Prism :
Volume = (Area of base)(Height)

Exercise 1
Solve the following and check with the answers given at the end.

1.

It was calculated that 75 men could complete a piece of work in 20 days. When
work was scheduled to commence, it was found necessary to send 25 men to
another project. How much longer will it take to complete the work?

2.

A student divided a number by 2/3 when he required to multiply by 3/2. Calculate

the percentage of error in his result.

3.

A dishonest shopkeeper professes to sell pulses at the cost price, but he uses a false
weight of 950gm. for a kg. His gain is %.

4.

A software engineer has the capability of thinking 100 lines of code in five minutes
and can type 100 lines of code in 10 minutes. He takes a break for five minutes
after every ten minutes. How many lines of codes will he complete typing after an
hour?

5.

A man was engaged on a job for 30 days on the condition that he would get a wage
of Rs. 10 for the day he works, but he have to pay a fine of Rs. 2 for each day of his
absence. If he gets Rs. 216 at the end, he was absent for work for ... days.

6.

A contractor agreeing to finish a work in 150 days, employed 75 men each working
8 hours daily. After 90 days, only 2/7 of the work was completed. Increasing the
number of men by ________ each working now for 10 hours daily, the work can be
completed in time.

7.

what is a percent of b divided by b percent of a?

(a)

8.

(b)

(c)

(d)

10

(d)

100

A man bought a horse and a cart. If he sold the horse at 10 % loss and the cart at 20
% gain, he would not lose anything; but if he sold the horse at 5% loss and the cart
at 5% gain, he would lose Rs. 10 in the bargain. The amount paid by him was Rs._______ for the horse and Rs.________ for the cart.

9.

A tennis marker is trying to put together a team of four players for a tennis
tournament out of seven available. males - a, b and c; females m, n, o and p. All
players are of equal ability and there must be at least two males in the team. For a
team of four, all players must be able to play with each other under the following
restrictions:
b should not play with m,
c should not play with p, and
a should not play with o.
Which of the following statements must be false?
1. b and p cannot be selected together
2. c and o cannot be selected together
3. c and n cannot be selected together.

10-12. The following figure depicts three views of a cube. Based on this, answer
questions 10-12.

2
1

4
3
22

10.

The number on the face opposite to the face carrying 1 is _______ .

11.

The number on the faces adjacent to the face marked 5 are _______ .

12.

Which of the following pairs does not correctly give the numbers on the opposite
faces.
(1)

13.

6,5

(2)

4,1

(3)

1,3

(4)

4,2

Five farmers have 7, 9, 11, 13 & 14 apple trees, respectively in their orchards. Last
year, each of them discovered that every tree in their own orchard bore exactly the
same number of apples. Further, if the third farmer gives one apple to the first, and
the fifth gives three to each of the second and the fourth, they would all have
exactly the same number of apples. What were the yields per tree in the orchards of
the third and fourth farmers?

14.

Five boys were climbing a hill. J was following H. R was just ahead of G. K was
between G & H. They were climbing up in a column. Who was the second?

15-18 John is undecided which of the four novels to buy. He is considering a spy
thriller, a Murder mystery, a Gothic romance and a science fiction novel. The books
are written by Rothko, Gorky, Burchfield and Hopper, not necessary in that order,
and published by Heron, Piegon, Blueja and sparrow, not necessary in that order.
1

(1) The book by Rothko is published by Sparrow.

(2) The Spy thriller is published by Heron.

(3) The science fiction novel is by Burchfield and is not published by Blueja.

(4)The Gothic romance is by Hopper.

4
15.

Pigeon publishes ____________.

16.

The novel by Gorky ________________.

17.

John purchases books by the authors whose names come first and third in
alphabetical order. He does not buy the books ______.

18.

On the basis of the first paragraph and statement (2), (3) and (4) only, it is possible
to deduce that
1. Rothko wrote the murder mystery or the spy thriller

2. Sparrow published the murder mystery or the spy thriller

3. The book by Burchfield is published by Sparrow.

19.

If a light flashes every 6 seconds, how many times will it flash in of an hour?

20.

If point P is on line segment AB, then which of the following is always true?
(1) AP = PB (2) AP > PB (3) PB > AP (4) AB > AP (5) AB > AP + PB

21.

All men are vertebrates. Some mammals are vertebrates. Which of the following
conclusions drawn from the above statement is correct.
All men are mammals
All mammals are men
Some vertebrates are mammals.
None

22.

Which of the following statements drawn from the given statements are correct?
Given:
All watches sold in that shop are of high standard. Some of the HMT watches are
sold in that shop.
a) All watches of high standard were manufactured by HMT.
b) Some of the HMT watches are of high standard.
c) None of the HMT watches is of high standard.
d) Some of the HMT watches of high standard are sold in that shop.

23-27.
1. Ashland is north of East Liverpool and west of Coshocton.
2. Bowling green is north of Ashland and west of Fredericktown.
3. Dover is south and east of Ashland.
4. East Liverpool is north of Fredericktown and east of Dover.
5. Fredericktown is north of Dover and west of Ashland.
6. Coshocton is south of Fredericktown and west of Dover.

23.

24.

Which of the towns mentioned is furthest of the north west

( Ashland

(b) Bowling green

(d) East Liverpool

(e) Fredericktown

Which of the following must be both north and east of Fredericktown?

( Ashland
I a only

25.

(c) Coshocton

(b) Coshocton
II b only

III c only

(c) East Liverpool

IV a & b

Va&c

Which of the following towns must be situated both south and west of at least one
other town?
A. Ashland only
B. Ashland and Fredericktown
C. Dover and Fredericktown
D. Dover, Coshocton and Fredericktown

E. Coshocton, Dover and East Liverpool.

26.

Which of the following statements, if true, would make the information in the
numbered statements more specific?
(a) Coshocton is north of Dover.
(b) East Liverpool is north of Dover
(c) Ashland is east of Bowling green.
(d) Coshocton is east of Fredericktown
(e) Bowling green is north of Fredericktown

27.

Which of the numbered statements gives information that can be deduced from one
or more of the other statements?
(1

28.

(B) 2

(C) 3

(D) 4

(E) 6

Eight friends Harsha, Fakis, Balaji, Eswar, Dhinesh, Chandra, Geetha, and Ahmed
are sitting in a circle facing the center. Balaji is sitting between Geetha and
Dhinesh. Harsha is third to the left of Balaji and second to the right of Ahmed.
Chandra is sitting between Ahmed and Geetha and Balaji and Eshwar are not sitting
opposite to each other. Who is third to the left of Dhinesh?

29.

If every alternative letter starting from B of the English alphabet is written in small
letter, rest all are written in capital letters, how the month September be written.
(1)

SeptEMbEr

(2)

SEpTeMBEr (3)

SeptembeR

(4)

30.

SepteMber

(5)

None of the above.

The length of the side of a square is represented by x+2. The length of the side of
an equilateral triangle is 2x. If the square and the equilateral triangle have equal
perimeter, then the value of x is _______.

31.

It takes Mr. Karthik y hours to complete typing a manuscript. After 2 hours, he was
called away. What fractional part of the assignment was left incomplete?

32.

Which of the following is larger than 3/5?

(1)

(2)

39/50 (3)

7/25

(4)

3/10

(5)

59/100

33.

The number that does not have a reciprocal is ____________.

34.

There are 3 persons Sudhir, Arvind, and Gauri. Sudhir lent cars to Arvind and
Gauri as many as they had already. After some time Arvind gave as many cars to
Sudhir and Gauri as many as they have. After sometime Gauri did the same thing.
At the end of this transaction each one of them had 24. Find the cars each originally
had.

35.

A man bought a horse and a cart. If he sold the horse at 10 % loss and the cart at 20
% gain, he would not lose anything; but if he sold the horse at 5% loss and the cart

at 5% gain, he would lose Rs. 10 in the bargain. The amount paid by him was Rs._______ for the horse and Rs.________ for the cart.

Answers:

1.

Answer:
30 days.
Explanation:
Before:
One day work

1 / 20

One mans one day work

1 / ( 20 * 75)

No. Of workers

50

One day work

50 * 1 / ( 20 * 75)

Now:

The total no. of days required to complete the work = (75 * 20) / 50 = 30

2.

Answer:
0%
Explanation:
Since 3x / 2 = x / (2 / 3)

3.

Answer:

5.3 %
Explanation:
He sells 950 grams of pulses and gains 50 grams.
If he sells 100 grams of pulses then he will gain (50 / 950) *100 = 5.26

4.

Answer:
250 lines of codes

5.

Answer:
7 days
Explanation:
The equation portraying the given problem is:
10 * x 2 * (30 x) = 216 where x is the number of working days.
Solving this we get x = 23
Number of days he was absent was 7 (30-23) days.

6.

Answer:
150 men.
Explanation:
One days work

2 / (7 * 90)

One hours work

2 / (7 * 90 * 8)

One mans work

2 / (7 * 90 * 8 * 75)

The remaining work (5/7) has to be completed within 60 days, because the
total number of days allotted for the project is 150 days.

So we get the equation

(2 * 10 * x * 60) / (7 * 90 * 8 * 75) = 5/7 where x is the number of men

working after the 90th day.

We get x = 225
Since we have 75 men already, it is enough to add only 150 men.

7.

Answer:
(c) 1
Explanation:
a percent of b : (a/100) * b
b percent of a : (b/100) * a
a percent of b divided by b percent of a : ((a / 100 )*b) / (b/100) * a )) = 1

8.

Answer:
Cost price of horse = Rs. 400 & the cost price of cart = 200.
Explanation:Let x be the cost price of the horse and y be the cost price of the cart.
In the first sale there is no loss or profit. (i.e.) The loss obtained is equal to the gain.

Therefore

(10/100) * x

= (20/100) * y

= 2*y

-----------------(1)

In the second sale, he lost Rs. 10. (i.e.) The loss is greater than the profit by Rs. 10.

Therefore

(5 / 100) * x

= (5 / 100) * y + 10 -------(2)

Substituting (1) in (2) we get

(10 / 100) * y = (5 / 100) * y + 10
(5 / 100) * y

= 10

y = 200
From (1) 2 * 200 = x = 400

9.

Answer:
3.
Explanation:
Since inclusion of any male player will reject a female from the team. Since
there should be four member in the team and only three males are available, the
girl, n should included in the team always irrespective of others selection.

10.

Answer:
5

11.

Answer:
1,2,3 & 4

12.

Answer:
B

13.

Answer:
11 & 9 apples per tree.
Explanation:
Let a, b, c, d & e be the total number of apples bored per year in A, B, C, D
& E s orchard. Given that

a+1=b+3=c1=d+3=e6

But the question is to find the number of apples bored per tree in C and D s
orchard. If is enough to consider c 1 = d + 3.
Since the number of trees in Cs orchard is 11 and that of Ds orchard is 13.
Let x and y be the number of apples bored per tree in C & d s orchard respectively.
Therefore 11 x 1 = 13 y + 3
By trial and error method, we get the value for x and y as 11 and 9

14.

Answer:
G.
Explanation:
The order in which they are climbing is R G K H J

15 18
Answer:
Novel Name

Author

Publisher

Spy thriller

Rathko

Heron

Murder mystery

Gorky

Piegon

Gothic romance

Burchfield

Blueja

Science fiction

Hopper

Sparrow

Novel Name

Author

Publisher

Spy thriller

Rathko

Heron

Murder mystery

Gorky

Piegon

Gothic romance

Burchfield

Blueja

Science fiction

Hopper

Sparrow

Explanation:
Given

Since Blueja doesnt publish the novel by Burchfield and Heron publishes
the novel spy thriller, Piegon publishes the novel by Burchfield.
Since Hopper writes Gothic romance and Heron publishes the novel spy
thriller, Blueja publishes the novel by Hopper.
Since Heron publishes the novel spy thriller and Heron publishes the novel
by Gorky, Gorky writes Spy thriller and Rathko writes Murder mystery.

19.

Answer:
451 times.
Explanation:
There are 60 minutes in an hour.
In of an hour there are (60 * ) minutes = 45 minutes.
In of an hour there are (60 * 45) seconds = 2700 seconds.
Light flashed for every 6 seconds.
In 2700 seconds 2700/6 = 450 times.
The count start after the first flash, the light will flashes 451 times in of
an hour.

20.

Answer:
(4)
Explanation:
P
A

Since p is a point on the line segment AB, AB > AP

21.

Answer: (c)

22.

Answer: (b) & (d).

Ahmed
23 - 27.Answer:
Fakis
28.

Chandra

Answer: Fakis
Explanation:

Harsha

Geetha

Eswar

Balaji

Dhinesh

29.

Answer:
(5).
Explanation:
Since every alternative letter starting from B of the English alphabet is
written in small letter, the letters written in small letter are b, d, f...
In the first two answers the letter E is written in both small & capital letters,
so they are not the correct answers. But in third and fourth answers the letter is
written in small letter instead capital letter, so they are not the answers.

30.

Answer:
x=4
Explanation:
Since the side of the square is x + 2, its perimeter = 4 (x + 2) = 4x + 8
Since the side of the equilateral triangle is 2x, its perimeter = 3 * 2x = 6x
Also, the perimeters of both are equal.

31.

(i.e.)

4x + 8 = 6x

(i.e.)

2x = 8 x = 4.

Answer:
5

(y 2) / y.

Explanation:
To type a manuscript karthik took y hours.
Therefore his speed in typing = 1/y.
He was called away after 2 hours of typing.
Therefore the work completed = 1/y * 2.
Therefore the remaining work to be completed = 1 2/y.
(i.e.) work to be completed = (y-2)/y

32.

Answer:
(2)

33.

Answer:
1
Explanation:
One is the only number exists without reciprocal because the reciprocal of
one is one itself.

34.

Answer:
Sudhir had 39 cars, Arvind had 21 cars and Gauri had 12 cars.
Explanation:
Sudhir

Finally

24

Gauri

24

24

12

12

48

42

24

Before Sudhir s transaction 39

21

12

Before Gauris transaction

Before Arvinds transaction

35.

Arvind

Answer:
Cost price of horse:

Rs. 400 &

Cost price of cart:

Rs. 200

Explanation:
Let x be the cost of horse & y be the cost of the cart.
10 % of loss in selling horse = 20 % of gain in selling the cart
Therefore

(10 / 100) * x = (20 * 100) * y

x = 2y -----------(1)

5 % of loss in selling the horse is 10 more than the 5 % gain in selling the
cart.
Therefore

(5 / 100) * x - 10 = (5 / 100) * y
5x - 1000

5y

Substituting (1)
10y - 1000 = 5y
5y = 1000
y = 200
x = 400

from (1)

Exercise 2.1
For the following, find the next term in the series

1.

6, 24, 60,120, 210

336

b) 366

Answer:

c) 330

d) 660

336

Explanation:
The series is 1.2.3, 2.3.4, 3.4.5, 4.5.6, 5.6.7, .....

2.

1, 5, 13, 25
Answer:
Explanation:

41

( '.' means product)

The series is of the form 0^2+1^2, 1^2+2^2,...

3.

0, 5, 8, 17
Answer:

24

Explanation:
1^2-1, 2^2+1, 3^2-1, 4^2+1, 5^2-1

4.

1, 8, 9, 64, 25 (Hint : Every successive terms are related)

Answer:

216

Explanation:
1^2, 2^3, 3^2, 4^3, 5^2, 6^3

5.

8,24,12,36,18,54
Answer:

71,76,69,74,67,72
Answer:

7.

27

67

5,9,16,29,54
Answer:

103

Explanation:
5*2-1=9; 9*2-2=16; 16*2-3=29; 29*2-4=54; 54*2-5=103

8.

1,2,4,10,16,40,64 (Successive terms are related)

Answer:

200

Explanation:
The series is powers of 2 (2^0,2^1,..).
All digits are less than 8. Every second number is in octal number system.
128 should follow 64. 128 base 10 = 200 base 8.

Exercise 2.2
Find the odd man out.

1.

3,5,7,12,13,17,19
Answer:

12

Explanation:
All but 12 are odd numbers

2.

2,5,10,17,26,37,50,64
Answer:

64

Explanation:
2+3=5; 5+5=10; 10+7=17; 17+9=26; 26+11=37; 37+13=50; 50+15=65;

3.

105,85,60,30,0,-45,-90
Answer:
Explanation:

105-20=85; 85-25=60; 60-30=30; 30-35=-5; -5-40=-45; -45-45=-90;

Exercise 3
Solve the following.

1.

What is the number of 0 at the end of the product of the numbers from 1 to 100?
Answer:

2.

127

A fast typist can type some matter in 2 hours and a slow typist can type the same in
3 hours. If both type combinely, in how much time will they finish?
Answer:

1 hr 12 min

Explanation:
The fast typist's work done in 1 hr = 1/2
The slow typist's work done in 1 hr = 1/3
If they work combinely, work done in 1 hr = 1/2+1/3 = 5/6
So, the work will be completed in 6/5 hours. i.e., 1+1/5 hours = 1hr 12 min

3.

Gavaskar's average in his first 50 innings was 50. After the 51st innings, his
average was 51. How many runs did he score in his 51st innings. (supposing that he
lost his wicket in his 51st innings)
Answer:

101

Explanation:
Total score after 50 innings = 50*50 = 2500
Total score after 51 innings = 51*51 = 2601

So, runs made in the 51st innings = 2601-2500 = 101

If he had not lost his wicket in his 51st innings, he would have scored an
unbeaten 50 in his 51st innings.

4.

Out of 80 coins, one is counterfeit. What is the minimum number of weighings

needed to find out the counterfeit coin?
Answer:

5.

What can you conclude from the statement : All green are blue, all blue are red. ?
i. some blue are green
ii. some red are green
iii. some green are not red
iv. all red are blue

1. i or ii but not both

2. i & ii only
3. iii or iv but not both
4. iii & iv
Answer:

6.

(2)

A rectangular plate with length 8 inches, breadth 11 inches and thickness 2 inches
is available. What is the length of the circular rod with diameter 8 inches and equal
to the volume of the rectangular plate?

Answer:

3.5 inches

Explanation :
Volume of the circular rod (cylinder) = Volume of the rectangular plate
(22/7)*4*4*h = 8*11*2
h = 7/2 = 3.5

7.

What is the sum of all numbers between 100 and 1000 which are divisible by 14 ?
Answer:

35392

Explanation:
The number closest to 100 which is greater than 100 and divisible by 14 is
112, which is the first term of the series which has to be summed.
The number closest to 1000 which is less than 1000 and divisible by 14 is
994, which is the last term of the series.
112 + 126 + .... + 994 = 14(8+9+ ... + 71) = 35392

8.

If s( denotes square root of a, find the value of s(12+s(12+s(12+ ...... upto infinity.
Answer:

Explanation :
Let x = s(12+s(12+s(12+.....
We can write x = s(12+x). i.e., x^2 = 12 + x. Solving this quadratic
equation, we get x = -3 or x=4. Sum cannot be -ve and hence sum = 4.

9.

A cylindrical container has a radius of eight inches with a height of three inches.
Compute how many inches should be added to either the radius or height to give
the same increase in volume?
Answer:

16/3 inches

Explanation:
Let x be the amount of increase. The volume will increase by the same
amount if the radius increased or the height is increased. So, the effect on
increasing height is equal to the effect on increasing the radius.
i.e., (22/7)*8*8*(3+x) = (22/7)*(8+x)*(8+x)*3
Solving the quadratic equation we get the x = 0 or 16/3. The possible
increase would be by 16/3 inches.

10.

With just six weights and a balance scale, you can weigh any unit number of kgs
from 1 to 364. What could be the six weights?
Answer:

11.

1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 243 (All powers of 3)

Diophantus passed one sixth of his life in childhood, one twelfth in youth, and one
seventh more as a bachelor; five years after his marriage a son was born who died
four years before his father at half his final age. How old is Diophantus?
Answer:

84 years

Explanation:
x/6 + x/12 + x/7 + 5 + x/2 + 4 = x

12.

If time at this moment is 9 P.M., what will be the time 23999999992 hours later?
Answer:

1 P.M.

Explanation:
24 billion hours later, it would be 9 P.M. and 8 hours before that it would be
1 P.M.

13.

How big will an angle of one and a half degree look through a glass that magnifies
things three times?
Answer:

1 1/2 degrees

Explanation:
The magnifying glass cannot increase the magnitude of an angle.

14.

Divide 45 into four parts such that when 2 is added to the first part, 2 is subtracted
from the second part, 2 is multiplied by the third part and the fourth part is divided
by two, all result in the same number.
Answer:

8, 12, 5, 20

Explanation:
a + b + c + d =45;

a+2 = b-2 = 2c = d/2; a=b-4; c = (b-2)/2; d = 2(b-2); b-4 + b

+ (b-2)/2 + 2(b-2) = 45;

15.

I drove 60 km at 30 kmph and then an additional 60 km at 50 kmph. Compute my

average speed over my 120 km.
Answer:

37 1/2

Explanation:
Time reqd for the first 60 km = 120 min.; Time reqd for the second 60 km =
72 min.; Total time reqd = 192 min
Avg speed = (60*120)/192 = 37 1/2

Questions 16 and 17 are based on the following :

Five executives of European Corporation hold a Conference in Rome
A converses in Spanish & Italian
Mr. B, a spaniard, knows English also
Mr. C knows English and belongs to Italy
Mr. D converses in French and Spanish
Mr. E , a native of Italy knows French

16.

Which of the following can act as interpreter if Mr. C & Mr. D wish to converse
only Mr. A

b) Only Mr. B c) Mr. A & Mr. B

Answer:

d) Any of the other three.

d) Any of the other three

Explanation:
From the data given, we can infer the following.
A knows Spanish, Italian
B knows Spanish, English
C knows Italian, English
D knows Spanish, French
E knows Italian, French

Mr.

To act as an interpreter between C and D, a person has to know one of the

combinations Italian & Spanish, Italian & French, English & Spanish, English &
French. A, B, and E know atleast one of the combinations.

17.

If a 6th executive is brought in, to be understood by maximum number of

original five he should be fluent in
English & French b)Italian & Spanish c)English & French d) French & Italian
Answer:

b) Italian & Spanish

Explanation:
Number of executives who know
i) English is 2
ii) Spanish is 3
iii) Italian is 3
iv) French is 2
Italian & Spanish are spoken by the maximum no of executives. So, if the
6th executive is fluent in Italian & Spanish, he can communicate with all the
original five because everybody knows either Spanish or Italian.

18.

What is the sum of the first 25 natural odd numbers?

Answer:

625

Explanation:
The sum of the first n natural odd nos is square(n).
1+3 = 4 = square(2) 1+3+5 = 9 = square(3)

19.

The sum of any seven consecutive numbers is divisible by

a) 2

b) 7

c) 3

d) 11

Answer:
(b) 7
Explanation:
Let x be any number. The next six consecutive numbers are x+1, x+2, x+3,
x+4, x+5 and x+6. The sum of these seven numbers are 7x + 21. This is equal to
7(x+3). This number will always divisible by 7. Hence the result.

Exercise 3
Try the following.

1. There are seventy clerks working in a company, of which 30 are females. Also, 30
clerks are married; 24 clerks are above 25 years of age; 19 married clerks are above
25 years, of which 7 are males; 12 males are above 25 years of age; and 15 males are
married. How many bachelor girls are there and how many of these are above 25?

2.

A man sailed off from the North Pole. After covering 2,000 miles in one
direction he turned West, sailed 2,000 miles, turned North and sailed ahead another
2,000 miles till he met his friend. How far was he from the North Pole and in what
direction?

3.

Here is a series of comments on the ages of three persons J, R, S by themselves.

S : The difference between R's age and mine is three years.
J : R is the youngest.
R : Either I am 24 years old or J 25 or S 26.
J : All are above 24 years of age.
S : I am the eldest if and only if R is not the youngest.
R : S is elder to me.
J : I am the eldest.
R : S is not 27 years old.
S : The sum of my age and J's is two more than twice R's age.
One of the three had been telling a lie throughout whereas others had spoken
the truth. Determine the ages of S,J,R.

4.

In a group of five people, what is the probability of finding two persons with the
same month of birth?

5.

A father and his son go out for a 'walk-and-run' every morning around a track
formed by an equilateral triangle. The father's walking speed is 2 mph and his running
speed is 5 mph. The son's walking and running speeds are twice that of his father. Both
start together from one apex of the triangle, the son going clockwise and the father
anti-clockwise. Initially the father runs and the son walks for a certain period of time.
Thereafter, as soon as the father starts walking, the son starts running. Both complete

the course in 45 minutes. For how long does the father run? Where do the two cross
each other?

6.

The Director of Medical Services was on his annual visit to the ENT Hospital.
While going through the out patients' records he came across the following data for a
particular day : " Ear consultations 45; Nose 50; Throat 70; Ear and Nose 30; Nose
and Throat 20; Ear and Throat 30; Ear, Nose and Throat 10; Total patients 100."
Then he came to the conclusion that the records were bogus. Was he right?

7.

Amongst Ram, Sham and Gobind are a doctor, a lawyer and a police officer.
They are married to Radha, Gita and Sita (not in order). Each of the wives have a
profession. Gobind's wife is an artist. Ram is not married to Gita. The lawyer's wife is
a teacher. Radha is married to the police officer. Sita is an expert cook. Who's who?

8.

What should come next?

1, 2, 4, 10, 16, 40, 64,

Questions 9-12 are based on the following :

Three adults Roberto, Sarah and Vicky will be traveling in a van with five
children Freddy, Hillary, Jonathan, Lupe, and Marta. The van has a drivers seat
and one passenger seat in the front, and two benches behind the front seats, one beach
behind the other. Each bench has room for exactly three people. Everyone must sit in a

seat or on a bench, and seating is subject to the following restrictions:

An adult

must sit on each bench.

Either Roberto or Sarah must sit in the drivers seat.
Jonathan must sit immediately beside Marta.

9.

Of the following, who can sit in the front passenger seat ?

( Jonathan

10.

(b) Lupe

(c) Roberto

(d) Sarah

(e) Vicky

Which of the following groups of three can sit together on a bench?

( Freddy, Jonathan and Marta(b) Freddy, Jonathan and Vicky
(c) Freddy, Sarah and Vicky

(d) Hillary, Lupe and Sarah

(e) Lupe, Marta and Roberto

11.

If Freddy sits immediately beside Vicky, which of the following cannot be true ?
a. Jonathan sits immediately beside Sarah
b. Lupe sits immediately beside Vicky
c. Hillary sits in the front passenger seat
d. Freddy sits on the same bench as Hillary
e. Hillary sits on the same bench as Roberto

12.

If Sarah sits on a bench that is behind where Jonathan is sitting, which of the
following must be true ?
a. Hillary sits in a seat or on a bench that is in front of where Marta is sitting

b. Lupe sits in a seat or on a bench that is in front of where Freddy is sitting

c. Freddy sits on the same bench as Hillary
d. Lupe sits on the same bench as Sarah
e. Marta sits on the same bench as Vicky

13.

Make six squares of the same size using twelve match-sticks. (Hint : You will
need an adhesive to arrange the required figure)

14.

A farmer has two rectangular fields. The larger field has twice the length and 4
times the width of the smaller field. If the smaller field has area K, then the are of the
larger field is greater than the area of the smaller field by what amount?
( 6K

15.

(b) 8K

(c) 12K(d) 7K

Nine equal circles are enclosed in a square whose area is 36sq units. Find the
area of each circle.

16.

There are 9 cards. Arrange them in a 3*3 matrix. Cards are of 4 colors. They
are red, yellow, blue, green. Conditions for arrangement: one red card must be in first
row or second row. 2 green cards should be in 3rd column. Yellow cards must be in the
3 corners only. Two blue cards must be in the 2nd row. At least one green card in each
row.

17.

Is z less than w? z and w are real numbers.

(I) z2 = 25
(II) w = 9
To answer the question,
Either I or II is sufficient
b) Both I and II are sufficient but neither of them is alone sufficient
c) I & II are sufficient
d) Both are not sufficient

18.

A speaks truth 70% of the time; B speaks truth 80% of the time. What is the
probability that both are contradicting each other?

19.

In a family 7 children don't eat spinach, 6 don't eat carrot, 5 don't eat beans, 4
don't eat spinach & carrots, 3 don't eat carrot & beans, 2 don't eat beans & spinach.
One doesn't eat all 3. Find the no. of children.

20.

Anna, Bena, Catherina and Diana are at their monthly business meeting. Their
occupations are author, biologist, chemist and doctor, but not necessarily in that order.
Diana just told the neighbour, who is a biologist that Catherina was on her way with
doughnuts. Anna is sitting across from the doctor and next to the chemist. The doctor
was thinking that Bena was a good name for parent's to choose, but didn't say
anything. What is each person's occupation?

Exercise 4.

1.

Krishna, Hari and Prakash went for a race. Krishna gives Hari a start of 20% of
his distance, similarly gives Krishna a start of 20% of his distance. Prakash reached
the designation within 80 sec. whose speed is half that of Krishna. But Hari is twice as
fast as Prakash. By what time after Hari, Krishan reaches the designation.

2.

In a km race Siddharth beats Thanigai by 20% of the race distance. If Thanigai

takes 20 sec more than Siddharth then by what is the difference in their speeds?

3.

In a 200m race between Karthik & Arasu, Arasu can give Karthik a start of 20m in
the first 100m. When Karthik crosses the 80m mark both of them changes their speeds
such that Karthik can give Arasu a start of 20m in the next 100m. They complete the
race with that speed. Who is the winner of the race and by how many seconds?

4.

In a race between Vimal, Shree Hari and Varadha, Shree Hari can give Vimal 20%
and Varadha 10% of their distance. then Varadha can give Vimal a start of _______%
of his distance.

5.

In a cricket match Madan chases the ball, which is away from him by 20% of the
distance between him and boundary. If the speed of Madan is 25% more than that of
the ball then they will reach the boundary at the same time. If the speed of the ball is
20m/s then what is the distance between the ball and boundary?

6.

Ganesh & Thiagarajan and Suresh & Sakthivel were the two teams for a 2*100 m
relay. In a hundred-meter race, Ganesh beats Suresh by 20m and Sakthivel beats
Thiagarajan by 20m. The ratio of speeds of Suresh & Thiagarajan is 2:3. Suresh and
Ganesh started the race. The winning team is _____. They win the race beating the
losing team by _____.

7.

The two contestants of a car rally were Arvind and Abilash. Arvind starts 5sec later
and beats Abilash by 5sec. The quickest person goes with a speed twice that of the
other. If Abilash was 100m behind when Arvind finishes the race then what is the
distance that Abilash has to cover to finish the game when Arvind begins the race?

8.

In a circular athletic ground Carl & Gauri started their race standing half a way
from each other. The minimum distance between them is 28m. They have to complete
the race at the same winning point, the Carls starting point. When the race was over
Carl completed three full rounds & Gauri two. If both of them reached the goal at the
same time what is the ratio between the speed of Carl & Gauri

.
9.

In a 1500-meter race, in a 100m circular track, between Guru and Selvam due to
wrong judgement Guru beats Selva by 10sec. The mistake made by the judges was that
they counted one round extra to Guru. The sum of time taken by them is 90sec. If the
mistake was not made, then who is going to win the race & by how many seconds?

10.

In a game of 80 points, Sudhir can give Santhosh 5 points and Shree Ram 15
points. Then how many points Santhosh can give Shree Ram in a game of 60 points?

Part II : Concepts

Data Structures and

Algoritms

Section I Data Structures

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 a priority queue?

Two. One queue is used for actual storing of data and another for storing
priorities.

6.

What is the data structure used to perform recursion?

Stack. Because of its LIFO (Last In First Out) property it remembers its
caller; so the function knows where 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 + FGPostfix 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
Answer:
(d)deletion
Explanation:

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.

Answer:
21
Explanation:
Let us take a tree with 5 nodes (n=5)

Null Branches

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,
Natural merging,
Polyphase sort,
Distribution of Initial runs.

12.

How many different trees are possible with 10 nodes ?

Answer:
1014
Explanation:
For example, consider a tree with 3 nodes(n=3), it will have the maximum
combination of 5 different (ie, 23 - 3 = 5) trees.

ii

iii

iv

In general:
If there are n nodes, there exist 2n-n different trees.

13.

List out a few of the applications of tree data-structure in compilers/compiler

design.
The manipulation of Arithmetic expression,
Symbol Table construction,
Syntax analysis.

14.

List out a 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
Answer:
(b) Linked list

16.

What type of the algorithm is used in solving the 8 Queens problem?

Backtracking

17.

In an AVL tree, what is the condition for balancing to be done?

The pivotal value(or the Height factor) is greater than 1 or less than1.

18.

What is the bucket size, when overlapping and collision occur at the 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.

19.

Traverse the given tree using Inorder, Preorder and Postorder traversals.
Given tree:
A

 Inorder :

DHBEAFCIGJ

Preorder: A B D H E C F G I J
Postorder: H D E B F I J G C A

20.

There are 8, 15, 13, 14 nodes were there in 4 different trees. Which of them could
have formed a full binary tree?
15.
In general:
There are 2n-1 nodes in a full binary tree.
By the method of elimination:
Full binary trees contain odd number of nodes. So there cannot be full
binary trees with 8 or 14 nodes, so rejected. With 13 nodes you can form a
complete binary tree but not a full binary tree. So the correct answer is 15.
Note:
Full and Complete binary trees are different. All full binary trees are
complete binary trees but not vice versa.

21.

In the given binary tree, using array, at which location can can you store the node
4?
1

4
5

Answer:
At location 6
Explanation:
1
2
3
4
5
Root LC1 RC1 LC2 RC2 LC3 RC3 LC4 RC4
where LCn means Left Child of node n and RCn means Right Child of
node n

22.

Sort the given values using Quick Sort?

65
70
75
80
85
60
55
50
45
Sorting takes place from the pivot value, which is the first value of the
given elements, this is marked bold. The values at the left pointer and right pointer
are indicated using L and R respectively.
65
70L
75
80
85
60
55
50
45R
Since pivot is not yet changed the same process is continued after
interchanging the values at L and R positions

65
45
75 L
80
85
60
55
50 R
70
L
R
65
45
50
80
85
60
55
75
70
L
R
65
45
50
55
85
60
80
75
70
65
45
50
55
60 R
85 L
80
75
70
When the L and R pointers cross each other the pivot value is interchanged
with the value at right pointer. If the pivot is changed it means that the pivot has
occupied its original position in the sorted order (shown in bold italics) and hence
two different arrays are formed, one from start of the original array to the pivot
position-1 and the other from pivot position+1 to end.

60 L
55 L
50 L

45
45
45 R

50
50 R
55

55 R
60
60

65
65
65

85 L
70 R
70

80
80 L
80 L

75
75
75 R

70 R
85
85

80

85

In the next pass we get the sorted form of the array.

45
23.

50

55

60

65

70

75

For the given graph, draw the DFS and BFS?

The given graph:

24.

BFS:

AXGHPEMYJ

DFS:

AXHPEYMJG

Classify the Hashing Functions based on the various methods by which the key
value is found.
Direct method,

 Subtraction method,
Modulo-Division method,
Digit-Extraction method,
Mid-Square method,
Folding method,
Pseudo-random method.

25.

What are the types of Collision Resolution Techniques and the methods used in
each of the type?
Open addressing (closed hashing).
The methods used include:
Overflow block.
Closed addressing (open hashing)
The methods used include:
Linked list, Binary tree

26.

In RDBMS, what is the efficient data structure used in the internal storage
representation?
B+ tree. Because in B+ tree, all the data are stored only in leaf nodes, that
makes searching easier. This corresponds to the records that shall be stored in leaf
nodes.

27.

Draw the B-tree of order 3 created by inserting the following data arriving in
sequence 92 24 6 7 11 8 22 4 5 16 19 20 78
11

28.

19

16

24

20

22

7
78

92

Of the following tree structure, which is efficient considering space and

time complexities?
(a) Incomplete Binary Tree
(b) Complete Binary Tree
(c) Full Binary Tree
Answer:
(b) Complete Binary Tree.
Explanation:
By the method of elimination:

Full binary tree loses its nature when operations of insertions and deletions
are done. For incomplete binary trees, extra storage is required and overhead of
NULL node checking takes place. So complete binary tree is the better one since
the property of complete binary tree is maintained even after operations like
additions and deletions are done on it.

29.

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 minimal spanning tree is a spanning tree organized
so that the total edge weight between nodes is minimized.

30.

Does the minimal spanning tree of a graph give the shortest distance between any 2
specified nodes?
Answer:
No.
Explanation:
Minimal spanning tree assures that the total weight of the tree is kept at its
minimum. But it doesnt mean that the distance between any two nodes involved in
the minimum-spanning tree is minimum.

31.

Convert the given graph with weighted edges to minimal spanning tree.

1
410

600

612

200

310

2985

1421

5
400

the equivalent minimal spanning tree is:

1

32. Which is the simplest file structure?

(a)410
Sequential

200

310

612

(b) Indexed

(c) Random
Answer:
(a) Sequential

33.

Is linked-list a 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.

34.

Draw a binary Tree for the expression :

A * B - (C + D) * (P / Q)
*

35.

For the following COBOL code, draw the Binary tree?

01 STUDENT_REC.
02 NAME.
03 FIRST_NAME PIC X(10).
03 LAST_NAME PIC X(10).
02 YEAR_OF_STUDY.
03 FIRST_SEM PIC XX.
03 SECOND_SEM PIC XX.
01
STUDENT_REC

02

02

NAME

03
FIRST_NAME

YEAR_OF_STUDY

03
LAST_NAME

03
FIRST_SEM

03
SECOND_SEM

Section II Algorithms
1.

What is an algorithm?
An algorithm consists of a finite set of steps that may require one or more
operations. These operations should be definite and effective. An algorithm should
produce one or more outputs and may have zero or more inputs.
This consists of five distinct areas:
1. to device algorithms
2. to validate the algorithms
3. to express the algorithms
4. to analyse the algorithms
5. to test the programs for the algorithms

2.

What is a computational procedure?

An algorithm that does not terminate is called computational procedure.
Example for such computational procedure is an operating system.

3.

Define - recursive algorithm.

An algorithm is said to be recursive if the same algorithm is invoked in the
body of the algorithm. Recursive algorithms can be divided into direct recursive
and indirect recursive algorithms.
Direct recursive:
An algorithm that calls itself.

Indirect Recursive:
An algorithm A is said to be indirect recursive if it calls another algorithm
which in-turn calls algorithm A.

4.

How can you classify performance analysis?

Performance analysis can be classified as:
i.

priori analysis

ii.

posteriori analysis

Priori Analysis:
The bounds of algorithms computing time are obtained by formulating a
function.
Posteriori Analysis:
Testing the actual computation of space and time are recorded while the
algorithm is executing.

5.

Define - Big- O.
For the function f(n)
f(n)=O(g(n))
iff there exist positive constants c and d such that:
f(n) <=c*g(n)
for all n,n>=d.
This is defined to be the worst-time complexity of the function f(n).
For example:

O(n)=3n+2 because,
3n+2 <=4n for all n>=2.

6.

Give various computing times and their meaning.

Few of the important computing times are:
Computing Time

Meaning

O(1)

constant computing time

O(n)

linear computing time

O(n*n)

quadratic computing time

O(n*n*n)

O(2*2*2*2*..............*n) :

7.

cubic computing time

exponential computing time

Give the most important basic designs of algorithms.

There are five important basic designs for algorithms. They are:

8.

i.

Divide and conquer,

ii.

The greedy method,

iii.

Dynamic programming,

iv.

Back-tracking,

v.

Branch and bound.

How does divide and conquer algorithms work?

For a function to compute on n inputs the divide and conquer strategy

suggests the inputs into a k distinct subsets, 1<k<=n, yielding k sub-problems.
These sub-problems must be solved and then a method must be found to combine
the sub-solutions into a solution of the whole.
An example for this approach is binary search algorithm. The time
complexity of binary search algorithm is O(log n).

9.

What is Greedy Method?

The greedy method suggests that one can devise an algorithm that works in
stages, considering one input at a time. At each stage, a decision is made regarding
whether a particular input is an optimal solution. An example for solution using
greedy method is knapsack problem.

10.

What is Dynamic Programming?

Dynamic Programming is an algorithm design method that can be used
when the solution to a problem can be viewed as the result of a sequence of
decisions. An example for algorithm using dynamic programming is multistage
graphs.

11.

What are the time complexities for the following algorithms?

Binary search

O(logn)

Finding maximum and minimum for a given set of numbers

:

O(3n/2-2)

Merge Sort

O(nlogn)

Insertion Sort

O(n*n);

Quick Sort

Selection Sort

12.

O(nlogn)
O(n)

What is the difference between Merge Sort and Quick sort?

Both Merge-sort and Quick-sort have same time complexity i.e. O(nlogn).
In merge sort the file a[1:n] was divided at its midpoint into sub-arrays which are
independently sorted and later merged. Whereas, in quick sort the division into two
sub-arrays is made so that the sorted sub-arrays do not need to be merged latter.

13.

Is there any optimum solution for Matrix multiplication?

Yes. Divide and conquer method suggests Strassens matrix multiplication
method to be used. If we follow this method, the time complexity is
O(n*n*n..*2.81) times rather O(n*n*n**3) times.

14.

Define minimum cost spanning method.

Let G=(V,E) be an undirected connected graph. A sub-graph t =(V, E) of G
is a spanning tree of G if and only if t is a tree.
To find out minimum cost spanning method we have following methods;
Prims Algorithm

Kruskals Algorithm :

O(n*n)
O(e loge)

15.

Define articulation points.

A Vertex V in a connected graph G is an articulation point if and only if the
deletion of vertex V together will all edges incident for disconnects the graph into
two or more non-empty Components.

16.

Define biconnected graph.

A graph G is biconnected if and only if it contains no articulation points.

17.

What are explicit and implicit constraints?

Explicit constraints are rules that restrict each xi to take on values only
from a given set. Implicit constraints are rules that determine which of the tuples
in the solution space of i satisfy the criterion function.

18.

Give Cookies theorem.

Satisfiability is in P iff P=NP
where P is the set of all decision problems solvable by deterministic
algorithms in polynomial time and NP is the set of all decision problems solvable
by non-deterministic algorithms in a polynomial-time.

RDBMS Concepts

1.

What is database?
A database is a logically coherent collection of data with some inherent
meaning, representing some aspect of real world and which is designed, built and
populated with data for a specific purpose.

2.

What is DBMS?
It is a collection of programs that enables an user to create and maintain a
database. In other words it is general-purpose software that provides users with the
processes of defining, constructing and manipulating the database for various
applications.

3.

What is a Database system?

The database and DBMS software together is called as Database system.

4.

What are the advantages of DBMS?

As compared to raw access and storage in files, DBMS has many advanteges to
use. It includes:
Redundancy is controlled.
Unauthorised access is restricted.
Providing multiple user interfaces.
Enforcing integrity constraints.
Providing backup and recovery.

5.

What are the disadvantage in File Processing System?

Data redundancy & inconsistency.
Difficult in accessing data.
Data isolation.
Data integrity.
Concurrent access is not possible.
Security Problems.

6.

Describe the three levels of data abstraction?

There are three levels of abstraction:
Physical level: The lowest level of abstraction describes how data are
stored.

 Logical level: This is the next higher level of abstraction that describes
what data are stored in database and what is the relationship among
those data.
View level: The highest level of abstraction describes only part of entire
database.

7.

Define the "integrity rules".

There are two Integrity rules.

Entity Integrity: States that Primary key cannot have NULL value

Referential Integrity: States that Foreign Key can be either a NULL value
or should be Primary Key value of other relation.

8.

What is extension and intension?

Extension - It is the number of tuples present in a table at any instance. This
is time dependent.
Intension - It is a constant value that gives the name, structure of table and
the constraints laid on it.

9.

What is System R? What are its two major subsystems?

System R was designed and developed over a period of 1974-79 at IBM San
Jose Research Center. It is a prototype and its purpose was to demonstrate that it is
possible to build a Relational System that can be used in a real life environment to

solve real life problems, with performance at least comparable to that of existing
system.
Its two subsystems are
Research Storage
System Relational Data System.

10.

How is the data structure of System R different from the relational structure?
Unlike Relational systems in System R
Domains are not supported
Enforcement of candidate key uniqueness is optional
Enforcement of entity integrity is optional
Referential integrity is not enforced

11.

What is Data Independence?

Data independence means that the application is independent of the
storage structure and access strategy of data. In other words, The ability to modify
the schema definition in one level should not affect the schema definition in the
next higher level.
Two types of Data Independence:
Physical Data Independence: Modification in physical level should not
affect the logical level.
Logical Data Independence: Modification in logical level should affect the
view level.

NOTE: Logical Data Independence is more difficult to achieve

12.

What is a view? How it is related to data independence?

A view may be thought of as a virtual table, that is, a table that does not
really exist in its own right but is instead derived from one or more underlying base
table. In other words, there is no stored file that direct represents the view instead a
definition of view is stored in data dictionary.
Growth and restructuring of base tables is not reflected in views. Thus the
view can insulate users from the effects of restructuring and growth in the database.
Hence accounts for logical data independence.

13.

What is Data Model?

A collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationships, data
semantics and constraints.

14.

What is E-R model?

This data model is based on real world that consists of basic objects called
entities and of relationship among these objects. Entities are described in a database
by a set of attributes.

15.

What is Object Oriented model?

This model is based on collection of objects. An object contains values
stored in instance variables with in the

object. An object also contains bodies

of code that operate on the object. These bodies of code are called methods. Objects
that contain same types of values and the same methods are grouped together into
classes.

16.

What is an Entity?
It is a 'thing' in the real world with an independent existence.

17.

What is an Entity type?

It is a collection (set) of entities that have same attributes.

18.

What is an Entity set?

It is a collection of all entities of particular entity type in the database.

19.

What is an Extension of entity type?

The collections of entities of a particular entity type are grouped together
into an entity set.

20.

What is Weak Entity set?

An entity set may not have sufficient attributes to form a primary key, and
its primary key compromises of its partial key and primary key of its parent entity,
then it is said to be Weak Entity set.

21.

What is an attribute?

It is a particular property, which describes the entity.

22.

What is a Relation Schema and a Relation?

A relation Schema denoted by R(A1, A2, , An) is made up of the relation
name R and the list of attributes Ai that it contains. A relation is defined as a set of
tuples. Let r be the relation which contains set tuples (t1, t2, t3, ..., tn). Each tuple is
an ordered list of n-values t=(v1,v2, ..., vn).

23.

What is degree of a Relation?

It is the number of attributes of its relation schema.

24.

What is Relationship?
It is an association among two or more entities.

25.

What is Relationship set?

The collection (or set) of similar relationships.

26.

What is Relationship type?

Relationship type defines a set of associations or a relationship set among a
given set of entity types.

27.

What is degree of Relationship type?

It is the number of entity types participating.

25.

What is DDL (Data Definition Language)?

A data base schema is specifies by a set of definitions expressed by a
special language called DDL.

26.

What is VDL (View Definition Language)?

It specifies user views and their mappings to the conceptual schema.

27.

What is SDL (Storage Definition Language)?

This language is to specify the internal schema. This language may specify
the mapping between two schemas.

28.

What is Data Storage - Definition Language?

The storage structures and access methods used by database system are
specified by a set of definition in a special type of DDL called data storagedefinition language.

29.

What is DML (Data Manipulation Language)?

This language that enables the user to access or manipulate data as
organised by appropriate data model.
Procedural DML or Low level: DML requires a user to specify what
data are needed and how to get those data.

 Non-Procedural DML or High level: DML requires a user to specify

what data are needed without specifying how to get those data.

30.

What is DML Compiler?

It translates DML statements in a query language into low-level instruction
that the query evaluation engine can understand.

31.

What is Query evaluation engine?

It executes low-level instruction generated by compiler.

32.

What is DDL Interpreter?

It interprets DDL statements and record them in tables containing metadata.

34.

What is Record-at-a-time?
The Low level or Procedural DML can specify and retrieve each record
from a set of records. This retrieve of a record is said to be Record-at-a-time.

35.

What is Set-at-a-time or Set-oriented?

The High level or Non-procedural DML can specify and retrieve many
records in a single DML statement. This retrieve of a record is said to be Set-at-atime or Set-oriented.

36.

What is Relational Algebra?

It is procedural query language. It consists of a set of operations that take

one or two relations as input and produce a new relation.

37.

What is Relational Calculus?

It is an applied predicate calculus specifically tailored for relational
databases proposed by E.F. Codd. Example for the languages based on it are DSL
ALPHA and QUEL.

How does Tuple-oriented relational calculus differ from domain-oriented

38.

relational calculus
The tuple-oriented calculus uses a tuple variables i.e., variable whose only
permitted values are tuples of that relation. E.g. QUEL
The domain-oriented calculus has domain variables i.e., variables that range
over the underlying domains instead of over relation. E.g. ILL, DEDUCE.

39.

What is normalization?
It is a process of analysing the given relation schemas based on their
Functional Dependencies (FDs) and primary key to achieve the properties
Minimizing redundancy
Minimizing insertion, deletion and updation anomalies.

40.

What is Functional Dependency?

A Functional dependency is denoted by X

Y between two sets of

attributes X and Y that are subsets of R specifies a constraint on the possible tuple
that can form a relation state r of R. The constraint is for any two tuples t1 and t2 in
r if t1[X] = t2[X] then they have t1[Y] = t2[Y]. This means the value of X
component of a tuple uniquely determines the value of component Y.

41.

When is a functional dependency F said to be minimal?

Every dependency in F has a single attribute for its right hand side.
We cannot replace any dependency X

A in F with a dependency Y A

where Y is a proper subset of X and still have a set of dependency that is

equivalent to F.
We cannot remove any dependency from F and still have a set of
dependency that is equivalent to F.

42.

What is Multivalued dependency?

Multivalued dependency denoted by X

Y specified on relation schema

R, where X and Y are both subsets of R, specifies the following constraint on any
relation r of R: if two tuples t1 and t2 exist in r such that t1[X] = t2[X] then t3 and
t4 should also exist in r with the following properties
t3[X] = t4[X] = t1[X] = t2[X]
t3[Y] = t1[Y] and t4[Y] = t2[Y]
t3[Z] = t2[Z] and t4[Z] = t1[Z]
where [Z = (R-(X U Y)) ]

43.

What is Lossless join property?

It guarantees that the spurious tuple generation does not occur with respect
to relation schemas after decomposition.

44.

What is 1NF (Normal Form)?

The domain of attribute must include only atomic (simple, indivisible)
values.

45.

What is meant by Fully Functional Dependency?

A functional dependency X

Y is full functional dependency if removal of

any attribute A from X means that the dependency does not hold any more.

46.

What is 2NF?
A relation schema R is in 2NF if it is in 1NF and every non-prime attribute
A in R is fully functionally dependent on primary key.

47.

What is 3NF?
A relation schema R is in 3NF if it is in 2NF and for every FD X
of the following is true
X is a Super-key of R.
A is a prime attribute of R.

A either

In other words, if every non prime attribute is non-transitively dependent on

primary key.

48.

What is BCNF (Boyce-Codd Normal Form)?

A relation schema R is in BCNF if it is in 3NF and satisfies an additional
constraint that for every FD X

49.

A, X must be a candidate key.

What is 4NF?
A relation schema R is said to be in 4NF if for every Multivalued
dependency X

Y that holds over R, one of following is true

X is subset or equal to (or) XY = R.

X is a super key.

50.

What is 5NF?
A Relation schema R is said to be 5NF if for every join dependency {R1,
R2, ..., Rn} that holds R, one of the following is true :
Ri = R for some i.
The join dependency is implied by the set of FD, over R in which the
left side is key of R.

51.

What is Domain-Key Normal Form?

A relation is said to be in DKNF if all constraints and dependencies that
should hold on the the constraint can be enforced by simply enforcing the domain
constraint and key constraint on the relation.

52.

What are partial, alternate,, artificial, compound and natural key?

Partial Key:
It is a set of attributes that can uniquely identify weak entities and that are
related to same owner entity. It is sometime called as Discriminator.
Alternate Key:
All Candidate Keys excluding the Primary Key are known as Alternate
Keys.
Artificial Key:
If no obvious key, either stand alone or compound is available, then the last
resort is to simply create a key, by assigning a unique number to each record or
occurrence. Then this is known as developing an artificial key.
Compound Key:
If no single data element uniquely identifies occurrences within a construct,
then combining multiple elements to create a unique identifier for the construct is
known as creating a compound key.
Natural Key:
When one of the data elements stored within a construct is utilized as the
primary key, then it is called the natural key.

53.

What is indexing and what are the different kinds of indexing?

Indexing is a technique for determining how quickly specific data can be
found.

Types:
Binary search style indexing
B-Tree indexing
Inverted list indexing
Memory resident table
Table indexing

54.

What is system catalog or catalog relation? How is better known as?

A RDBMS maintains a description of all the data that it contains,
information about every relation and index that it contains. This information is
stored in a collection of relations maintained by the system called metadata. It is
also called data dictionary.

55.

What is meant by query optimization?

The phase that identifies an efficient execution plan for evaluating a query
that has the least estimated cost is referred to as query optimization.

56.

What is join dependency and inclusion dependency?

Join Dependency:
A Join dependency is generalization of Multivalued dependency.A JD {R1,
R2, ..., Rn} is said to hold over a relation R if R1, R2, R3, ..., Rn is a lossless-join
decomposition of R . There is no set of sound and complete inference rules for JD.
Inclusion Dependency:

An Inclusion Dependency is a statement of the form that some columns of a

relation are contained in other columns. A foreign key constraint is an example of
inclusion dependency.

57.

What is durability in DBMS?

Once the DBMS informs the user that a transaction has successfully
completed, its effects should persist even if the system crashes before all its
changes are reflected on disk. This property is called durability.

58.

What do you mean by atomicity and aggregation?

Atomicity:
Either all actions are carried out or none are. Users should not have to worry
about the effect of incomplete transactions. DBMS ensures this by undoing the
actions of incomplete transactions.
Aggregation:
A concept which is used to model a relationship between a collection of
entities and relationships. It is used when we need to express a relationship among
relationships.

59.

What is a Phantom Deadlock?

In distributed deadlock detection, the delay in propagating local information
might cause the deadlock detection algorithms to identify deadlocks that do not

really exist. Such situations are called phantom deadlocks and they lead to
unnecessary aborts.

60.

What is a checkpoint and When does it occur?

A Checkpoint is like a snapshot of the DBMS state. By taking checkpoints,
the DBMS can reduce the amount of work to be done during restart in the event of
subsequent crashes.

61.

What are the different phases of transaction?

Different phases are
Analysis phase
Redo Phase
Undo phase

62.

What do you mean by flat file database?

It is a database in which there are no programs or user access languages. It
has no cross-file capabilities but is user-friendly and provides user-interface
management.

63.

What is "transparent DBMS"?

It is one, which keeps its Physical Structure hidden from user.

64.

Brief theory of Network, Hierarchical schemas and their properties

Network schema uses a graph data structure to organize records example for
such a database management system is CTCG while a hierarchical schema uses a
tree data structure example for such a system is IMS.

65.

What is a query?
A query with respect to DBMS relates to user commands that are used to
interact with a data base. The query language can be classified into data definition
language and data manipulation language.

66.

What do you mean by Correlated subquery?

Subqueries, or nested queries, are used to bring back a set of rows to be
used by the parent query. Depending on how the subquery is written, it can be
executed once for the parent query or it can be executed once for each row returned
by the parent query. If the subquery is executed for each row of the parent, this is
called a correlated subquery.
A correlated subquery can be easily identified if it contains any references
to the parent subquery columns in its WHERE clause. Columns from the subquery
cannot be referenced anywhere else in the parent query. The following example
demonstrates a non-correlated subquery.
E.g. Select * From CUST Where '10/03/1990' IN (Select ODATE From
ORDER Where CUST.CNUM = ORDER.CNUM)

67.

What are the primitive operations common to all record management systems?

Addition, deletion and modification.

68.

Name the buffer in which all the commands that are typed in are stored
Edit Buffer

69.

What are the unary operations in Relational Algebra?

PROJECTION and SELECTION.

70.

Are the resulting relations of PRODUCT and JOIN operation the same?
No.
PRODUCT: Concatenation of every row in one relation with every row in
another.
JOIN: Concatenation of rows from one relation and related rows from
another.

71.

What is RDBMS KERNEL?

Two important pieces of RDBMS architecture are the kernel, which is the
software, and the data dictionary, which consists of the system-level data structures
used by the kernel to manage the database
You might think of an RDBMS as an operating system (or set of
subsystems), designed specifically for controlling data access; its primary functions
are storing, retrieving, and securing data. An RDBMS maintains its own list of
authorized users and their associated privileges; manages memory caches and

paging; controls locking for concurrent resource usage; dispatches and schedules
user requests; and manages space usage within its table-space structures
.
72.

Name the sub-systems of a RDBMS

I/O, Security, Language Processing, Process Control, Storage Management,
Logging and Recovery, Distribution Control, Transaction Control, Memory
Management, Lock Management

73.

Which part of the RDBMS takes care of the data dictionary? How
Data dictionary is a set of tables and database objects that is stored in a
special area of the database and maintained exclusively by the kernel.

74.

What is the job of the information stored in data-dictionary?

The information in the data dictionary validates the existence of the objects,
provides access to them, and maps the actual physical storage location.

75.

Not only RDBMS takes care of locating data it also

determines an optimal access path to store or retrieve the data

76.

How do you communicate with an RDBMS?

You communicate with an RDBMS using Structured Query Language
(SQL)

77. Define SQL and state the differences between SQL and other conventional
programming Languages
SQL is a nonprocedural language that is designed specifically for data
access operations on normalized relational database structures. The primary
difference between SQL and other conventional programming languages is that
SQL statements specify what data operations should be performed rather than how
to perform them.

78.

Name the three major set of files on disk that compose a database in Oracle
There are three major sets of files on disk that compose a database. All the
files are binary. These are
Database files
Control files
Redo logs
The most important of these are the database files where the actual data
resides. The control files and the redo logs support the functioning of the
architecture itself.
All three sets of files must be present, open, and available to Oracle for any
data on the database to be useable. Without these files, you cannot access the
database, and the database administrator might have to recover some or all of the
database using a backup, if there is one.

79.

What is an Oracle Instance?

The Oracle system processes, also known as Oracle background processes,

provide functions for the user processesfunctions that would otherwise be done
by the user processes themselves
Oracle database-wide system memory is known as the SGA, the system
global area or shared global area. The data and control structures in the SGA are
shareable, and all the Oracle background processes and user processes can use
them.

The combination of the SGA

and the Oracle background processes is known as an Oracle instance

80. What are the four Oracle system processes that must always be up and running for the
database to be useable
The four Oracle system processes that must always be up and running for
the database to be useable include DBWR (Database Writer), LGWR (Log Writer),
SMON (System Monitor), and PMON (Process Monitor).

81. What are database files, control files and log files. How many of these files should a
database have at least? Why?
Database Files
The database files hold the actual data and are typically the largest in size.
Depending on their sizes, the tables (and other objects) for all the user accounts can
go in one database filebut that's not an ideal situation because it does not make
the database structure very flexible for controlling access to storage for different
users, putting the database on different disk drives, or backing up and restoring just
part of the database.
You must have at least one database file but usually, more than one files are
used. In terms of accessing and using the data in the tables and other objects, the
number (or location) of the files is immaterial.
The database files are fixed in size and never grow bigger than the size at
which they were created
Control Files
The control files and redo logs support the rest of the architecture. Any
database must have at least one control file, although you typically have more than
one to guard against loss. The control file records the name of the database, the date
and time it was created, the location of the database and redo logs, and the
synchronization information to ensure that all three sets of files are always in step.
Every time you add a new database or redo log file to the database, the information
is recorded in the control files.
Redo Logs

Any database must have at least two redo logs. These are the journals for
the database; the redo logs record all changes to the user objects or system objects.
If any type of failure occurs, the changes recorded in the redo logs can be used to
bring the database to a consistent state without losing any committed transactions.
In the case of non-data loss failure, Oracle can apply the information in the redo
logs automatically without intervention from the DBA.
The redo log files are fixed in size and never grow dynamically from the
size at which they were created.

82.

What is ROWID?
The ROWID is a unique database-wide physical address for every row on
every table. Once assigned (when the row is first inserted into the database), it
never changes until the row is deleted or the table is dropped.
The ROWID consists of the following three components, the combination
of which uniquely identifies the physical storage location of the row.
Oracle database file number, which contains the block with the rows
Oracle block address, which contains the row
The row within the block (because each block can hold many rows)
The ROWID is used internally in indexes as a quick means of retrieving
rows with a particular key value. Application developers also use it in SQL
statements as a quick way to access a row once they know the ROWID

83.

What is Oracle Block? Can two Oracle Blocks have the same address?

Oracle "formats" the database files into a number of Oracle blocks when
they are first createdmaking it easier for the RDBMS software to manage the
files and easier to read data into the memory areas.
The block size should be a multiple of the operating system block size.
Regardless of the block size, the entire block is not available for holding data;
Oracle takes up some space to manage the contents of the block. This block header
has a minimum size, but it can grow.
These Oracle blocks are the smallest unit of storage. Increasing the Oracle
block size can improve performance, but it should be done only when the database
is first created.
Each Oracle block is numbered sequentially for each database file starting
at 1. Two blocks can have the same block address if they are in different database
files.

84.

What is database Trigger?

A database trigger is a PL/SQL block that can defined to automatically
execute for insert, update, and delete statements against a table. The trigger can e
defined to execute once for the entire statement or once for every row that is
inserted, updated, or deleted. For any one table, there are twelve events for which
you can define database triggers. A database trigger can call database procedures
that are also written in PL/SQL.

85.

Name two utilities that Oracle provides, which are use for backup and recovery.

Along with the RDBMS software, Oracle provides two utilities that you can
use to back up and restore the database. These utilities are Export and Import.
The Export utility dumps the definitions and data for the specified part of
the database to an operating system binary file. The Import utility reads the file
produced by an export, recreates the definitions of objects, and inserts the data.
If Export and Import are used as a means of backing up and recovering the
database, all the changes made to the database cannot be recovered since the export
was performed. The best you can do is recover the database to the time when the
export was last performed.

86.

What are stored-procedures? And what are the advantages of using them.
Stored procedures are database objects that perform a user defined
operation. A stored procedure can have a set of compound SQL statements. A
stored procedure executes the SQL commands and returns the result to the client.
Stored procedures are used to reduce network traffic.

87.

How are exceptions handled in PL/SQL?

PL/SQL exception handling is a mechanism for dealing with run-time errors
encountered during procedure execution. Use of this mechanism enables execution
to continue if the error is not severe enough to cause procedure termination.
The exception handler must be defined within a subprogram specification.
Errors cause the program to raise an exception with a transfer of control to the
exception-handler block. After the exception handler executes, control returns to

the block in which the handler was defined. If there are no more executable
statements in the block, control returns to the caller.
User-Defined Exceptions
PL/SQL enables the user to define exception handlers in the declarations
area of subprogram specifications. User accomplishes this by naming an exception
as in the following example:
ot_failure EXCEPTION;
In this case, the exception name is ot_failure. Code associated with this
handler is written in the EXCEPTION specification area as follows:
EXCEPTION
when OT_FAILURE then
out_status_code := g_out_status_code;
out_msg

:= g_out_msg;

The following is an example of a subprogram exception:

EXCEPTION
when NO_DATA_FOUND then
g_out_status_code := 'FAIL';
RAISE ot_failure;
Within this exception is the RAISE statement that transfers control back to
the ot_failure exception handler. This technique of raising the exception is used to
invoke all user-defined exceptions.
System-Defined Exceptions

Exceptions internal to PL/SQL are raised automatically upon error. For

example NO_DATA_FOUND is a system-defined exception. There is also a catchall exception named OTHERS that traps all errors for which specific error handling
has not been established.

88.

Does PL/SQL support "overloading"? Explain

The concept of overloading in PL/SQL relates to the idea that you can
define procedures and functions with the same name. PL/SQL does not look only at
the referenced name, however, to resolve a procedure or function call. The count
and data types of formal parameters are also considered.
PL/SQL also attempts to resolve any procedure or function calls in locally
defined packages before looking at globally defined packages or internal functions.
To further ensure calling the proper procedure, you can use the dot notation.
Prefacing a procedure or function name with the package name fully qualifies any
procedure or function reference.

89.

Tables derived from the ERD

a)

Are totally unnormalised

b)

Are always in 1NF

c)

Can be further denormalised

d)

May have multi-valued attributes

Answer:
(b) Are always in 1NF

90.

Spurious tuples may occur due to

(i) Bad normalization
(ii) Theta joins
(iii)Updating tables from join
i & ii b) ii & iii

c) i & iii

d) ii & iii

Answer:
i & iii
Explanation:
Theta joins are joins made on keys that are not primary keys.

91.

A B C is a set of attributes. The functional dependency is as follows

AB -> B

AC -> C

C -> B

is in 1NF
b) is in 2NF
c) is in 3NF
d) is in BCNF
Answer:
( is in 1NF since (AC)+ = { A, B, C} hence AC is the primary key. Since C
B is a FD given, where neither C is a Key nor B is a prime attribute, this it is not in
3NF. Further B is not functionally dependent on key AC thus it is not in 2NF. Thus
the given FDs is in 1NF.

92.

In mapping of ERD to DFD

entities in ERD should correspond to an existing entity/store in DFD
b) entity in DFD is converted to attributes of an entity in ERD
c) relations in ERD has 1 to 1 correspondence to processes in DFD
d) relationships in ERD has 1 to 1 correspondence to flows in DFD
Answer:
( entities in ERD should correspond to an existing entity/store in DFD

93.

A dominant entity is the entity

on the N side in a 1 : N relationship
b) on the 1 side in a 1 : N relationship
c) on either side in a 1 : 1 relationship
d) nothing to do with 1 : 1 or 1 : N relationship
Answer:
(b) on the 1 side in a 1 : N relationship

94.

Select 'NORTH', CUSTOMER From CUST_DTLS Where REGION = 'N' Order

By CUSTOMER Union Select

'EAST', CUSTOMER From CUST_DTLS Where

REGION = 'E' Order By CUSTOMER

The above is
Not an error
b) Error - the string in single quotes 'NORTH' and 'SOUTH'
c) Error - the string should be in double quotes

d) Erro r - ORDER BY clause

Answer:
(d) Error - the ORDER BY clause. Since ORDER BY clause cannot be
used in UNIONS

95.

What is Storage Manager?

It is a program module that provides the interface between the low-level
data stored in database, application programs and queries submitted to the system.

96.

What is Buffer Manager?

It is a program module, which is responsible for fetching data from disk
storage into main memory and deciding what data to be cache in memory.

97.

What is Transaction Manager?

It is a program module, which ensures that database, remains in a consistent
state despite system failures and concurrent transaction execution proceeds without
conflicting.

98.

What is File Manager?

It is a program module, which manages the allocation of space on disk
storage and data structure used to represent information stored on a disk.

99.

What is Authorization and Integrity manager?

It is the program module, which tests for the satisfaction of integrity

constraint and checks the authority of user to access data.

100.What are stand-alone procedures?

Procedures that are not part of a package are known as stand-alone because
they independently defined. A good example of a stand-alone procedure is one
written in a SQL*Forms application. These types of procedures are not available
for reference from other Oracle tools. Another limitation of stand-alone procedures
is that they are compiled at run time, which slows execution.

101.What are cursors give different types of cursors.

PL/SQL uses cursors for all database information accesses statements. The
language supports the use two types of cursors
Implicit
Explicit

102.What is cold backup and hot backup (in case of Oracle)?

Cold Backup:
It is copying the three sets of files (database files, redo logs, and control
file) when the instance is shut down. This is a straight file copy, usually from the
disk directly to tape. You must shut down the instance to guarantee a consistent
copy.

If a cold backup is performed, the only option available in the event of data
file loss is restoring all the files from the latest backup. All work performed on the
database since the last backup is lost.
Hot Backup:
Some sites (such as worldwide airline reservations systems) cannot shut
down the database while making a backup copy of the files. The cold backup is not
an available option.
So different means of backing up database must be used the hot backup.
Issue a SQL command to indicate to Oracle, on a tablespace-by-tablespace basis,
that the files of the tablespace are to backed up. The users can continue to make full
use of the files, including making changes to the data. Once the user has indicated
that he/she wants to back up the tablespace files, he/she can use the operating
system to copy those files to the desired backup destination.
The database must be running in ARCHIVELOG mode for the hot backup
option.
If a data loss failure does occur, the lost database files can be restored using
the hot backup and the online and offline redo logs created since the backup was
done. The database is restored to the most consistent state without any loss of
committed transactions.

103.What are Armstrong rules? How do we say that they are complete and/or sound
The well-known inference rules for FDs
Reflexive rule :

If Y is subset or equal to X then X

Y.

Augmentation rule:
If X

Y then XZ

YZ.

Transitive rule:
If {X

Y, Y

Z} then X

Z.

Decomposition rule :
If X

YZ then X

Y.

Union or Additive rule:

If {X

Y, X

Z} then X

YZ.

Pseudo Transitive rule :

If {X

Y, WY

Z} then WX

Z.

Of these the first three are known as Amstrong Rules. They are sound
because it is enough if a set of FDs satisfy these three. They are called complete
because using these three rules we can generate the rest all inference rules.

104.How can you find the minimal key of relational schema?

Minimal key is one which can identify each tuple of the given relation
schema uniquely. For finding the minimal key it is required to find the closure that
is the set of all attributes that are dependent on any given set of attributes under the
given set of functional dependency.
Algo. I Determining X+, closure for X, given set of FDs F
1.

Set X+ = X

2.

Set Old X+ = X+

3.

For each FD Y

Z in F and if Y belongs to X+ then add Z to

X+
4.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until Old X+ = X+

Algo.II Determining minimal K for relation schema R, given set of FDs F

1. Set K to R that is make K a set of all attributes in R
2. For each attribute A in K
a.

Compute (K + with respect to F

b.

If (K + = R then set K = (K +

105.What do you understand by dependency preservation?

Given a relation R and a set of FDs F, dependency preservation states that
the closure of the union of the projection of F on each decomposed relation Ri is
equal to the closure of F. i.e.,
((R1(F)) U U (Rn(F)))+ = F+
if decomposition is not dependency preserving, then some dependency is
lost in the decomposition.

106.What is meant by Proactive, Retroactive and Simultaneous Update.

Proactive Update:
The updates that are applied to database before it becomes effective in real
world .
Retroactive Update:

The updates that are applied to database after it becomes effective in real
world .
Simulatneous Update:
The updates that are applied to database at the same time when it becomes
effective in real world .

OOPs and OOAD

Concepts

1.

Name some pure object oriented languages.

Smalltalk,
Java,
Eiffel,
Sather.

2.

What do you mean by the words Abstraction, Separation, Composition, and

Generalization?
Abstraction:
Simplifying the description of a real world entity to its essentials.
Separation:
Treating what an entity does and how it does it independently of each other.
Composition:

Building complex whole components by assembling simpler parts in one of

the two ways, Association and aggregation.
Generalization:
Identifying common elements in an entity.

3.

What is information hiding?

Information hiding is a mechanism that separates the implementation of the
class from its user.

4.

Differentiate between the message and method.

Message
Objects communicate by sending messages

Method
Provides response to a message.

to each other.
A message is sent to invoke a method.

It is an implementation of an
operation.

5.

What is the interface of a class?

The interface of the class is the view provided to the outside world, which
hides its internal structure and behaviour.

6.

What is an adaptor class or Wrapper class?

A class that has no functionality of its own. Its member functions hide the
use of a third party software component or an object with the non-compatible
interface or a non- object- oriented implementation.

7.

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 te 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.

8.

What is an orthogonal base class?

If two base classes have no overlapping methods or data they are said to be
independent of, or orthogonal to each other. Orthogonal in the sense means that two
classes operate in different dimensions and do not interfere with each other in any
way. The same derived class may inherit such classes with no difficulty.

9.

What is a container class? What are the types of container classes?

A container class is a class that is used to hold objects in memory or

external storage. A container class acts as a generic holder. A container class has a
predefined behavior and a well-known interface. A container class is a supporting
class whose purpose is to hide the topology used for maintaining the list of objects
in memory. When a container class contains a group of mixed objects, the container
is called a heterogeneous container; when the container is holding a group of
objects that are all the same, the container is called a homogeneous container.

10.

What is a protocol class?

An abstract class is a protocol class if:
it neither contains nor inherits from classes that contain member data,
non-virtual functions, or private (or protected) members of any kind.
it has a non-inline virtual destructor defined with an empty
implementation,
all member functions other than the destructor including inherited
functions, are declared pure virtual functions and left undefined.

11.

What is a mixin class?

A class that provides some but not all of the implementation for a virtual
base class is often called mixin. Derivation done just for the purpose of redefining
the virtual functions in the base classes is often called mixin inheritance. Mixin
classes typically don't share common bases.

12.

What is a concrete class?

A concrete class is used to define a useful object that can be instantiated as
an automatic variable on the program stack. The implementation of a concrete class
is defined. The concrete class is not intended to be a base class and no attempt to
minimize dependency on other classes in the implementation or behavior of the
class.

13.

What is the handle class?

A handle is a class that maintains a pointer to an object that is
programmatically accessible through the public interface of the handle class.
In case of abstract classes, unless one manipulates the objects of these
classes through pointers and references, the benefits of the virtual functions are lost.
User code may become dependent on details of implementation classes because an
abstract type cannot be allocated statistically or on the stack without its size being
known. Using pointers or references implies that the burden of memory
management falls on the user. Another limitation of abstract class object is of fixed
size. Classes however are used to represent concepts that require varying amounts
of storage to implement them.
A popular technique for dealing with these issues is to separate what is used
as a single object in two parts: a handle providing the user interface and a
representation holding all or most of the object's state. The connection between the
handle and the representation is typically a pointer in the handle. Often, handles
have a bit more data than the simple representation pointer, but not much more.

Hence the layout of the handle is typically stable, even when the representation
changes and also that handles are small enough to move around relatively freely so
that the user neednt use the pointers and the references.

14.

What is an action class?

The simplest and most obvious way to specify an action in C++ is to write a
function. However, if the action has to be delayed, has to be transmitted 'elsewhere'
before being performed, requires its own data, has to be combined with other
actions, etc then it often becomes attractive to provide the action in the form of a
class that can execute the desired action and provide other services as well.
Manipulators used with iostreams is an obvious example.
A common form of action class is a simple class containing just one virtual
function.
class Action{
public:
virtual int do_it( int )=0;
virtual ~Action( );
}
Given this, we can write code say a member that can store actions for later
execution without using pointers to functions, without knowing anything about the
objects involved, and without even knowing the name of the operation it invokes.
For example:
class write_file : public Action{

File& f;
public:
int do_it(int){
return fwrite( ).suceed( );
}
};
class error_message: public Action{
response_box db(message.cstr( ),"Continue","Cancel","Retry");
switch (db.getresponse( )) {
case 0: return 0;
case 1: abort();
case 2: current_operation.redo( );return 1;
}
};
A user of the Action class will be completely isolated from any knowledge
of derived classes such as write_file and error_message.

15.

What are seed classes?

In C++, you design classes to fulfill certain goals. Usually you start with a
sketchy idea of class requirements, filling in more and more details as the project
matures. Often you wind up with two classes that have certain similarities. To avoid
duplicating code in these classes, you should split up the classes at this point,
relegating the common features to a parent and making separate derived classes for

the different parts. Classes that are made only for the purpose of sharing code in
derived classes are called seed classes.

16.

What is an accessor?
An accessor is a class operation that does not modify the state of an object.
The accessor functions need to be declared as const operations

17.

What is an inspector?
Messages that return the value of an attribute are called inspector.

18.

What is a modifier?
A modifier, also called a modifying function is a member function that
changes the value of at least one data member. In other words, an operation that
modifies the state of an object. Modifiers are also known as mutators.

19.

What is a predicate?
A predicate is a function that returns a bool value.

20.

What is a facilitator?
A facilitator causes an object to perform some action or service.

21.

State the "Rule of minimality" and its corollary?

The rule of minimality states that unless a behavior is needed, it shouldn't

be part of the ADT.
Corollary of the rule of minimality: If the function or operator can be defined
such that, it is not a member. This practice makes a non-member function or
operator generally independent of changes to the class's implementation.

22.

What is reflexive association?

The 'is-a' is called a reflexive association because the reflexive association
permits classes to bear the is-a association not only with their super-classes but also
with themselves. It differs from a 'specializes-from' as 'specializes-from' is usually
used to describe the association between a super-class and a sub-class. For
example:
Printer is-a printer.

23.

What is slicing?
Slicing means that the data added by a subclass are discarded when an
object of the subclass is passed or returned by value or from a function expecting a
base class object.
Consider the following class declaration:
class base{
...
base& operator =(const base&);
base (const base&);

}
void fun( ){
base e=m;
e=m;
}
As base copy functions don't know anything about the derived only the base
part of the derived is copied. This is commonly referred to as slicing. One reason to
pass objects of classes in a hierarchy is to avoid slicing. Other reasons are to
preserve polymorphic behavior and to gain efficiency.

24.

What is a Null object?

It is an object of some class whose purpose is to indicate that a real object of
that class does not exist. One common use for a null object is a return value from a
member function that is supposed to return an object with some specified properties
but cannot find such an object.

25.

Define precondition and post-condition to a member function.

Precondition:
A precondition is a condition that must be true on entry to a member function. A
class is used correctly if preconditions are never false. An operation is not
responsible for doing anything sensible if its precondition fails to hold.

For example, the interface invariants of stack class say nothing about
pushing yet another element on a stack that is already full. We say that isful() is a
precondition of the push operation.
Post-condition:
A post-condition is a condition that must be true on exit from a member function if
the precondition was valid on entry to that function. A class is implemented
correctly if post-conditions are never false.
For example, after pushing an element on the stack, we know that isempty()
must necessarily hold. This is a post-condition of the push operation.

26.

What is class invariant?

A class invariant is a condition that defines all valid states for an object. It is
a logical condition to ensure the correct working of a class. Class invariants must
hold when an object is created, and they must be preserved under all operations of
the class. In particular all class invariants are both preconditions and postconditions for all operations or member functions of the class.

27.

What are the conditions that have to be met for a condition to be an invariant of the
class?
The condition should hold at the end of every constructor.
The condition should hold at the end of every mutator(non-const)
operation.

28.

What are proxy objects?

Objects that points to other objects are called proxy objects or surrogates.
Its an object that provides the same interface as its server object but does not have
any functionality. During a method invocation, it routes data to the true server
object

and

sends

back

the

return

value

template<class T> class Array2D{

public:
class Array1D{
public:
T& operator[] (int index);
const T& operator[] (int index) const;
...
};
Array1D operator[] (int index);
const Array1D operator[] (int index) const;
...
};
The following then becomes legal:
Array2D<float>data(10,20);
........
cout<<data[3][6];

// fine

to

the

object.

Here data[3] yields an Array1D object and the operator [] invocation on that
object yields the float in position(3,6) of the original two dimensional array. Clients
of the Array2D class need not be aware of the presence of the Array1D class.
Objects of this latter class stand for one-dimensional array objects that,
conceptually, do not exist for clients of Array2D. Such clients program as if they
were using real, live, two-dimensional arrays. Each Array1D object stands for a
one-dimensional array that is absent from a conceptual model used by the clients of
Array2D. In the above example, Array1D is a proxy class. Its instances stand for
one-dimensional arrays that, conceptually, do not exist.

29.

What is cloning?
An object can carry out copying in two ways i.e. it can set itself to be a copy
of another object, or it can return a copy of itself. The latter process is called
cloning.

30.

List out some of the OODBMS available.

GEMSTONE/OPAL of Gemstone systems.
ONTOS of Ontos.
Objectivity of Objectivity inc.
Versant of Versant object technology.
Object store of Object Design.
ARDENT of ARDENT software.
POET of POET software.

Object Oriented Analysis and Design

1.

What do you mean by analysis and design?

Analysis:
Basically, it is the process of determining what needs to be done before how
it should be done. In order to accomplish this, the developer refers the existing
systems and documents. So, simply it is an art of discovery.
Design:
It is the process of adopting/choosing the one among the many, which best
accomplishes the users needs. So, simply, it is compromising mechanism.

2.

What are the steps involved in designing?

Before getting into the design the designer should go through the SRS
prepared by the System Analyst. The main tasks of design are Architectural Design
and Detailed Design.
In Architectural Design we find what are the main modules in the problem
domain.
In Detailed Design we find what should be done within each module.

3.

What are the main underlying concepts of object orientation?

Objects, messages, class, inheritance and polymorphism are the main
concepts of object orientation.

4.

What do u meant by "SBI" of an object?

SBI stands for State, Behavior and Identity. Since every object has the
above three.
State:
It is just a value to the attribute of an object at a particular time.
Behaviour:
It describes the actions and their reactions of that object.
Identity:
An object has an identity that characterizes its own existence. The identity
makes it possible to distinguish any object in an unambiguous way, and
independently from its state.

5.

Differentiate persistent and non-persistent objects.

Persistent refers to an object's ability to transcend time or space. A
persistent object stores/saves its state in a permanent storage system with out losing
the information represented by the object.
A non-persistent object is said to be transient or ephemeral. By default
objects are considered as non-persistent.

6.

What do you meant by active and passive objects?

Active objects are one which instigate an interaction which owns a thread
and they are responsible for handling control to other objects. In simple words it

can be referred as client.

Passive objects are one, which passively waits for the message to be
processed. It waits for another object that requires its services. In simple words it
can be referred as server.
Diagram:

Client
(Active object)

7.

Message

Server
( Passive

What is meant by software development method?

Software development method describes how to model and build software
systems in a reliable and reproducible way. To put it simple, methods that are used
to represent ones' thinking using graphical notations.

8.

What are models and meta models?

Model:
It is a complete description of something (i.e. system).
Meta model:
It describes the model elements, syntax and semantics of the notation that
allows their manipulation.

9.

What do you meant by static and dynamic modeling?

Static modeling is used to specify structure of the objects that exist in the
problem domain. These are expressed using class, object and USECASE diagrams.
But Dynamic modeling refers representing the object interactions during
runtime. It is represented by sequence, activity, collaboration and statechart
diagrams.

10.

How to represent the interaction between the modeling elements?

Model element is just a notation to represent (Graphically) the entities that
exist in the problem domain. e.g. for modeling element is class notation, object
notation etc.
Relationships are used to represent the interaction between the modeling
elements.
The following are the Relationships.

Association: Its' just a semantic connection two classes.

e.g.:

Class A

Class B

Aggregation: Its' the relationship between two classes which are related
in the fashion that master and slave. The master takes full rights than
the slave. Since the slave works under the master. It is represented as
line with diamond in the master area.

Example:
car contains wheels, etc.

Car

Wheels

Containment: This relationship is applied when the part contained

with in the whole part, dies when the whole part dies.
It is represented as darked diamond at the whole part.
Example:
class A{
//some code
};
class B{
A aa; // an object of class A;
// some code for class B;
};
In the above example we see that an object of class A is instantiated with in
the class B. So the object class A dies when the object class B dies. We can
represent it in a diagram like this:

Class B

Class A

 Generalization: This relationship used when we want represents a

class, which captures the common states of objects of different
classes. It is represented as arrow line pointed at the class, which has
captured the common states.
The above graph depicts the concept of generalization.Since UML is the
class

which

culminates

the

properties

of

the

other

three

(i.e.

Booch,Rumbaugh,Jacobson).

G.Booch
Methodology

Rumbaughs
Methodology

Jacobsons
Methodology

UML

Dependency: It is the relationship between dependent and independent

classes. Any change in the independent class will affect the states of
the dependent class.
Diagram:

Dependent Class

11.

Independent Class

Why generalization is very strong?

Even though Generalization satisfies Structural, Interface, Behaviour
properties. It is mathematically very strong, as it is Antisymmetric and Transitive.
Antisymmetric:
Employee is a person, but not all persons are employees. Mathematically all
As are B, but all Bs not A.
Transitive:
A=>B, B=>c then A=>c.
A. Salesman, B. Employee, C. Person.
Note:
All the other relationships satisfy all the properties like Structural
properties, Interface properties, Behaviour properties.

12.

Differentiate Aggregation and containment?

Aggregation is the relationship between the whole and a part. We can

add/subtract some properties in the part (slave) side. It won't affect the whole part.
Best example is Car, which contains the wheels and some extra parts. Even though
the parts are not there we can call it as car.
But, in the case of containment the whole part is affected when the part
within that got affected. The human body is an apt example for this relationship.
When the whole body dies the parts (heart etc) are died.

13.

Can link and Association applied interchangeably?

No, You cannot apply the link and Association interchangeably. Since link
is used represent the relationship between the two objects.
But Association is used represent the relationship between the two classes.

Abhilash

Link:

Student

Association:

14.

MCA.:Course

Course

List out some of the object-oriented methodologies.

Object Oriented Development (OOD) (Booch 1991,1994).
Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D) (Coad and Yourdon
1991).
Object Modelling Techniques (OMT) (Rumbaugh 1991).

 Object Oriented Software Engineering (Objectory) (Jacobson 1992).

Object Oriented Analysis (OO (Shlaer and Mellor 1992).
The Fusion Method (Coleman 1991).

15.

What is meant by "method-wars"?

Before 1994 there were different methodologies like Rumbaugh, Booch,
Jacobson, Meyer etc who followed their own notations to model the systems. The
developers were in a dilemma to choose the method which best accomplishes their
needs. This particular time-span was called as "method-wars".

16.

Whether unified method and unified modeling language are same or different?
Unified method is convergence of the Rumbaugh and Booch. Unified
modeling lang. is the fusion of Rumbaugh, Booch and Jacobson as well as Betrand
Meyer (whose contribution is "sequence diagram"). Its' the superset of all the
methodologies.

17.

Who were the three famous amigos and what was their contribution to the object
community?
The Three amigos namely,
James Rumbaugh (OMT): A veteran in analysis who came up with an
idea about the

objects and their Relationships (in particular

Associations).
Grady Booch: A veteran in design who came up with an idea about

partitioning of systems into subsystems.

Ivar Jacobson (Objectory): The father of USECASES, who described
about the user and system interaction.

17.

Differentiate the class representation of Booch,Rumbaugh and UML?

If you look at the class representaiton of Rumbaugh and UML, It is some
what similar and both are very easy to draw.
Representation:

OMT

ClassName
+Public Attribute;
#protected Attribute;
-private Attribute;
+Public Method();
#Protected Method();
-private Method();
UML.

ClassName
<<actor>>
+Public Attribute;
#protected Attribute;

-private Attribute;
classattribute;
+Public Method();
#Protected Method();
-private Method();
classmethod();

Booch:
In this method classes are represented as "Clouds" which are not very easy
to draw as for as the developer's view is concern.
Representation:

Classs Name
PublicAttribute;
| Protected

18.

What is an USECASE?why it is needed?

A Use Case is a description of a set of sequence of actions that a system
performs that yields an observable rsult of value to a particular action.
Simply, in SSAD process <=> In OOAD USECASE. It is represented
elliptically.
Representation:
Use Case

19.

Who is an Actor?
An Actor is someone or something that must interact with the system.In
addition to that an Actor initiates the process (that is USECASE).
It is represesnted as a stickman like this.
Representation:

20.

What is guard condition?

Guard condition is one which acts as a firewall. The access from a particular object

can be made only when the particular condition is met.

For Example,

ATM

Customer
Check for
validation

here the object on the customer acccess the ATM facility only when the guard
condition is met.

21.

Differentiate the following notations?

Student

Course

Student

Course

I:

II:

In the above I represention Student Class sends message to Course Class

but in the case of second , the data is transfered from student Class to Course Class

22.

USECASE is an implementaion independent notation. How will the designer give

the implementaion details of a particular USECASE to the programmer?
This can be accompllished by specifying the relationship called
"refinement" that talkes about the two different abstraction of the same thing.
For example,

Calculate

<<refinement>
>

In the above example calculate Pay is an USECASE. It is refined in terms

of giving the implementation details. This kind of connection is related by means of
refinement.

23.

Suppose a class acts an Actor in the problem domain,how can i represent it in the
static model?
In this senario you can use stereotype.since stereotype is just a string
that gives extra semantic to the particular entity/model element.
It is given with in the << >>.

Class
<< Actor>>
Attributes
MemberFunctio
ns
24.

Why does the function arguments are called as "signatures"?

The arguments distinguishes functions with the same name (functional
polymorphism). The name alone does not necessarily identify a unique function.
However, the name and its arguments (signatures) will uniquely identify a function.
In real life we see suppose,in class there are two guys with same name.but
they can be easily identified by their signatures.The same concept is applied here.
For example:

class person
{
public:
char getsex();
void setsex(char);
void setsex(int);
};
In this example we can see that there is a function setsex() with same name
but with different signature.

Operating Systems

1.

Explain the concept of Reentrancy.

It is a useful, memory-saving technique for multiprogrammed timesharing
systems. A Reentrant Procedure is one in which multiple users can share a single
copy of a program during the same period. Reentrancy has 2 key aspects:
i.)

The program code cannot modify itself,

ii.)

The local data for each user process must be stored separately.

Thus, the permanent part is the code, and the temporary part is the pointer
back to the calling program and local variables used by that program. Each
execution instance is called activation. It executes the code in the permanent part,
but has its own copy of local variables/parameters. The temporary part associated
with each activation is the activation record. Generally, the activation record is kept
on the stack.
Note: A reentrant procedure can be interrupted and called by an interrupting
program, and still execute correctly on returning to the procedure.

2.

Explain Belady's Anomaly.

Also called FIFO anomaly. Usually, on increasing the number of frames
allocated to a process' virtual memory, the process execution is faster, because
fewer page faults occur. Sometimes, the reverse happens, i.e., the execution time
increases even when more frames are allocated to the process. This is Belady's
Anomaly. This is true for certain page reference patterns.

3.

What is a binary semaphore? What is its use?

A binary semaphore is one, which takes only 0 and 1 as values. They are
used to implement mutual exclusion and synchronize concurrent processes.

4.

What is thrashing?
It is a phenomenon in virtual memory schemes, when the processor spends
most of its time swapping pages, rather than executing instructions. This is due to
an inordinate number of page faults.

5.

List the Coffman's conditions that lead to a deadlock.

a) Mutual Exclusion: Only one process may use a critical resource at a time.
b) Hold & Wait: A process may be allocated some resources while waiting
for others.
c) No Pre-emption: No resource can be forcible removed from a process
holding it.

d) Circular Wait: A closed chain of processes exist such that each process
holds at least one resource needed by another process in the chain.

6.

What are short-, long- and medium-term scheduling?

Long term scheduler determines which programs are admitted to the system
for processing. It controls the degree of multiprogramming. Once admitted, a job
becomes a process.
Medium term scheduling is part of the swapping function. This relates to
processes that are in a blocked or suspended state. They are swapped out of mainmemory until they are ready to execute. The swapping-in decision is based on
memory-management criteria.
Short term scheduler, also know as a dispatcher executes most frequently,
and makes the finest-grained decision of which process should execute next. This
scheduler is invoked whenever an event occurs. It may lead to interruption of one
process by preemption.

7.

What are turnaround time and response time?

Turnaround time is the interval between the submission of a job and its
completion. Response time is the interval between submission of a request, and the
first response to that request.

8.

What are the typical elements of a process image?

a)User data: Modifiable part of user space. May include program data, user
stack area, and programs that may be modified.
b) User program: The instructions to be executed.
c) System Stack: Each process has one or more LIFO stacks associated with
it. Used to store parameters and calling addresses for procedure and system calls.
d) Process Control Block (PCB): Info needed by the OS to control
processes.

9.

What is the Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB)?

In a cached system, the base addresses of the last few referenced pages is
maintained in registers called the TLB that aids in faster lookup. TLB contains
those page-table entries that have been most recently used. Normally, each virtual
memory reference causes 2 physical memory accesses-- one to fetch appropriate
page-table entry, and one to fetch the desired data. Using TLB in-between, this is
reduced to just one physical memory access in cases of TLB-hit.

10.

What is the resident set and working set of a process?

Resident set is that portion of the process image that is actually in mainmemory at a particular instant. Working set is that subset of resident set that is
actually needed for execution. (Relate this to the variable-window size method for
swapping techniques.)

11.

When is a system in safe state?

The set of dispatchable processes is in a safe state if there exist at least one
temporal order in which all processes can be run to completion without resulting in
a deadlock.

12.

What is cycle stealing?

We encounter cycle stealing in the context of Direct Memory Access
(DMA). Either the DMA controller can use the data bus when the CPU does not
need it, or it may force the CPU to temporarily suspend operation. The latter
technique is called cycle stealing. Note that cycle stealing can be done only at
specific break points in an instruction cycle.

13.

What is meant by arm-stickiness?

If one or a few processes have a high access rate to data on one track of a
storage disk, then they may monopolize the device by repeated requests to that
track. This generally happens with most common device scheduling algorithms
(LIFO, SSTF, C-SCAN, etc). High-density multi-surface disks are more likely to be
affected by this, than the low density ones.

14.

What are the stipulations of C2 level security?

C2 level security provides for:
1. Discretionary Access Control
2. Identification and Authentication
3. Auditing

4. Resource Reuse

15.

What is busy waiting?

The repeated execution of a loop of code while waiting for an event to occur
is called busy-waiting. The CPU is not engaged in any real productive activity
during this period, and the process does not progress toward completion.

16.

Explain the popular multiprocessor thread-scheduling strategies.

Load Sharing: Processes are not assigned to a particular processor. A global
queue of threads is maintained. Each processor, when idle, selects a thread from
this queue. Note that load balancing refers to a scheme where work is allocated to
processors on a more permanent basis.
Gang Scheduling: A set of related threads is scheduled to run on a set of
processors at the same time, on a 1-to-1 basis. Closely related threads / processes
may be scheduled this way to reduce synchronization blocking, and minimize
process switching. Group scheduling predated this strategy.
Dedicated processor assignment: Provides implicit scheduling defined by
assignment of threads to processors. For the duration of program execution, each
program is allocated a set of processors equal in number to the number of threads in
the program. Processors are chosen from the available pool.
Dynamic scheduling: The number of thread in a program can be altered
during the course of execution.

17.

When does the condition 'rendezvous' arise?

In message passing, it is the condition in which, both, the sender and
receiver are blocked until the message is delivered.

18.

What is a trap and trapdoor?

Trapdoor is a secret undocumented entry point into a program, used to grant
access without normal methods of access authentication. A trap is a software
interrupt, usually the result of an error condition.

19.

What are local and global page replacements?

Local replacement means that an incoming page is brought in only to the
relevant process' address space. Global replacement policy allows any page frame
from any process to be replaced. The latter is applicable to variable partitions model
only.

20.

Define latency, transfer and seek time with respect to disk I/O.
Seek time is the time required to move the disk arm to the required track.
Rotational delay or latency is the time to move the required sector to the disk head.
Sums of seek time (if any) and the latency is the access time, for accessing a
particular track in a particular sector. Time taken to actually transfer a span of data
is transfer time.

21.

Describe the Buddy system of memory allocation.

Free memory is maintained in linked lists, each of equal sized blocks. Any
such block is of size 2^k. When some memory is required by a process, the block
size of next higher order is chosen, and broken into two. Note that the two such
pieces differ in address only in their kth bit. Such pieces are called buddies. When
any used block is freed, the OS checks to see if its buddy is also free. If so, it is
rejoined, and put into the original free-block linked-list.

22.

What is time stamping?

It is a technique proposed by Lamport, used to order events in a distributed
system without the use of clocks. This scheme is intended to order events consisting
of the transmission of messages. Each system 'i' in the network maintains a counter
Ci. Every time a system transmits a message, it increments its counter by 1 and
attaches the time-stamp Ti to the message. When a message is received, the
receiving system 'j' sets its counter Cj to 1 more than the maximum of its current
value and the incoming time-stamp Ti. At each site, the ordering of messages is
determined by the following rules:
For messages x from site i and messages y from site j, x precedes y if one of
the following conditions holds if Ti < Tj

or if Ti = Tj and i < j.

23.How are the wait/signal operations for monitor different from those for semaphores?
If a process in the monitor signals and no task is waiting on the condition
variable, the signal is lost. So this allows easier program design. Whereas in

semaphores, every operation affects the value of the semaphore, so the wait and
signal operations should be perfectly balanced in the program.

24.

In the context of memory management, what are placement and replacement

algorithms?
Placement algorithms determine where in the available main-memory to
load the incoming process. Common methods are first-fit, next-fit, and best-fit.
Replacement algorithms are used when memory is full, and one process (or part of
a process) needs to be swapped out to accommodate the new incoming process. The
replacement algorithm determines which are the partitions (memory portions
occupied by the processes) to be swapped out.

25.

In loading processes into memory, what is the difference between load-time

dynamic linking and run-time dynamic linking?

For load-time dynamic linking: Load module to be loaded is read into
memory. Any reference to a target external module causes that module to be loaded
and the references are updated to a relative address from the start base address of
the application module.
With run-time dynamic loading: Some of the linking is postponed until
actual reference during execution. Then the correct module is loaded and linked.

26.

What are demand- and pre-paging?

With demand paging, a page is brought into the main-memory only when a
location on that page is actually referenced during execution. With prepaging,
pages other than the one demanded by a page fault are brought in. The selection of
such pages is done based on common access patterns, especially for secondary
memory devices.

27.

What is mounting?
Mounting is the mechanism by which two different file systems can be
combined together. This is one of the services provided by the operating system,
which allows the user to work with two different file systems, and some of the
secondary devices.

28.

What do you mean by dispatch latency?

The time taken by the dispatcher to stop one process and start running
another process is known as the dispatch latency.

29.

What is multi-processing?
The ability of an operating system to use more than one CPU in a single
computer system. Symmetrical multiprocessing refers to the OS's ability to assign
tasks dynamically to the next available processor, whereas asymmetrical
multiprocessing requires that the original program designer choose the processor to
use for a given task at the time of writing the program.

30.

What is multitasking?
Multitasking is a logical extension of multi-programming. This refers to the
simultaneous execution of more than one program, by switching between them, in a
single computer system.

31.

Define multithreading?
The concurrent processing of several tasks or threads inside the same
program or process. Because several tasks can be processed parallely and no tasks
have to wait for the another to finish its execution.

32.

Define compaction.
Compaction refers to the mechanism of shuffling the memory portions such
that all the free portions of the memory can be aligned (or merged) together in a
single large block. OS to overcome the problem of fragmentation, either internal or
external, performs this mechanism, frequently. Compaction is possible only if
relocation is dynamic and done at run-time, and if relocation is static and done at
assembly or load-time compaction is not possible.

33.

What do you mean by FAT (File Allocation Table)?

A table that indicates the physical location on secondary storage of the
space allocated to a file. FAT chains the clusters (group of sectors) to define the
contents of the file. FAT allocates clusters to files.

34.

What is a Kernel?
Kernel is the nucleus or core of the operating system. This represents small
part of the code, which is thought to be the entire operating system, it is most
intensively used. Generally, the kernel is maintained permanently in main memory,
and other portions of the OS are moved to and from the secondary storage (mostly
hard disk).

35.

What is memory-mapped I/O?

Memory-mapped I/O, meaning that the communication between the I/O
devices and the processor is done through physical memory locations in the address
space. Each I/O device will occupy some locations in the I/O address space. I.e., it
will respond when those addresses are placed on the bus. The processor can write
those locations to send commands and information to the I/O device and read those
locations to get information and status from the I/O device. Memory-mapped I/O
makes it easy to write device drivers in a high-level language as long as the highlevel language can load and store from arbitrary addresses.

36.

What are the advantages of threads?

Threads provide parallel processing like processes but they have one
important advantage over process, they are much more efficient.
Threads are cheaper to create and destroy because they do not require
allocation and de-allocation of a new address space or other process
resources.

 It is faster to switch between threads. It will be faster since the memorymapping does not have to be setup and the memory and address translation
caches do not have to be violated.
Threads are efficient as they share memory. They do not have to use system
calls (which are slower because of context switches) to communicate.

37.

What are kernel threads?

The processes that execute in the Kernel-mode that processes are called
kernel threads.

38.

What are the necessary conditions for deadlock to exist?

Process claims exclusive control for the Resources allocated to them.
(Mutual exclusion condition).
Resources cannot be de-allocated until the process completes they are used
for its complete execution. (No preemption condition).
A process can hold one resource and wait for other resources to be
allocated. (Wait for condition)
Circular wait condition.

39.

What are the strategies for dealing with deadlock?

Prevention- Place restrictions on resource requests so that deadlock cannot
occur.

 Avoidance- Plan ahead so that you never get in to a situation where

deadlock is inevitable.
Recovery- when deadlock is identified in the system, it recovers from it by
removing some of the causes of the deadlock.
Detection detecting whether the deadlock actually exists and identifies the
processes and resources that are involved in the deadlock.

40.

Paging a memory management function, while multiprogramming a processor

management function, are the two interdependent?

Yes.

41.

What is page cannibalizing?

Page swapping or page replacements are called page cannibalizing.

42.

What has triggered the need for multitasking in PCs?

Increased speed and memory capacity of microprocessors together with the
support fir virtual memory and
Growth of client server computing

43.

What are the four layers that Windows NT have in order to achieve independence?
Hardware abstraction layer
Kernel
Subsystems

 System Services.

44.

What is SMP?
To achieve maximum efficiency and reliability a mode of operation known
as symmetric multiprocessing is used. In essence, with SMP any process or threads
can be assigned to any processor.

45.

What are the key object oriented concepts used by Windows NT?
Encapsulation
Object class and instance

46.

Is Windows NT a full blown object oriented operating system? Give reasons.

No Windows NT is not so, because its not implemented in object oriented
language and the data structures reside within one executive component and are not
represented as objects and it does not support object oriented capabilities .

47.

What is a drawback of MVT?

It does not have the features like
ability to support multiple processors
virtual storage
source level debugging

48.

What is process spawning?

When the OS at the explicit request of another process creates a process,

this action is called process spawning.

49.

How many jobs can be run concurrently on MVT?

15 jobs

50.

List out some reasons for process termination.

Normal completion
Time limit exceeded
Memory unavailable
Bounds violation
Protection error
Arithmetic error
Time overrun
I/O failure
Invalid instruction
Privileged instruction
Data misuse
Operator or OS intervention
Parent termination.

51.

What are the reasons for process suspension?

 swapping
interactive user request
timing
parent process request

52.

What is process migration?

It is the transfer of sufficient amount of the state of process from one
machine to the target machine

53.

What is mutant?
In Windows NT a mutant provides kernel mode or user mode mutual
exclusion with the notion of ownership.

54.

What is an idle thread?

The special thread a dispatcher will execute when no ready thread is found.

55.

What is FtDisk?
It is a fault tolerance disk driver for Windows NT.

56.

What are the possible threads a thread can have?

Ready
Standby
Running

 Waiting
Transition
Terminated.

57.

What are rings in Windows NT?

Windows NT uses protection mechanism called rings provides by the
process to implement separation between the user mode and kernel mode.

58.

What is Executive in Windows NT?

In Windows NT, executive refers to the operating system code that runs in
kernel mode.

59.

What are the sub-components of I/O manager in Windows NT?

Network redirector/ Server
Cache manager.
File systems
Network driver
Device driver

60.

What are DDks? Name an operating system that includes this feature.
DDks are device driver kits, which are equivalent to SDKs for writing
device drivers. Windows NT includes DDks.

61.

What level of security does Windows NT meets?

C2 level security.

UNIX Concepts

Section - I - File Management In Unix

1.

What are the logical blocks of the UNIX file system?

Boot block
Super block
Inode block
Data block

2.

What is an 'inode'?
All UNIX files have its description stored in a structure called 'inode'. The
inode contains info about the file-size, its location, time of last access, time of last
modification, permission and so on. Directories are also represented as files and
have an associated inode. In addition to descriptions about the file, the inode

contains pointers to the data blocks of the file. If the file is large, inode has indirect
pointer to a block of pointers to additional data blocks (this further aggregates for
larger files). A block is typically 8k.
Inode consists of the following fields:
File owner identifier
File type
File access permissions
File access times
Number of links
File size
Location of the file data

3.

How does the inode map to data block of a file?

Inode has 13 block addresses. The first 10 are direct block addresses and
these addresses point to first 10 data blocks in the file.
The 11th address points to a one-level index block.
The 12th address points to a two-level (double in-direction) index block.
The 13th address points to a three-level (triple in-direction) index block.
This mapping scheme provides a very large maximum file size with
efficient access to large files, still small files are accessed directly in one disk read.

4.

Brief about the directory representation in UNIX

A UNIX directory is a file containing a correspondence between filenames

and inodes. A directory is a special file that the kernel maintains. Only kernel
modifies directories, but processes can read directories. The contents of a directory
are a list of filename and inode number pairs. When new directories are created,
kernel makes two entries named '.' (refers to the directory itself) and '..' (refers to
parent directory).
The system call for creating a new directory is mkdir (pathname, mode).

5.

How are devices represented in UNIX?

All devices are represented by files that are called as special files. They are
are located in /dev directory. Thus, device files and other files are named and
accessed in the same way.
There are two types of such special files: 'block special files' and 'character
special files'. A 'block special file' represents a device with characteristics similar to
a disk (data transfer in terms of blocks). A 'character special file' represents a device
with characteristics similar to a keyboard (data transfer is by stream of bits in
sequential order).

6.

What are the Unix system calls for I/O?

open(pathname,flag,mode)
creat(pathname,mode)
close(filedes)

- open file

- create file
- close an open file

read(filedes,buffer,bytes) - read data from an open file

write(filedes,buffer,bytes) - write data to an open file

 lseek(filedes,offset,from) - position an open file

dup(filedes)

- duplicate an existing file descriptor

dup2(oldfd,newfd)

- duplicate to a desired file descriptor

fcntl(filedes,cmd,arg)

- change properties of an open file

ioctl(filedes,request,arg) - change the behaviour of an open file

The difference between fcntl anf ioctl is that the former is intended for any
open file, while the latter is for device-specific operations.

7.

How do you change File Access Permissions?

Every file has following attributes:
owner's user ID ( 16 bit integer )
owner's group ID ( 16 bit integer )
File access mode word
'r w x - r w x - r w x'
(user permission - group permission - others permission)
r-read, w-write, x-execute.

To change the access mode, we use chmod(filename,mode).

Example 1:
To change mode of myfile to 'rw-rw-r--' (ie. read, write permission for user
- read,write permission for group - only read permission for others) we give the
args as:
chmod(myfile,0664) .

Each operation is represented by discrete values

'r' is 4
'w' is 2
'x' is 1
Therefore, for 'rw' the value is 6(4+2).
Example 2:
To change mode of myfile to 'rwxr--r--' we give the args as:
chmod(myfile,0744).

8.

What are links and symbolic links in UNIX file system?

A link is a second name for a file. Links can be used to assign more than
one name to a file, but they cannot be used to assign a directory more than one
name or to link filenames on different computers.
Symbolic link 'is' a file that only contains the name of another file.
Operation on the symbolic link is directed to the file pointed by the it. Both the
limitations of links are eliminated in symbolic links.
Commands for linking files are:

9.

Link

ln filename1 filename2

Symbolic link

ln -s filename1 filename2

What is a FIFO?
FIFO are otherwise called as 'named pipes'. FIFO (first-in-first-out) is a
special file that is said to be data transient. Once data is read from named pipe, it

cannot be read again. Also, data can be read only in the order written. It is used in
interprocess communication where a process writes to one end of the pipe
(producer) and the other reads from the other end (consumer).

10.

How do you create special files like named pipes and device files?
The system call mknod creates special files in the following sequence:
1. kernel assigns new inode,
2. sets the file type to indicate that the file is a pipe, directory or special
file,
3. If it is a device file, it makes the other entries like major, minor device
numbers.
For example: If the device is a disk, major device number refers to the disk
controller and minor device number refers the disk.

11.

Discuss the mount and unmount system calls

The privileged mount system call is used to attach a file system to a
directory of another file system; the unmount system call detaches a file system.
When you mount another file system on to your directory, you are essentially
splicing one directory tree onto a branch in another directory tree. The first
argument to mount call is the mount point, that is, a directory in the current file
naming system. The second argument is the file system to mount to that point.
When you insert a cdrom to your Unix system's drive, the file system in the cdrom
automatically mounts to /dev/cdrom in your system.

12.

What are surrogate super blocks and surrogate inode tables?

Whenever we use any file or change its permissions, these changes should
be made on the disk; but this can be time consuming. Hence a copy of the super
block and an inode table is maintained in the RAM that are called as the surrogate
super blocks and inode tables respectively.
The sync command synchronizes the inode table in the memory with the
one on the disk by simply overwriting the memory copy on to the disk.

13.

Assuming the block size to be 1KB calculate the maximum size of a file in the Unix
file system.
The first 10 data block pointers can point to 10 data blocks each of size 1
KB .
The 11 th pointer points to a table of block pointers the table has 256
pointers each pointing to data block of size 1 KB. Similarly the 12 th pointer can
address
(256 X 256KB) i.e. 64 MB and the 13 th pointer (256 X 64 MB) => 16 GB.
Hence the maximum size of the file is 10 KB + 256 KB + 64 MB + 16 GB.

14. What are the uses of these disk related commands: df, dfspace, du and ulimit?
$ df

- reports the free as well as used disk space,

$ dfspace

- same as df but is more explanatory,

$ du

- shows the disk space used by a specified file,

$ ulimit

- avoids the user from creating files of very large size.

Section II
Process Management

1.

Brief about the initial process sequence while the system boots up.
While booting, special process called the 'swapper' or 'scheduler' is created
with the Process-ID 0. The swapper manages memory allocation for processes and
influences CPU allocation. The swapper inturn creates 3 children:
the process dispatcher,
vhand and
dbflush
with IDs 1,2 and 3 respectively.
This is done by executing the file /etc/init. Process dispatcher gives birth to
the shell. Unix keeps track of all the processes in an internal data structure called
the Process Table (listing command is ps -el).

2.

What are various IDs associated with a process?

Unix identifies each process with an unique integer called ProcessID (PID).
The process that executes the request for creation of a process is called the 'parent
process' of the newly created process.
Every process is associated with a particular user called the 'owner' who
initiates the process and has privileges over the process. The identification for the

user is 'UserID'. Process also has 'Effective User ID' that determines the access
privileges for accessing resources like files. The system calls used for getting the
various IDs are:

3.

getpid()

- process id

getppid()

- parent process id

getuid()

- user id

geteuid()

- effective user id

What is the range of values PID can take?

PID can range from 0 to 32767.

4.

What are the process states in Unix?

As a process executes it changes state according to its circumstances. Unix
processes have the following states:
Running : The process is either running or it is ready to run .
Waiting : The process is waiting for an event or for a resource.
Stopped : The process has been stopped, usually by receiving a signal.
Zombie : The process is dead but have not been removed from the process
table.

5.

What Happens when you execute a program?

When you execute a program on your UNIX system, the system creates a
special environment for that program. This environment contains everything needed
for the system to run the program as if no other program were running on the

system. Each process has process context, which is everything that is unique about
the state of the program you are currently running. Every time you execute a
program the UNIX system does a fork, which performs a series of operations to
create a process context and then execute your program in that context. The steps
include the following:
Allocate a slot in the process table, a list of currently running programs
kept by UNIX.
Assign a unique process identifier (PID) to the process.
iCopy the context of the parent, the process that requested the spawning
of the new process.
Return the new PID to the parent process. This enables the parent
process to examine or control the process directly.
After the fork is complete, UNIX runs your program.

6.

What Happens when you execute a command?

When you enter 'ls' command to look at the contents of your current
working directory, UNIX does a series of things to create an environment for ls and
the run it: The shell has UNIX perform a fork. This creates a new process that the
shell will use to run the ls program. The shell has UNIX perform an exec of the ls
program. This replaces the shell program and data with the program and data for ls
and then starts running that new program. The ls program is loaded into the new
process context, replacing the text and data of the shell. The ls program performs its
task, listing the contents of the current directory.

7.

What is a zombie process?

When a program forks and the child finishes before the parent, the kernel
still keeps some of its information about the child in case the parent might need it for example, the parent may need to check the child's exit status. To be able to get
this information, the parent calls `wait()'; In the interval between the child
terminating and the parent calling `wait()', the child is said to be a `zombie' (If you
do `ps', the child will have a `Z' in its status field to indicate this.)

8.

What is a daemon process?

A daemon is a process that detaches itself from the terminal and runs,
disconnected, in the background, waiting for requests and responding to them. It
can also be defined as the background process that does not belong to a terminal
session. Many system functions are commonly performed by daemons, including
the sendmail daemon, which handles mail, and the NNTP daemon, which handles
USENET news. Many other daemons may exist. Some of the most common
daemons are:
init: Takes over the basic running of the system when the kernel has
finished the boot process.
inetd: Responsible for starting network services that do not have their
own stand-alone daemons. For example, inetd usually takes care of
incoming rlogin, telnet, and ftp connections.
cron: Responsible for running repetitive tasks on a regular schedule.

Daemons can be roughly classified as system and user daemons.

9.

What is an advantage of executing a process in background?

The most common reason to put a process in the background is to allow you
to do something else interactively without waiting for the process to complete. At
the end of the command you add the special background symbol, &. This symbol
tells your shell to execute the given command in the background.
Example: cp *.* ../backup&

10.

(cp is for copy)

How do you execute one program from within another?

The system calls used for low-level process creation are execlp() and
execvp(). The execlp call overlays the existing program with the new one , runs that
and exits. The original program gets back control only when an error occurs.
execlp(path,file_name,arguments..);
//last argument must be NULL
A variant of execlp called execvp is used when the number of arguments is
not known in advance.
execvp(path,argument_array);
//argument array should be terminated by NULL

11.

List the system calls used for process management:

System calls

Description

fork()

To create a new process

exec()

To execute a new program in a process

wait()

To wait until a created process completes its

execution

exit()

To exit from a process execution

getpid()

To get a process identifier of the current process

getppid()

To get parent process identifier

nice()

To bias the existing priority of a process

brk()

To increase/decrease the data segment size of a

process

12.

Explain fork() system call.

The `fork()' used to create a new process from an existing process. The
new process is called the child process, and the existing process is called the parent.
We can tell which is which by checking the return value from `fork()'. The parent
gets the child's pid returned to him, but the child gets 0 returned to him.

13.

Predict the output of the following program code

main(){
fork();
printf("Hello World!");
}
Answer:
Hello World!Hello World!

Explanation:
The fork creates a child that is a duplicate of the parent process. The child
begins from the fork().All the statements after the call to fork() will be executed
twice.(once by the parent process and other by child). The statement before fork() is
executed only by the parent process.

14.

Predict the output of the following program code

main(){
fork(); fork(); fork();
printf("Hello World!");
}
Answer:
"Hello World" will be printed 8 times.
Explanation:
2^n times where n is the number of calls to fork()

15.

How can you get/set an environment variable from a program?

Getting the value of an environment variable is done by using `getenv()'.
Setting the value of an environment variable is done by using `putenv()'.

16.

How can a parent and child process communicate?

A parent and child can communicate through any of the normal interprocess communication schemes (pipes, sockets, message queues, shared memory),

but also have some special ways to communicate that take advantage of their
relationship as a parent and child. One of the most obvious is that the parent can get
the exit status of the child.

17.

What is IPC? What are the various schemes available?

The term IPC (Inter-Process Communication) describes various ways by
which different processes running on some operating system communicate between
each other. Various schemes available are as follows:
Pipes:
One-way communication scheme through which different process can
communicate. The problem is that the two processes should have a common
ancestor (parent-child relationship). However this problem was fixed with the
introduction of named-pipes (FIFO).
Message Queues :
Message queues can be used between related and unrelated processes
running on a machine.
Shared Memory:
This is the fastest of all IPC schemes. The memory to be shared is mapped
into the address space of the processes (that are sharing). The speed achieved is
attributed to the fact that there is no kernel involvement. But this scheme needs
synchronization.
Various forms of synchronisation are mutexes, condition-variables, readwrite locks, record-locks, and semaphores.

18.

Explain 'ps' command and its purpose.

The ps command prints the process status for some or all of the running
processes. The information given are the process identification number (PID), the
amount of time that the process has taken to execute so far etc.
The options used in this command are
$ ps a :: Lists the processes running for other users.
$ ps t :: Lists the processes running in a particular terminal.
$ ps f :: Lists the processes along with PPID.
$ ps e :: Lists every process running at that instance.

19.

How would you kill a process?

The kill command takes the PID as one argument; this identifies which
process to terminate. The PID of a process can be got using 'ps' command.

20.

For some reason, the process with PID 6173 could not be terminated with the
command $ kill 6173. What could be the reason and how can you terminate that
process?
The kill command when invoked sends a termination signal to the process
being killed. Since the signal number is not specified unix assumes the default
signal number which cannot kill certain high priority processes.
In such cases we can use the signal number 9 $ kill 9 6173.

19.

What is a shell?
A shell is an interactive user interface to services of an operating system,
that allows an user to enter commands as character strings or through a graphical
user interface. The shell converts them to system calls to the OS or forks off a
process to execute the command. Results of the system calls and other information
from the OS are presented to the user through an interactive interface. Commonly
used shells are sh,csh,ks etc.

21.

Explain about the process priority values.

Each process is assigned a priority value; higher the value lesser is its
priority. The priority value for a process can range from 0 to 39. The default
priority value for a process is 20. A user is allowed to increase the value but he
cannot decrease it.

22.

What does the command $ nice 15 cat emp.dat do?

The priority value of the cat emp.dat command is increased form 20 to 35
This will slower the command as higher priority value means lesser priority.

23.

Write a command such that at exactly 5 pm the message time is 5 pm appears on

the terminal named tty3c.
$ at 17:00
echo time is 5 pm > /dev/tty3c
ctrl d

24.

What does the batch command do?

The batch command lets the system decide the best time for executing our
commands. It may not execute the commands immediately. The batch command
will be queued and executed when the system is free.

25.

How is crontab command different from at ?

The crontab can carry out a submitted job every day for years together
without any prompting form the user. The at command is valid only for a day.

Section - III
Memory Management

1.

What is the difference between Swapping and Paging?

Swapping:
Whole process is moved from the swap device to the main memory for
execution. Process size must be less than or equal to the available main memory. It
is easier to implementation and overhead to the system. Swapping systems does not
handle the memory more flexibly as compared to the paging systems.
Paging:

Only the required memory pages are moved to main memory from the swap
device for execution. Process size does not matter. Gives the concept of the virtual
memory.
It provides greater flexibility in mapping the virtual address space into the
physical memory of the machine. Allows more number of processes to fit in the
main memory simultaneously. Allows the greater process size than the available
physical memory. Demand paging systems handle the memory more flexibly.

2.

What is the major difference between the Historic Unix and the new BSD release of
Unix System V in terms of Memory Management?
Historic Unix uses Swapping entire process is transferred to the main
memory from the swap device, whereas the Unix System V uses Demand Paging
only the part of the process is moved to the main memory. Historic Unix uses one
Swap Device and Unix System V allow multiple Swap Devices.

3.

What is the main goal of the Memory Management?

It decides which process should reside in the main memory,
Manages the parts of the virtual address space of a process which is noncore resident,
Monitors the available main memory and periodically write the processes
into the swap device to provide more processes fit in the main memory
simultaneously.

4.

What is a Map?
A Map is an Array, which contains the addresses of the free space in the
swap device that are allocatable resources, and the number of the resource units
available there.
Address

Units

10,000

This allows First-Fit allocation of contiguous blocks of a resource. Initially

the Map contains one entry address (block offset from the starting of the swap are
and the total number of resources.
Kernel treats each unit of Map as a group of disk blocks. On the allocation
and freeing of the resources Kernel updates the Map for accurate information.

5.

What is a Region?
A Region is a continuous area of a processs address space (such as text,
data and stack). The kernel in a Region Table that is local to the process maintains
region. Regions are sharable among the process.

6.

What are the events done by the Kernel after a process is being swapped out from
the main memory?
When Kernel swaps the process out of the primary memory, it performs the
following:

 Kernel decrements the Reference Count of each region of the process. If the
reference count becomes zero, swaps the region out of the main memory,
Kernel allocates the space for the swapping process in the swap device,
Kernel locks the other swapping process while the current swapping operation
is going on,
The Kernel saves the swap address of the region in the region table.

7.

Is the Process before and after the swap are the same? Give reason.
Process before swapping is residing in the primary memory in its original
form. The regions (text, data and stack) may not be occupied fully by the process,
there may be few empty slots in any of the regions and while swapping Kernel do
not bother about the empty slots while swapping the process out.
After swapping the process resides in the swap (secondary memory) device.
The regions swapped out will be present but only the occupied region slots but not
the empty slots that were present before assigning.
While swapping the process once again into the main memory, the Kernel
referring to the Process Memory Map, it assigns the main memory accordingly
taking care of the empty slots in the regions.

8.

What do you mean by u-area (user area or u-block)?

This contains the private data that is manipulated only by the Kernel. This is
local to the Process, i.e. each process is allocated a u-area.

9.

What are the entities that are swapped out of the main memory while swapping the
process out of the main memory?
All memory space occupied by the process, processs u-area, and Kernel
stack are swapped out, theoretically.
Practically, if the processs u-area contains the Address Translation Tables
for the process then Kernel implementations do not swap the u-area.

10.

What is Fork swap?

fork() is a system call to create a child process. When the parent process
calls fork() system call, the child process is created and if there is short of memory
then the child process is sent to the read-to-run state in the swap device, and return
to the user state without swapping the parent process. When the memory will be
available the child process will be swapped into the main memory.

11.

What is Expansion swap?

At the time when any process requires more memory than it is currently
allocated, the Kernel performs Expansion swap. To do this Kernel reserves enough
space in the swap device. Then the address translation mapping is adjusted for the
new virtual address space but the physical memory is not allocated. At last Kernel
swaps the process into the assigned space in the swap device. Later when the
Kernel swaps the process into the main memory this assigns memory according to
the new address translation mapping.

12.

How the Swapper works?

The swapper is the only process that swaps the processes. The Swapper
operates only in the Kernel mode and it does not uses System calls instead it uses
internal Kernel functions for swapping. It is the archetype of all kernel process.

13.

What are the processes that are not bothered by the swapper? Give Reason.
Zombie process: They do not take up any physical memory.
Processes locked in memories that are updating the region of the process.
Kernel swaps only the sleeping processes rather than the ready-to-run
processes, as they have the higher probability of being scheduled than the
sleeping processes.

14.

What are the requirements for a swapper to work?

The swapper works on the highest scheduling priority. Firstly it will look
for any sleeping process, if not found then it will look for the ready-to-run process
for swapping. But the major requirement for the swapper to work the ready-to-run
process must be core-resident for few seconds before swapping out. And for
swapping in the process must have been resided in the swap device for few
seconds. If the requirement is not satisfied then the swapper will go into the wait
state on that event and it is awaken once in a second by the Kernel.

15.

What are the criteria for choosing a process for swapping into memory from the
swap device?

The resident time of the processes in the swap device, the priority of the
processes and the amount of time the processes had been swapped out.

16.

What are the criteria for choosing a process for swapping out of the memory to the
swap device?
The processs memory resident time,
Priority of the process and
The nice value.

17.

What do you mean by nice value?

Nice value is the value that controls {increments or decrements} the priority
of the process. This value that is returned by the nice () system call. The equation
for using nice value is:
Priority = (recent CPU usage/constant) + (base- priority) + (nice value)
Only the administrator can supply the nice value. The nice () system call
works for the running process only. Nice value of one process cannot affect the nice
value of the other process.

18.

What are conditions on which deadlock can occur while swapping the processes?
All processes in the main memory are asleep.
All ready-to-run processes are swapped out.
There is no space in the swap device for the new incoming process that are
swapped out of the main memory.

 There is no space in the main memory for the new incoming process.

19.

What are conditions for a machine to support Demand Paging?

Memory architecture must based on Pages,
The machine must support the restartable instructions.

20.

What is the principle of locality?

Its the nature of the processes that they refer only to the small subset of the
total data space of the process. i.e. the process frequently calls the same subroutines
or executes the loop instructions.

21.

What is the working set of a process?

The set of pages that are referred by the process in the last n, references,
where n is called the window of the working set of the process.

22.

What is the window of the working set of a process?

The window of the working set of a process is the total number in which the
process had referred the set of pages in the working set of the process.

23.

What is called a page fault?

Page fault is referred to the situation when the process addresses a page in
the working set of the process but the process fails to locate the page in the working

set. And on a page fault, the kernel updates the working set by reading the page
from the secondary device.

24.

What are data structures that are used for Demand Paging?
Kernel contains 4 data structures for Demand paging. They are,
Page table entries,
Disk block descriptors,
Page frame data table (pfdat),
Swap-use table.

26.

What are the bits(UNIX System V) that support the demand paging?
Valid, Reference, Modify, Copy on write, Age. These bits are the part of the
page table entry, which includes physical address of the page and protection bits.

Page address

27.

Age Copy on write

Modify Reference

Valid Protection

Difference between the fork() and vfork() system call?

During the fork() system call the Kernel makes a copy of the parent
processs address space and attaches it to the child process.
But the vfork() system call do not makes any copy of the parents address
space, so it is faster than the fork() system call. The child process as a result of the

vfork() system call executes exec() system call. The child process from vfork()
system call executes in the parents address space (this can overwrite the parents
data and stack ) which suspends the parent process until the child process exits.

28.

What is BSS(Block Started by Symbol)?

A data representation at the machine level, that has initial values when a
program starts and tells about how much space the kernel allocates for the uninitialized data. Kernel initializes it to zero at run-time.

29.

What is Page-Stealer process?

This is the Kernel process that makes rooms for the incoming pages, by
swapping the memory pages that are not the part of the working set of a process.
Page-Stealer is created by the Kernel at the system initialization and invokes it
throughout the lifetime of the system. Kernel locks a region when a process faults
on a page in the region, so that page stealer cannot steal the page, which is being
faulted in.

30.

Name two paging states for a page in memory?

The two paging states are:
The page is aging and is not yet eligible for swapping,
The page is eligible for swapping but not yet eligible for reassignment to
other virtual address space.

31.

What are the phases of swapping a page from the memory?

Page stealer finds the page eligible for swapping and places the page number in
the list of pages to be swapped.
Kernel copies the page to a swap device when necessary and clears the valid bit
in the page table entry, decrements the pfdata reference count, and places the
pfdata table entry at the end of the free list if its reference count is 0.

33.

What is page fault? Its types?

Page fault refers to the situation of not having a page in the main memory
when any process references it.
There are two types of page fault :
Validity fault,
Protection fault.

34.

What is validity fault?

If a process referring a page in the main memory whose valid bit is not set,
it results in validity fault.
The valid bit is not set for those pages:
that are outside the virtual address space of a process,
that are the part of the virtual address space of the process but no physical
address is assigned to it.

35.

What do you mean by the protection fault?

Protection fault refers to the process accessing the pages, which do not have
the access permission. A process also incur the protection fault when it attempts to
write a page whose copy on write bit (UNIX System V) was set during the fork()
system call.

36.

In what way the Fault Handlers and the Interrupt handlers are different?
Fault handlers are also an interrupt handler with an exception that the
interrupt handlers cannot sleep. Fault handlers sleep in the context of the process
that caused the memory fault. The fault refers to the running process and no
arbitrary processes are put to sleep.

37.

What does the swapping system do if it identifies the illegal page for swapping?
If the disk block descriptor does not contain any record of the faulted page,
then this causes the attempted memory reference is invalid and the kernel sends a
Segmentation violation signal to the offending process. This happens when the
swapping system identifies any invalid memory reference.

38.

What are states that the page can be in, after causing a page fault?
On a swap device and not in memory,
On the free page list in the main memory,
In an executable file,
Marked demand zero,
Marked demand fill.

39.

In what way the validity fault handler concludes?

It sets the valid bit of the page by clearing the modify bit.
It recalculates the process priority.

40.

At what mode the fault handler executes?

At the kernel mode.

41.

How the Kernel handles the copy on write bit of a page, when the bit is set?
In situations like, where the copy on write bit (UNIX System V) of a page is
set and that page is shared by more than one process, the Kernel allocates new page
and copies the content to the new page and the other processes retain their
references to the old page. After copying the Kernel updates the page table entry
with the new page number. Then Kernel decrements the reference count of the old
pfdata table entry.
In cases like, where the copy on write bit is set and no processes are sharing
the page, the Kernel allows the physical page to be reused by the processes. By
doing so, it clears the copy on write bit and disassociates the page from its disk
copy (if one exists), because other process may share the disk copy. Then it
removes the pfdata table entry from the page-queue as the new copy of the virtual
page is not on the swap device. It decrements the swap-use count for the page and if
count drops to 0, frees the swap space.

42.

For which kind of fault the page is checked first?

The page is first checked for the validity fault, as soon as it is found that the
page is invalid (valid bit is clear), the validity fault handler returns immediately,
and the process incur the validity page fault. Kernel handles the validity fault and
the process will incur the protection fault if any one is present.

43.

In what way the protection fault handler concludes?

After finishing the execution of the fault handler, it sets the modify and
protection bits and clears the copy on write bit (all bits as in UNIX System V). It
recalculates the process-priority and checks for signals.

44.

How the Kernel handles both the page stealer and the fault handler?
The page stealer and the fault handler thrash pages because of the shortage
of memory. If the sum of the working sets of all processes is greater that the
physical memory then the fault handler will usually sleep because it cannot allocate
pages for a process. This results in the reduction of the system throughput because
Kernel spends too much time in overhead, rearranging the memory in a fast pace.

Computer Networks

1.

Difference between the communication and transmission.

Transmission is a physical movement of information and concern issues like
bit polarity, synchronisation, clock etc.
Communication means the meaning full exchange of information between
two communication media.

2.

What are the two types of transmission technology available?

(i) Broadcast and

3.

(ii) point-to-point

What is point-to-point protocol?

A communications protocol used to connect computers to remote
networking services including Internet service providers.

4.

What are the types of Transmission media?

Signals are usually transmitted over some transmission media that are
broadly classified in to two categories.
a) Guided Media:
These are those that provide a conduit from one device to another that
include twisted-pair, coaxial cable and fiber-optic cable. A signal traveling
along any of these media is directed and is contained by the physical limits of
the medium. Twisted-pair and coaxial cable use metallic that accept and
transport signals in the form of electrical current. Optical fiber is a glass or
plastic cable that accepts and transports signals in the form of light.
b) Unguided Media:
This is the wireless media that transport electromagnetic waves without
using a physical conductor. Signals are broadcast either through air. This is
done through radio communication, satellite communication and cellular
telephony.

5.

What are the possible ways of data exchange?

(i) Simplex (ii) Half-duplex (iii) Full-duplex.

6.

What is difference between baseband and broadband transmission?

In a baseband transmission, the entire bandwidth of the cable is consumed
by a single signal. In broadband transmission, signals are sent on multiple

frequencies, allowing multiple signals to be sent simultaneously.

7.

What is Protocol Data Unit?

The data unit in the LLC level is called the protocol data unit (PDU). The
PDU contains of four fields a destination service access point (DSAP), a source
service access point (SSAP), a control field and an information field. DSAP, SSAP
are addresses used by the LLC to identify the protocol stacks on the receiving and
sending machines that are generating and using the data. The control field specifies
whether the PDU frame is a information frame (I - frame) or a supervisory frame (S
- frame) or a unnumbered frame (U - frame).

8.

What are major types of networks and explain?

Server-based network
Peer-to-peer network
Peer-to-peer network, computers can act as both servers sharing resources
and as clients using the resources.
Server-based networks provide centralized control of network resources and
rely on server computers to provide security and network administration

9.

What are the important topologies for networks?

BUS topology:
In this each computer is directly connected to primary network cable in
a single line.

Advantages:
Inexpensive, easy to install, simple to understand, easy to extend.
STAR topology:
In this all computers are connected using a central hub.
Advantages:
Can be inexpensive, easy to install and reconfigure and easy to trouble
shoot physical problems.
RING topology:
In this all computers are connected in loop.
Advantages:
All computers have equal access to network media, installation can be
simple, and signal does not degrade as much as in other topologies because each
computer regenerates it.

10.

What is passive topology?

When the computers on the network simply listen and receive the signal,
they are referred to as passive because they dont amplify the signal in any way.
Example for passive topology - linear bus.

11.

What is mesh network?

A network in which there are multiple network links between computers to
provide multiple paths for data to travel.

12.

What are the different type of networking / internetworking devices?

Repeater:
Also called a regenerator, it is an electronic device that operates only at
physical layer. It receives the signal in the network before it becomes weak,
regenerates the original bit pattern and puts the refreshed copy back in to the link.
Bridges:
These operate both in the physical and data link layers of LANs of same
type. They divide a larger network in to smaller segments. They contain logic that
allow them to keep the traffic for each segment separate and thus are repeaters that
relay a frame only the side of the segment containing the intended recipent and
control congestion.
Routers:
They relay packets among multiple interconnected networks (i.e. LANs of
different type). They operate in the physical, data link and network layers. They
contain software that enable them to determine which of the several possible paths
is the best for a particular transmission.
Gateways:
They relay packets among networks that have different protocols (e.g.
between a LAN and a WAN). They accept a packet formatted for one protocol and
convert it to a packet formatted for another protocol before forwarding it. They
operate in all seven layers of the OSI model.

13.

How Gateway is different from Routers?

A gateway operates at the upper levels of the OSI model and translates
information between two completely different network architectures or data
formats.

14.

What is Brouter?
Hybrid devices that combine the features of both bridges and routers.

15.

What is subnet?
A generic term for section of a large networks usually separated by a bridge
or router.

16.

What is SAP?
Series of interface points that allow other computers to communicate with
the other layers of network protocol stack.

17.

What do you meant by "triple X" in Networks?

The function of PAD (Packet Assembler Disassembler) is described in a
document known as X.3. The standard protocol has been defined between the
terminal and the PAD, called X.28; another standard protocol exists between hte
PAD and the network, called X.29. Together, these three recommendations are
often called "triple X"

18.

What is frame relay, in which layer it comes?

Frame relay is a packet switching technology. It will operate in the data link
layer.

19.

What is terminal emulation, in which layer it comes?

Telnet is also called as terminal emulation. It belongs to application layer.

20.

What is Beaconing?
The process that allows a network to self-repair networks problems. The
stations on the network notify the other stations on the ring when they are not
receiving the transmissions. Beaconing is used in Token ring and FDDI networks.

21.

What is redirector?
Redirector is software that intercepts file or prints I/O requests and
translates them into network requests. This comes under presentation layer.

22.

What is NETBIOS and NETBEUI?

NETBIOS is a programming interface that allows I/O requests to be sent to
and received from a remote computer and it hides the networking hardware from
applications.
NETBEUI is NetBIOS extended user interface. A transport protocol
designed by microsoft and IBM for the use on small subnets.

23.

What is RAID?

A method for providing fault tolerance by using multiple hard disk drives.

24.

What is cladding?
A layer of a glass surrounding the center fiber of glass inside a fiber-optic
cable.

25.

What is attenuation?
The degeneration of a signal over distance on a network cable is called
attenuation.

26.

What is MAC address?

The address for a device as it is identified at the Media Access Control
(MAC) layer in the network architecture. MAC address is usually stored in ROM
on the network adapter card and is unique.

27.

Difference between bit rate and baud rate.

Bit rate is the number of bits transmitted during one second whereas baud
rate refers to the number of signal units per second that are required to represent
those bits.
baud rate = bit rate / N
where N is no-of-bits represented by each signal shift.

28.

What is Bandwidth?

Every line has an upper limit and a lower limit on the frequency of signals
it can carry. This limited range is called the bandwidth.

29.

What is Project 802?

It is a project started by IEEE to set standards that enable
intercommunication between equipment from a variety of manufacturers. It is a
way for specifying functions of the physical layer, the data link layer and to some
extent the network layer to allow for interconnectivity of major LAN protocols.
It consists of the following:
802.1 is an internetworking standard for compatibility of
different LANs and MANs across protocols.
802.2 Logical link control (LLC) is the upper sublayer of the
data link layer which is non-architecture-specific, that is remains
the same for all IEEE-defined LANs.
Media access control (MAC) is the lower sublayer of the data
link layer that contains some distinct modules each carrying
proprietary information specific to the LAN product being used.
The modules are Ethernet LAN (802.3), Token ring LAN
(802.4), Token bus LAN (802.5).
802.6 is distributed queue dual bus (DQDB) designed to be used
in MANs.

30.

What are the data units at different layers of the TCP / IP protocol suite?

The data unit created at the application layer is called a message, at the
transport layer the data unit created is called either a segment or an user datagram,
at the network layer the data unit created is called the datagram, at the data link
layer the datagram is encapsulated in to a frame and finally transmitted as signals
along the transmission media.

31.

What is ICMP?
ICMP is Internet Control Message Protocol, a network layer protocol of the
TCP/IP suite used by hosts and gateways to send notification of datagram problems
back to the sender. It uses the echo test / reply to test whether a destination is
reachable and responding. It also handles both control and error messages.

32.

What is difference between ARP and RARP?

The address resolution protocol (ARP) is used to associate the 32 bit IP
address with the 48 bit physical address, used by a host or a router to find the
physical address of another host on its network by sending a ARP query packet that
includes the IP address of the receiver.
The reverse address resolution protocol (RARP) allows a host to discover
its Internet address when it knows only its physical address.

33.

What is the minimum and maximum length of the header in the TCP segment and
IP datagram?

The header should have a minimum length of 20 bytes and can have a
maximum length of 60 bytes.

34.

What is the range of addresses in the classes of internet addresses?

Class A

0.0.0.0

127.255.255.255

Class B

128.0.0.0

191.255.255.255

Class C

192.0.0.0

223.255.255.255

Class D

224.0.0.0

239.255.255.255

Class E240.0.0.0

35.

247.255.255.255

What is the difference between TFTP and FTP application layer protocols?
The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) allows a local host to obtain files
from a remote host but does not provide reliability or security. It uses the
fundamental packet delivery services offered by UDP.
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard mechanism provided by
TCP / IP for copying a file from one host to another. It uses the services offered by
TCP and so is reliable and secure. It establishes two connections (virtual circuits)
between the hosts, one for data transfer and another for control information.

36.

Explain 5-4-3 rule?

In a Ethernet network, between any two points on the network, there can be
no more than five network segments or four repeaters, and of those five segments
only three of segments can be populated.

37.

What MAU?
In token Ring , hub is called Multistation Access Unit(MAU).

38.

What is the difference between routable and non- routable protocols?

Routable protocols can work with a router and can be used to build large
networks. Non-Routable protocols are designed to work on small, local networks
and cannot be used with a router

39.

Why should you care about the OSI Reference Model?

It provides a framework for discussing network operations and design.

40.

What is logical link control?

One of two sublayers of the data link layer of OSI reference model, as
defined by the IEEE 802 standard. This sublayer is responsible for maintaining the
link between computers when they are sending data across the physical network
connection.

41.

What is virtual channel?

Virtual channel is normally a connection from one source to one
destination, although multicast connections are also permitted. The other name for
virtual channel is virtual circuit.

42.

What is virtual path?

Along any transmission path from a given source to a given destination, a
group of virtual circuits can be grouped together into what is called path.

43.

What is packet filter?

Packet filter is a standard router equipped with some extra functionality.
The extra functionality allows every incoming or outgoing packet to be inspected.
Packets meeting some criterion are forwarded normally. Those that fail the test are
dropped.

44.

What is traffic shaping?

One of the main causes of congestion is that traffic is often busy. If hosts
could be made to transmit at a uniform rate, congestion would be less common.
Another open loop method to help manage congestion is forcing the packet to be
transmitted at a more predictable rate. This is called traffic shaping.

45.

What is multicast routing?

Sending a message to a group is called multicasting, and its routing
algorithm is called multicast routing.

46.

What is region?
When hierarchical routing is used, the routers are divided into what we call
regions, with each router knowing all the details about how to route packets to

destinations within its own region, but knowing nothing about the internal structure
of other regions.

47.

What is silly window syndrome?

It is a problem that can ruin TCP performance. This problem occurs when
data are passed to the sending TCP entity in large blocks, but an interactive
application on the receiving side reads 1 byte at a time.

48.

What are Digrams and Trigrams?

The most common two letter combinations are called as digrams. e.g. th, in,
er, re and an. The most common three letter combinations are called as trigrams.
e.g. the, ing, and, and ion.

49.

What is wide-mouth frog?

Wide-mouth frog is the simplest known key distribution center (KDC)
authentication protocol.

51.

What is Mail Gateway?

It is a system that performs a protocol translation between different
electronic mail delivery protocols.

52.

What is IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol)?

It is any routing protocol used within an autonomous system.

53.

What is EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol)?

It is the protocol the routers in neighboring autonomous systems use to
identify the set of networks that can be reached within or via each autonomous
system.

54.

What is autonomous system?

It is a collection of routers under the control of a single administrative
authority and that uses a common Interior Gateway Protocol.

55.

What is BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)?

It is a protocol used to advertise the set of networks that can be reached with
in an autonomous system. BGP enables this information to be shared with the
autonomous system. This is newer than EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol).

56.

What is Gateway-to-Gateway protocol?

It is a protocol formerly used to exchange routing information between
Internet core routers.

57.

What is NVT (Network Virtual Terminal)?

It is a set of rules defining a very simple virtual terminal interaction. The
NVT is used in the start of a Telnet session.

58.

What is a Multi-homed Host?

It is a host that has a multiple network interfaces and that requires multiple
IP addresses is called as a Multi-homed Host.

59.

What is Kerberos?
It is an authentication service developed at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Kerberos uses encryption to prevent intruders from discovering
passwords and gaining unauthorized access to files.

60.

What is OSPF?
It is an Internet routing protocol that scales well, can route traffic along
multiple paths, and uses knowledge of an Internet's topology to make accurate
routing decisions.

61.

What is Proxy ARP?

It is using a router to answer ARP requests. This will be done when the
originating host believes that a destination is local, when in fact is lies beyond
router.

62.

What is SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol)?

It is a very simple protocol used for transmission of IP datagrams across a
serial line.

63.

What is RIP (Routing Information Protocol)?

It is a simple protocol used to exchange information between the routers.

64.

What is source route?

It is a sequence of IP addresses identifying the route a datagram must
follow. A source route may optionally be included in an IP datagram header.

65.

What is a TCP connection table? How is it used?

TCP uses a connection table to keep track of all the active connections.
Each existing connection has an entry in the table that shows information about the
end-to-end connection.

66.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the three types of routing tables?
The three types of routing tables are fixed, dynamic, and fixed central. The
fixed table must be manually modified every time there is a change. A dynamic
table changes its information based on network traffic, reducing the amount of
manual maintenance. A fixed central table lets a manager modify only one table,
which is then read by other devices. The fixed central table reduces the need to
update each machine's table, as with the fixed table. Usually a dynamic table causes
the fewest problems for a network administrator, although the table's contents can
change

67.

without

the

administrator

What is the HELLO protocol used for?

being

aware

of

the

change.

The HELLO protocol uses time instead of distance to determine optimal

routing. It is an alternative to the Routing Information Protocol.

68.

What is the difference between interior and exterior neighbor gateways?

Interior gateways connect LANs of one organization, whereas exterior
gateways connect the organization to the outside world.

69.

What protocol is used by DNS name servers?

DNS uses UDP for communication between servers. It is a better choice
than TCP because

of the improved speed a connectionless protocol offers. Of

course, transmission reliability suffers with UDP.

70.

What is a DNS resource record?

A resource record is an entry in a name server's database. There are several
types of resource records used, including name-to-address resolution information.
Resource records are maintained as ASCII files.

71.

BOOTP helps a diskless workstation boot. How does it get a message to the
network looking for its IP address and the location of its operating system boot files?
BOOTP sends a UDP message with a subnetwork broadcast address and
waits for a reply from a server that gives it the IP address. The same message might
contain the name of the machine that has the boot files on it. If the boot image

location is not specified, the workstation sends another UDP message to query the
server.

72.

What is the Network Time Protocol? Why is it used?

The Network Time Protocol is designed specifically to ensure that all
internal timers are synchronized and have similar settings.

73.

What is External Data Representation?

External Data Representation is a method of encoding data within an RPC
message, used to ensure that the data is not system-dependent.

74.

What does the Mount protocol do?

The Mount protocol returns a file handle and the name of the file system in
which a requested file resides. The message is sent to the client from the server
after reception of a client's request.

75.

What is REX? What advantage does REX offer other similar utilities?
The Remote Execution Service (REX) is designed to enable users to run
commands on other machines without logging in and without the overhead of larger
utilities like Telnet. Because REX preserves the full shell environment, it is better
than other remote procedures.

76.

What is a pseudo tty?

A pseudo tty or false terminal enables external machines to connect through
Telnet or rlogin. Without a pseudo tty, no connection can take place.

77.

What is anonymous FTP and why would you use it?

Anonymous FTP enables users to connect to a host without using a valid
login and password. Usually, anonymous FTP uses a login called anonymous or
guest, with the password usually requesting the user's ID for tracking purposes
only. Anonymous FTP is used to enable a large number of users to access files on
the host without having to go to the trouble of setting up logins for them all.
Anonymous FTP systems usually have strict controls over the areas an anonymous
user can access.

78.

What is a Management Information Base (MIB)?

A Management Information Base is part of every SNMP-managed device.
Each SNMP agent has the MIB database that contains information about the
device's status, its performance, connections, and configuration. The MIB is
queried by SNMP.

79.

Explain the function of Transmission Control Block?

A TCB is a complex data structure that contains a considerable amount of

information about each connection.

80.

What is the difference between an unspecified passive open and a fully specified
passive open?
An unspecified passive open has the server waiting for a connection request
from a client. A fully specified passive open has the server waiting for a connection
from a specific client.

81.

Define the following:

Burst ModeA transmission mode where data is transmitted in bursts rather than in
continuous streams.

ContentionA condition occurring in some LANs where the Media Access Control
(MAC) sublayer allows more than one node to transmit at the same time, risking
collisions.

DaemonA UNIX process that operates continuously and unattended to perform a

service. TCP/IP uses several daemons to establish communications processes and
provide server facilities.

Distributed File Service (DFS)An Open Software Foundation (OSF) fileserver

technology sometimes used with TCP/IP.

EmulationA program that simulates another device. For example, a 3270 emulator
emulates an IBM 3270 terminal, sending the same codes as the real device would.

Enterprise NetworkA generic term usually referring to a Wide Area Network

providing

services

to

all

of

corporation's

sites.

Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN)A set of standards for integrating

multiple services (voice, data, video, and so on).

IP DatagramThe basic unit of information passed through a TCP/IP network. The

datagram header contains source and destination IP addresses.

IS-IS (Intermediate System to Intermediate System Protocol)A routing protocol

that performs routing functions with IP and OSI data.

Multi-homed

HostA

device

attached

to

two

or

more

networks.

Network File System (NFS)A protocol developed by Sun Microsystems that

enables clients to mount remote directories onto their own local file system

Point-to-PointTransmission directly between two points without any intervening

devices

PING (Packet Internet Gropher)A utility program used to test a system's TCP/IP
software by sending an ICMP echo request and then waiting for a response

Protocol Interpreter (PI)A process that carries out FTP functions. FTP uses one
Protocol Interpreter for the server and another one for the user.

ProxyA mechanism whereby one system functions for another when responding to
protocol requests.

Requests for Comment (RFCs)Documents containing specifications for TCP/IP

protocols. RFCs are also used to propose new protocols. RFCs are available from the
Network Information Center (NIC).

Round Trip TimeThe time for a TCP segment to be sent and its acknowledgment
received.

Switched ConnectionA data link connection that is established on demand (like a

telephone call).

Transmission Control Block (TCB)A data structure that holds information about
TCP and UDP connections.

Terminal ServerA network device that provides physical access for dumb terminals,
usually using an abbreviated TCP/IP protocol to enable a dumb terminal to remotely
log on.

X.400A protocol defining standards for electronic mail in an open network.

82.

What are 10Base2, 10Base5 and 10BaseT Ethernet LANs?

10Base2An Ethernet term meaning a maximum transfer rate of 10 Megabits per

second that uses baseband signaling, with a contiguous cable segment length of 100
meters and a maximum of 2 segments.

10Base5An Ethernet term meaning a maximum transfer rate of 10 Megabits per

second that uses baseband signaling, with 5 continuous segments not exceeding 100
meters per segment.

10BaseTAn Ethernet term meaning a maximum transfer rate of 10 Megabits per

second that uses baseband signaling and twisted pair cabling.

Client/Server
Computing

1.

What are the five major technologies that can be used to create Client/Server
applications?
Database Servers
TP Monitors
Groupware
Distributed Objects
Intranets.

2.

What is Client/Server?
Clients and Servers are separate logical entities that work together over a
network to accomplish a task. Many systems with very different architectures that
are connected together are also called Client/Server.

3.

What are the characteristics of Client/Server?

Service
Shared resources
Asymmentrical protocols
Transparency of location
Mix-and-match
Message based exchanges
Encapsulation of services
Scalability
Integrity
Client/Server computing is the ultimate "Open platform". It gives the
freedom to mix-and-match components of almost any level. Clients and servers are
loosely coupled systems that interact through a message-passing mechanism.

4.

What is meant by Asymmetrical protocols?

There is a many-to-one relationship between clients and server. Clients
always initiate the dialog by requesting a service. Servers are passively awaiting for
requests from clients.

5.

What is meant by Mix-and-match?

The ideal Client/Server software is independent of hardware and Operating
System software platform. It should be able to mix-and-match client and server
platforms.

6.

What is meant by Horizontal scaling and Vertical scaling?

Horizontal scaling means adding or removing client workstations with only
a slight performance impact.
Vertical scaling means migrating to a larger and faster server machine or
multiservers.

7.

8.

What are the types of Servers?

File servers

Database servers

Transaction servers

Groupware servers

Object servers

Web servers

What are called Transactions?

The grouped SQL statements are called Transactions (or) A transaction is a
collection of actions embused with ACID properties.

9.

What is ACID property?

ACID is a term coined by Andrew Reuter in 1983, which stands for
Atomicity, Consistence, Isolation and Durability.

10.

11.

What are the two types of OLTP?

TP lite, based on stored procedures.

TP heavy, based on the TP monitors.

What is Groupware server?

Groupware addresses the management of semi-structured information such
as text, image, mail, bulletin boards and the flow of work. These Client/Server
systems have people in direct contact with other people.

12.

What is a File server?

File servers are useful for sharing files across a network. With a file server,
the client passes requests for file records over nerwork to file server.

13.

What is a Database Server?

With a database server, the client passes SQL requests as messages to the
database server. The results of each SQL command are returned over the network.
The server uses its own processing power to find the request data instead of passing
all the records back to the client and then getting it find its own data. The result is a
much more efficient use of distributed processing power. It is also known as SQL
engine.

14.

What is a Transaction server?

With a transaction server, the client invokes remote procedures that reside
on the server with an SQL database engine. These remote procedures on the server
execute a group of SQL statements. The network exchange consists of a single
request/reply message. The SQL statements either all succeed or fail as a unit.

15.

What is an Object server?

With an object server, the Client/Server application is written as a set of
communicating objects. Client object communicate with server objects using an
Object Request Broker (ORB). The client invokes a method on a remote object. The
ORB locates an instance of that object server class, invokes the requested method
and returns the results to the client object. Server objects must provide support for
concurrency and sharing. The ORB brings it all together.

16.

What is a Web server?

This new model of Client/Server consists of thin, protable, "universal"
clients that talk to superfat servers. In the simplet form, a web server returns
documents when clients ask for them by name. The clients and server communicate
using an RPC-like protocol called HTTP.

17.

What are called Fat clients and Fat servers?

If the bulk of the application runs on the Client side, then it is Fat clients. It
is used for decision support and personal software.

If the bulk of the application runs on the Server side, then it is Fat servers. It
tries to minimize network interchanges by creating more abstract levels of services.

18.

What is meant by Middleware?

Middleware is a distributed software needed to support interaction between
clients and servers. In short, it is the software that is in the middle of the
Client/Server systems and it acts as a bridge between the clients and servers. It
starts with the API set on the client side that is used to invoke a service and it
covers the transmission of the request over the network and the resulting response.
It neither includes the software that provides the actual service - that is in
the servers domain nor the user interface or the application login - that's in clients
domain.

19.

What are the two broad classes of middleware?

General middleware
Service-specific middleware

20.

What are General Middleware?

It includes the communication stacks, distributed directories, authentication
services, network time, RPC, Queuing services along with the network OS
extensions such as the distributed file and print services.

21.

What are Service-specific middleware?

It is needed to accomplish a particular Client/Server type of services which

includes:
Database specific middleware
OLTP specific middleware
Groupware specific middleware
Object specific middleware
Internet specific middleware and
System management specific middleware.

22.

What are the most typical functional units of the Client/Server applications?
User interface
Business Logic and
Shared data.

23.

What is meant by 2-Tier architecture?

In 2-tier Client/Server systems, the application logic is either burried inside
the user interface on the client or within the database on the server.
Example:

24.

File servers and Database servers with stored procedures.

What is meant by 3-Tier architecture?

In 3-tier Client/Server systems, the application logic (or process) lives in the
middle tier and it is separated from the data and the user interface. In theory, the 3tier Client/Server systems are more scalable, robust and flexible.
Example:

25.

TP monitor, Web.

What are the building blocks of Client/Server?

The client
The server and
Middleware

26.

Explain the building blocks of Client/Server?

The client side building block runs the client side of the application.
The server side building block runs the server side of the application.
The middleware buliding block runs on both the client and server sides of
an application. It is broken into three categories
1. Transport stack
2. Network OS
3. Service-specific middleware.

27.

What are the functions of the typical server program?

It waits for client-initiated requests.
Executes many requests at the same time.

Takes care of VIP clients first.

Initiates and runs background task activity.
Keeps running.
Grown bigger and faster.

28.

What are the services provided by the Operating System?

Base services - It is a part of the standard OS
Extended services - These are add-on modular software components that
are layered on top of base service

29.

What are all the Base services provided by the OS?

Task preemption
Task priority
Semaphores
Interprocess communications (IPC)
Local/Remote Interprocess communication
Threads
Intertask protection
Multiuser
High performance file system
Efficient memory management and

 Dynamically linked Run-time extensions

30.

What are all the Extended services provided by the OS?

Ubiquitous communications
Network OS extension
Binary large objects (BLOBs)
Global directories and Network yellow pages
Authentication and Authorization services
System management
Network time
Database and transaction services
Internet services
Object- oriented services

31.

What are Super servers?

These are fully-loaded machines which includes multiprocessors, highspeed disk arrays for intervive I/O and fault tolerant features.

32.

What are the two forms of Multi-processing?

Asymmetric Multi-processing
Symmetric Multi-processing

33.

What is meant by Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP)?

It imposses hierarchy and a division of labour among processors. Only one
designated processor, the master, controls (in a tightly coupled arrangement) slave
processors dedicated to specific functions.

34.

What is meant by Symmentric Multiprocessing (SMP)?

It treats all processors as equal. Any processor can do the work of any other
processor. Applications are divided into threads that can run concurrently on any
available processor. Any processor in the pool can run the OS kernel and execute
user-written threads.

35.

What are the Classification of clients?

Non-GUI clients - Two types are

1. Non-GUI clients that do not need multi-tasking
(Example: Automatic Teller Machines (ATM), Cell phone)
2. Non-GUI clients that need multi-tasking
(Example: ROBOTs)

36.

GUI clients

OOUI clients

What are called Non-GUI clients, GUI Clients and OOUI Clients?
Non-GUI Client: These are applications, generate server requests with a
minimal amount of human interaction.

GUI Clients: These are applicatoins, where occassional requests to the

server result from a human interacting with a GUI
(Example: Windows 3.x, NT 3.5)
OOUI clients : These are applications, which are highly-iconic, objectoriented user interface that provides seamless access to information in very visual
formats.
(Example: MAC OS, Windows 95, NT 4.0)

37.

What is meant by Transparency?

Transparency really means hiding the network and its servers from the users
and even the application programmers.

38.

What are the types of Transparencies?

The types of transparencies the NOS middleware is expected to provide are
Location transparency
Namespace transparency
Logon transparency
Replication transparency
Local/Remote access transparency
Distributed time transparency
Failure transparency and
Administration transparency.

39.

What is Remote Procedure Call (RPC)?

RPC hides the intricacies of the network by using the ordinary procedure
call mechanism familiar to every programmer. A client process calls a function on a
remote server and suspends itself until it gets back the results. Parameters are
passed like in any ordinary procedure. The RPC, like an ordinary procedure, is
synchoronous. The process that issues the call waits until it gets the results. Under
the covers, the RPC run-time software collects values for the parameters, forms a
message, and sends it to the remote server. The server receives the request, unpack
the parameters, calls the procedures, and sends the reply back to the client. It is a
telephone-like metaphor.

40.

What is Message Oriented Middleware (MOM)?

MOM allows general purpose messages to be exchanged in a Client/Server
system using message queues. Applications communicate over networks by simply
putting messages in the queues and getting messages from queues. It typically
provides a very simple high level APIs to its services.
MOM's messaging and queuing allow clients and servers to communicate
across a network without being linked by a private, dedicated, logical connection.
The clients and server can run at different times. It is a post-office like metaphor.

41.

What is Structured Query Langauge (SQL)?

SQL is a powerful set-oriented language which was developed by IBM

research for the databases that adhere to the relational model. It consists of a short
list of powerful, yet highly flexible, commands that can be used to manipulate
information collected in tables. Through SQL, we can manipulate and control sets
of records at a time.

42.

What are the roles of SQL?

SQL is an interactive query language for ad hoc database queries.
SQL is a database programming language.
SQL is a data definition and data administration language.
SQL is the language of networked database servers
SQL helps protect the data in a multi-user networked environment.
Because of these multifacted roles it plays, physicists might call SQL as
"The grand unified theory of database".

43.

What are the three types of SQL database server architecture?

Process-per-client Architecture. (Example: Oracle 6, Informix )
Multithreaded Architecture. (Example: Sybase, SQL server)
Hybrid Architecture (Example: Oracle 7)

44.

What are Stored procedures?

A stored procedure ia s named collection of SQL statements and procedural

logic that is compiled, verified and stored in a server database. It is typically treated
like any other database object. Stored procedures accept input parameters so that a
single procedure can be used over the network by multiple clients using different
input data. A single remote message triggers the execution of a collection of stored
SQL statements. The results is a reduction of network traffic and better
performance.

45.

What are Triggers and Rules?

Triggers are special user defined actions usually in the form of stored
procedures, that are automatically invoked by the server based on data related
events. It can perform complex actions and can use the full power of procedural
languages.
A rule is a special type of trigger that is used to perform simple checks on
data.

46.

What is the difference between trigger and rule?

The triggers are called implicitly by database generated events, while stored
procedures are called explicitly by client applications.

47.

What is OLTP?

In the transaction server, the client component usually includes GUI and the
server components usually consists of SQL transactions against a database. These
applications are called OLTP (Online Transaction Processing)
OLTP Applications typically,
Receive a fixed set of inputs from remote clients.
Perform multiple pre-compiled SQL comments against a local
database.
Commit the work and
Return a fixed set of results.

48.

What is a TP Monitor?
There is no commonly accepted definition for a TP monitor. According to
Jeri Edwards' a TP Monitor is "an OS for transaction processing".
TP Monitor does mainly two things extremely well. They are
Process management and
Transaction management
They were originally introduced to run classes of applications that could
service hundreds and sometimes thousands of clients. TP Monitors provide an OS on top of existing OS - that connects in real time these thousands of humans with a
pool of shared server processes.

49.

What is Load balancing?

If the number of incoming clients requests exceeds the number of processes

in a server class, the TP Monitor may dynamically start new ones and this is called
Load balancing.

50.

What are the main components of Transaction-based Systems?

Resource Manager
Transaction Manager and
Application Program

51.

List out the benefits obtained by using the Client/Server oriented TP Monitors
Client/Server applications development framework
Firewalls of protection
High availability
Load balancing
MOM integration
Scalability of functions
Reduced system cost.

52.

What are TP-Lite and TP-Heavy Monitors?

TP-Lite is simply the integration of TP Monitor functions in the database
engines.

TP-Heavy are TP Monitors which supports the Client/Server architecture

and allow PC to initiate some very complex multiserver transaction from the
desktop.

Appendix-I

List of subjects covered in Written Tests by Various Companies

This list is prepared based on the question papers for written test given in the
previous years. It gives an overall idea of the subjects covered by the concerned companies.
Almost all the companies ask objective type questions.

Disclaimer:
This list is not meant to be exhaustive, so some sections in the company question
papers may be missing. The pattern of questions asked may also change.

AZTEC
Writing C Programs
Questions on C++
Analytical Reasoning

BFL
Computer Awareness
Analytical Ability

CITICORP
Objective C Questions
Quantitative Aptitude
Analytical Reasoning

COSL
General English
Quantitative Aptitude
Psychometric Test
Analytical Reasoning

CTS
General English
Quantitative Aptitude (Permutations & Combinations)
Analytical Reasoning

D.E.SHAW
Objective C / Writing C Programs
Quantitative Aptitude
Analytical Reasoning

HCL-Systems
Computer Awareness (C, C++, Java, Operating systems, Networks)
Objective C questions
Programming Skills
Analytical Reasoning

HCL - Applications
Computer Awareness
Objective C questions
C++ / Java
Analytical reasoning

HONEY WELL
Computer Awareness
General English (Verbal Ability)
Quantitative Aptitude
Computer Awareness (Programming languages, Operating systems and Data
structures)
Logical and Analytical Reasoning

HUGHES
Objective C questions
Computer Awareness (Networks, C, Java, Data Structures and Operating Systems)
Quantitative Aptitude
Analytical Reasoning

I2 TECHNOLOGIES
Objective C questions
Writing C/C++ Program for the Given Problem
Analytical Reasoning

IBM-GLOBAL
C / UNIX / Windows
Analytical Reasoning

Quantitative Aptitude

INFOSYS
Computer Awareness(C, Computer Networks,Operating Systems)
Essay Writing
Solving Puzzles
Analytical Reasoning

LUCENT
Computer Awareness(Computer Networks, Operating Systems, C)
Questions on C Language
C++ / JAVA
Analytical Reasoning

MASCOT
Computer Fundamentals
Hardware/Software related questions and Algorithms
General Awareness
General Questions on Programming Languages

MOTOROLA
Quantitative Aptitude
Analytical Reasoning

NOVELL
Objective C questions
Operating System Concepts
Quantitative Aptitude

ORACLE
C and Data Structures
Writing C code
PL/SQL and RDBMS
OOPS / C++
Computer Networks
Software Engineering

PHILIPS
Electronics and Mathematics
General Computer Science
Quantitative Aptitude

RAMCO
General English
Objective C questions
Quantitative Aptitude

SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES

Objective English
Computer Awareness
Writing C code
Quantitative aptitude
Analytical Reasoning

SEIMENS INFO
General awareness
C / UNIX / C++ / motif / DBMS / X-windows / Ms-windows

SISL
General Awareness
Data Structures
Unix / C / RDBMS / TCP/IP / OOPS / c++ / xWindows / MS Windows

SUN
C / Data Structures
OOPS / Java / C++ / Operating Systems / TCP/IP

TATA IBM
Objective C questions

Windows / UNIX / Operating systems

Quantitative Aptitude
Analytical Reasoning

TATA INFOTECH
Computer Basics and C
Quantitative Aptitude
Analytical and Verbal Reasoning

VERIFONE INDIA
C programming
Computer Networks / Database Management Systems / Compilers / Data
structures / Algorithms / Operating systems
Quantitative Aptitude

WILCO
Objective C questions
Quantitative Aptitude

WIPRO
System Software / Operating systems / C
Quantitative Aptitude
Analytical Reasoning

WIPRO INFOTECH
Objective C questions
Operating Systems / Compiler / Algorithm / Data structures
Analytical and Non-verbal Reasoning
Quantitative Aptitude

Appendix-II

Suggested Reading
(note: we are collecting the list of books for suggested reading; well provide it later)